Finally looking beyond American nightmare

A year ago today, Mark Mc Govern played his first and only game for the Ulster football club in San Francisco.

When he and Emmet Scollan were picked up that June Saturday in the car of goalkeeper and treasurer, Terry Tracey, the two Fermanagh lads had only just arrived in the country. Among other goals that exciting summer, a trip to Las Vegas loomed largest.

Throughout Mark’s miraculous and inspiring recovery from the brain trauma and subsequent coma he suffered that fateful evening, Vegas remained his dream and his motivational force.

This month it became a reality during a trip back to the States.

Mark and Emmet’s visit to the Bay Area was vital on many levels. Demons were exorcised, old friends, both amateur and professional caregivers, were reunited with the Belcoo battler and most importantly of all, the Ulster club celebrated their 25th anniversary two weeks ago in the company of their former player.

“The gala was absolutely brilliant,” Mc Govern told the Irish Examiner last week. “Yeah we had a great time in Vegas but meeting up with everyone again in San Francisco was just superb.

“It was strange sometimes too. A lot of the people I met, I didn’t even know. These were people that helped my family, cooked for them, kept them company, did so much. I wasn’t aware of any of it at the time. Meeting them properly was incredible.

“[Club chairman] Joe Duffy and Seamus Canning were just out of this world but there were all these other people I wasn’t aware of, the ones who helped my family.”

Chairman Duffy said Mc Govern received a “tremendous welcome” from everyone who was there that night.

“It was very encouraging for all of us in the club to see Mark with his friends back in San Francisco almost a year since the incident,” Duffy said on Saturday.

“It gave all of us a great boost that Mark could attend our 25th anniversary dinner. On a personal level, I was grateful that Mark got to come back and enjoy the great city of San Francisco and do the things that he should have been able to do last year.

“It is a great opportunity for any of these young men from Ireland to come and experience the west coast of America and I felt that Mark did not have that experience last year.

“Mark has worked hard in his recovery process and he remains in our prayers that he will continue to strive and have a full recovery one day. What is clear is that Mark Mc Govern is an extraordinary young man and has shown his determination to return to San Francisco and thank those who assisted him.”

Another of the night’s highlights was former Ireland and Munster scrum-half Peter Stringer as the surprise guest at the gala, an initiative of Cork-born club sponsor Derry Casey. He was presented with a club jersey and gave a brief speech.

Sadly, not everything about the trip was positive. Mc Govern and his family are still frustrated by the lack of any formal charges to be brought against the perpetrator of the blow that felled him during the game against Celts.

“There were two places I didn’t want to go back to. The San Francisco General Hospital scared me, to be honest. That’s where the initial recovery period was and I either have no memory of the place or bad memories of it.

“Then there was Treasure Island. A local TV news reporter wanted me to do an interview there but I wasn’t too keen on doing it. Then the District Attorney suggested it would be a good way to get some media attention going again in the hope that an eyewitness might come forward. I don’t know. We’ll see.

“It seemed like only yesterday that I was there. The last time I went was for a BBC interview in September. It was a mad feeling. I didn’t play there that long, about a half hour in total.

“It was a positive trip over all though. I visited the Laguna Honda Hospital too where I did my rehab, that was good. That was where I was my most alert last year. I couldn’t absorb what was happening at the general hospital but it was a happier time at the rehab. I got to see the doctors and nurses and they took me to my old room.”

As soon as he landed in the Bay Area, he went to meet Shirley Stiver, a neurosurgeon at San Francisco General Hospital who treated Mark and was also on The Late Late Show with him earlier this year.

“She says I’m 95% of the way there. But it’ll take two or three years to recover the whole way. She told me this next bit will be hardest. I was feeling brilliant at the start of the year but not as good these days. Sometimes it just gets me down. But I have great people around me pushing me on, family, friends. I’m glad they’re there, I’m very lucky.”

The final leg took him to Boston last week, a city where he lived and played football three summers ago.

“It hasn’t changed a bit. But it was amazing how much people were interested in my story there. Loads of people were just walking up to me, shaking my hand. It was an incredible feeling.”

He’s back in Belcoo now. He was only just in the door when the Irish Examiner phoned him on Thursday. A little tired but with hope at the same time: “I think I’m done with America. I’ve seen both coasts and I saw too much of it on that train trip across the country. It’s time to see the rest of the world now.”