Eoin Walsh: 'I just really enjoyed it'

By Cian O’Connell

Retirement provides an opportunity to reflect. So, that is what Eoin Walsh is currently doing, following a productive and enjoyable stint with the London senior footballers.

London GAA confirmed on Thursday that captain Eoin Walsh was leaving the inter-county arena after a successful stint with Michael Maher’s outfit.

A key performer for Maigh Cuilinn, Walsh won an All-Ireland U21 title with Galway in 2013 before emigrating. In London, Walsh found a vibrant GAA community. “For me, that was definitely it,” Walsh responds.

“My first experience was actually watching Galway play against London (2019). I just felt there was something very different about London football.

"Then, I went in with them the following November for the start of pre-season. I didn't know what or how long I'd be in for, I never really thought I'd do that much, but every year I couldn't say no, I was dying to go back.

“I just really enjoyed it. The set-up that we had, every year it got better and better which made the decision easier to go back. Obviously, then I passed a hump where in the last year or two some things got slightly harder for me with life changes and you can't keep going on forever, and made the difficult decision.”

Watching Galway in Ruislip six years ago, Walsh was struck by the passion that exists for Gaelic games in London. “I'd played maybe a handful of league games for St Kiernan's,” he recalls. “I went as a fan, my family came over because they'd follow Galway quite closely.

“There was a good few over from Moycullen, so it was just as a supporter I went. Before the next pre-season London had, I spoke with Michael Maher, he asked me if I'd come in, I just jumped at it.”

Maher is a central figure in the London GAA story. As a homegrown manager, Maher remains ready, willing, and able to build for the future by trying to integrate emerging players, who’ve progressed through the underage ranks. “He'd been there for a year or two as a coach with Ciaran Deely when I went in, and he was my first manager,” Walsh says.

“He has just added little things year upon year, that has just added to the whole professionalism of the set-up. Results, even though it doesn't look year on year, that we're not winning three league games, four league games, five league games, getting promoted.

“The improvements you make are quite small, but they're really significant to London. He has definitely tried to do the right things, bringing through the English born players.”

That is critical for London according to Walsh. “I can only speak for our club and I've seen stuff in other clubs and speaking to other lads, there is a huge push for clubs to develop from grassroots level and underage structures,” he responds.

“A lot of the teams have a junior team where the team is all English or London born players. The idea is to try to promote through to senior teams. In our club, the model has been to try to invest as much into the underage and into the community to keep the senior team as strong as possible. Long term for clubs, that is the only way it will work.

“They'll obviously need the sprinkling of Irish players coming over, but long term and if a club wants to be successful and sustain it at a high level, they need a really strong English core.

“Irish lads can come and go. I could've left after a year to go home again. A lot of lads do that, I just ended staying a bit longer. For them to sustain it, they do need a core of English lads.”

While in London, Maigh Cuilinn have flourished at home, collecting three Galway SFC titles since 2020. Does Walsh ever wonder about what might have been? “At the time, I did park it because I figured it would've been too difficult to try to do the commuting over and back,” Walsh says.

“Mentally, I'd signed up for starting a new life in London, I'd join a club, get involved with the community aspect of a club. The first year they won it, as happy as I was for them, it made it easier for me that I was never tied or torn thinking about if I'd go back or I should've done it. I was obviously delighted for the lads.”

Walsh simply sensed something was stirring as a class generation of players were being developed by the club. “You'd young lads coming through, Dessie (Conneely), Seán Kelly, Peter Cooke,” Walsh says.

“The whole team has changed, David Wynne is probably the last of my age. Gareth Bradshaw before, the Lydons, Conor Bohan, and a couple of lads my age like Phil Ezergailis a lot of those lads have stopped playing.

"I got married in June, I was home for the week, I went training with them on the Tuesday and Thursday, there were lads I hadn't a clue who they were and they were probably thinking how is this lad coming in?”

On the trips back to the west of Ireland, though, Walsh relishes the football conversations. “It is a completely different team, but you still have the connections with some of the lads that were there, and around the village it is still the same people running things, driving things,” he adds.

“The team itself has changed a lot. When I started with London, the travel over and back for league games, it made it clear to me I couldn't do it on my own. When you're doing it with London, you get to the airport, you don't worry about anything.

“You get on a flight, you get on a bus, you go to a hotel, you're fed. You basically live like a professional, all you do is worry about the match the next day. You don't need to think about what you eat, when you sleep, hotels, buses.

“If I was to try to do that myself, organising lifts from an airport, that stuff, I think I'd find that difficult. It did make it easier. I probably convinced myself I wouldn't be able to do it.

“My family are big into it, they go to all the games. They'd call me after the games, they've chats about it, they're always keeping me updated. It isn't like I've completely put that side away, I've tuned in watching various games online when I can. It isn't like I've completely put it to one side.”

Working as a physio, Walsh is content with life in London. “It was definitely very much career focused,” Walsh says about moving to England.

“I just figured from a development point of view, that I needed to do it and wanted to do it. My sister had been over here for a couple of years, I'd been over to visit her. I knew the life of living in a big city would probably suit me and that is what attracted me. It was mainly the job. I didn't really think about football, initially, when I first moved over.

“Then a friend of mine, who was playing here for a couple of years, he was moving clubs. He said if you're going to join a team, do it now, and join with me. I couldn't say no to him, he convinced me, twisted my arm, and I can't imagine ever not playing football here.

“I work in the NHS; I have been since I moved over. I've moved around to different hospitals and taken different roles. We bought a place over here, a couple of years ago, and Leah, my wife, is well settled.

“We always say, as of today, we're happy here. She is from Kildare. We take every day as it comes, long term we don't know whether we will stay or not. As of right now it is the right place for us to be for a career and lifestyle perspective.”

Ultimately, St Kiernan’s have benefited from Walsh’s prowess as a footballer. Walsh’s respect for Kiernan’s runs deep, too. “The community aspect of it is unreal here,” Walsh says.

“St Kiernan's have been so good to both Leah and me. You've great people involved from all four corners of Ireland; it is just like having a sense of home over here.”