Ennis All Stars: ‘The joy and passion just comes together. We win with love’

Ennis All Stars has become a safe haven for so many people over the years: 15 countries and counting have been represented by the club. And yet despite the melting pot of identity and culture contained within the club, the commitment to Ennis, Clare, and its people, is fierce.

Ennis All Stars has become a safe haven for so many people over the years: 15 countries and counting have been represented by the club. And yet despite the melting pot of identity and culture contained within the club, the commitment to Ennis, Clare, and its people, is fierce.

Orla Ní Éilí had only just learned to drive when she got in her car on the morning of September 16, 2000.

She was bound for Dublin, and was terrified about moving the car into fifth gear, for fear that she couldn’t slow down quick enough when required.

Ní Éilí was travelling from Ennis, where she worked for the now-defunct Irish Refugee Council. She was making the trip alongside several young asylum-seekers who had arrived in Co. Clare to stay at the newly established direct provision centre at Clare Lodge. 

The contingent were headed to Sport Against Racism Ireland’s (SARI) fourth annual Soccerfest event. SARI, a non-profit established in 1997, organised an annual 7-a-side tournament to promote sport as a means to combat racism, foster inclusion and encourage social integration on the island of Ireland.

After initially hearing about SARI and their annual tournament, Ní Éilí, along with her colleagues at the Irish Refugee Council, approached residents of the new direct provision centre in Ennis about entering a team. Some of those who agreed to be a part of the squad were as young as 17, and had arrived in Ireland as unaccompanied minors.

“We could see that [the] asylum seekers, that a lot of the lads... that they weren’t getting out to be involved in the community,” Ní Éilí recalls.

The team went and played in Blackhall Place that weekend, on the grounds of the Law Society of Ireland. They took on teams made up of asylum-seekers, refugees, and other members of ethnic minority communities. For some of those who attended, it had a lasting effect.

“I think for a few of those lads, that was a turning point for them. Because they were young [men] who had to live by the seat of their pants, as asylum-seekers often do,” Ní Éilí says.

“This was pivotal in the road they took in life. And I know that. Because the road they were going, from their backgrounds, was understandably skittish. And it brought them into a whole different milieu.”

The legacy of that first SARI Soccerfest entry, of the turning point that Ní Éilí speaks, is Ennis All Stars.

“[The young asylum-seekers] got so fired up and buzzed about the tournament, that when they came back home to Ennis, they were mad keen to have the same sort of thing going on here.”

Ennis All Stars is a football club, which was established by a number of players who travelled to Dublin that weekend in 2000 with Ní Éilí. With the help of the local Garda liaison office, sports partnerships, and the Irish Refugee Council (now called Clare Immigrant Support Centre), Ennis All Stars brought players from diverse backgrounds together and organised tournaments against local, established soccer clubs.

The club sent a team to the SARI Soccerfest in 2001, and began to grow. Ennis All Stars had already been in existence for a number of years when Julius Leke moved to Ireland from Nigeria in 2004. Recalling those first weeks, settling into school and social life in Galway at age 13, Leke admits that “it’s not a good story to remember”.

He continues: “It was challenging, mentally, physically, emotionally. There’s a lot of things going in your head, and you’re trying to settle down in the country as well.”

Leke learned about racism for the first time during those weeks. He experienced it first-hand. “To be honest with you, I never knew what racism was. I didn’t know anything called racism... I didn’t know there was some difference from me to somebody else. Until I started experiencing a few things back in school, back then.

“Somebody [said to me], ‘No, you can’t understand what we’re saying. Can you understand what we’re saying to you? Can you actually hear what we’re saying?’, and they’re putting two thumbs in the air and making monkey signs, and all this kind of stuff”,” Leke recalls.

“I was thinking about settling into the country, I was thinking about what I was gonna eat next... But now, thinking back, it’s just very sad.”

Away from school, Leke thrived on the soccer pitch. During his time at NUI Galway, he signed a semi-professional contract with Galway United, and made a number of appearances in the League of Ireland. Yet even with a ball at his feet, Leke felt he was still battling — he knew any mistake would be pounced upon.

“Whenever I was playing with Galway United, I was like, ‘Oh my god, I don’t want to make a mistake. I don’t want them to call me out’. I was scared. I couldn’t express myself.”

It wasn’t just Galway — Leke played with other clubs, and experienced the same thing. “You have to fight your way in, week in week out, more than anyone else on the team.”

It was during his time at NUIG that Leke heard about Ennis All Stars. Leke had met some club members in Galway, who invited him to play. Instantly, Leke knew what was happening in Ennis was different. He felt a gripping sense of belonging, something unlike anything he’d experienced in Ireland before.

“Playing with the brothers... They’re not looking for my mistakes, or my fault, or what I’m going to do wrong. They’re believing... that’s the difference.”

He was a part of the team that travelled to the SARI Soccerfest in 2008, and has gone on to become a pivotal part of the club’s fabric. During his time with Ennis All Stars, the club became the first team to win SARI on three occasions — most recently in 2019.

“Playing with a brother is having the joy to play with the people from different backgrounds... The joy and passion just comes together. We win with love. We fight for each other because of the love we have for each other.” This ethos extends beyond the pitch.

Leke tells me how players have come together to share experiences and perspectives on discrimination, only strengthening a bond forged on-field. Ennis All Stars has even helped players survive suicide attempts. “Why we have what we have is because of the love, of what we do together, and saving each other not just on the pitch, but also off the pitch.”

The enthusiasm Leke exudes about his club speaks volumes. Ennis All Stars has become a safe haven for so many people over the years: 15 countries and counting have been represented by the club, including South Africa, Zimbabwe, Brazil, and Poland.

And yet despite the melting pot of identity and culture contained within the club, the commitment to Ennis, Clare, and its people, is fierce.

“If people feel that there’s a vested enough interest in how they are, then they are liberated to have a vested interest in how their local community is going,” Ní Éilí says.

“For me, it still hits me, in the pit of my tummy, how incredibly valuable that was. That those young lads wanted to bring something great to where they were living. The cooperation they got, around doing it, was extraordinary.

“That to me is actually the basis of all integration.”

2020 was the first time an Ennis All Stars team did not travel to Dublin for the annual tournament, following its cancellation due to the coronavirus. There is hope the team will be able to retain their most recent title next year, with the help of players staying at the newly reopened Clare Lodge centre.

One certainty, however, is that the value this small project continues to hold for so many people is immeasurable.