New York ready to compete in Lory Meagher Cup

By Cian O’Connell

Competing in the Lory Meagher Cup matters deeply to New York. On Saturday, at TEG Cusack Park in Mullingar, New York will face Monaghan in the semi-final, with a Croke Park clash against Cavan the significant prize for the winners.

Returning to competitive inter-county action means there is significant interest and excitement in the New York GAA community.

Eamon Fitzgerald worked as Gaelic Games Officer in MTU Kerry for a decade and a half, but is now New York GAA Games Manager. A coach with both the senior footballers and hurlers in the Big Apple, Fitzgerald is ideally placed to assess the importance of this trip to Ireland. “It is massive,” Fitzgerald says.

“I'm here just coming up to three years, and the first thing I was introduced to from a hurling point of view was the idea of New York getting into the Lory Meagher. A lot of good work had taken place in the year or two previous to that.

“The likes of Richie Hartnett, Joan Henchy, and a few more had lots of conversations with Connacht GAA and Damien Coleman and Cathal Cregg about how to get into it. So, you had a two year trial going to the Connacht League.

“We successfully attended the Connacht League two years in a row which proved we had the players, the interest, and even the finances, and all of that to be able to make entry into the Lory Meagher happen for us.”

Momentum was being generated. New York wanted to compete and continued to plan and plot accordingly. “Then, there were a couple of presentations to Croke Park just about why we felt we should be in the Lory Meagher, and we were delighted when we got the green light last year,” he adds.

“We're absolutely delighted with the number of players that have turned out. We had 46 players come in to try out for the team, and we have whittled that down to 31 players now. The commitment from all the players has been unbelievable.”

Logistical challenges exist in New York. “It can be quite hard here,” Fitzgerald says. “In relation to home, you've lads travelling, I'm from Kerry, we'd have lads travelling from Limerick and Cork, places like that, even one or two lads travelling from Dublin. It can be hard for them to get to training so they might train with other clubs.

“Here, it is different from the point of view a lot of lads work in bars in the evening, they're changing shifts. Then, you'd have other lads living in Brooklyn or inside in the city in Manhattan or Queens, they could be coming straight from work.

“It could be an hour and a half commute on the train, a lot of them get Ubers and stuff. The commitment of our lads getting to training has been unbelievable, and there is huge excitement now.”

One thing Fitzgerald is adamant about is the fact that performing in the Connacht League was critical for New York. “It was absolutely huge,” Fitzgerald responds. “Again, the Connacht League was new to us.

“The whole New York inter-county hurling team was new too because it hadn't happened in a number of years. There is a small bit of the unknown at the start. I remember year one when the management sat down, we were talking through how we were going to approach this.

“We set aside try outs in the hope we'd get enough to put a team together, but we'd massive interest.

“We had to make cuts for that, the same again last year. We'd massive interest and had to make cuts. A lot of this is down to Richie Hartnett, putting things forward, being as professional as you can be. Also, painting a picture that the Lory Meagher was the long-term goal for us. This is something we'd to do to achieve entry into that.

“So, the Connacht League was absolutely huge. The trips were unbelievable, the first year we won the Shield competition, the second year we won the Cup competition. Just the camaraderie, lads getting to know each other. Lads were just excited to get back in this year for the Lory Meagher. We never had a situation where a lad wanted to walk away.

“Any lad that was on a Connacht League panel and isn't involved this year, it is to do with more personal stuff like work issues, family issues, or people have moved home.

“Other commitments basically. Everyone that was involved in those two trips, who could put their name forward did put their name forward. Even that shows how positive those trips were for us.”

There is significant talent in the New York panel. Accomplished hurlers are returning home for the Lory Meagher adventure, including the totemic Johnny Glynn.

An All-Ireland winner with Galway in 2017, Glynn is a central part of the New York GAA community. Glynn carries out several roles in New York – player, coach, official, administrator. Whatever needs to be done, Glynn is ready, willing, and able to assist. “We've a nice team,” Fitzgerald says.

“Obviously, the standout name is Johnny Glynn, who played with Galway last year. He is a massive part of New York GAA. He is the vice chairman of the County Board this year. He does an amount of work. He is always over in Gaelic Park. It might be a simple thing like umpiring or doing the line, managing the field basically.

The amount of work even he put in before the Connacht Championship game in the football against Galway, he put in an amount of work. He was over there all hours basically in the days leading up to it, just doing work, preparing the field and facilities. He is obviously a big name, but he puts in so much work for New York GAA.

“He won his All-Ireland medal in 2017, he is mad to be involved for this. We've made him our captain, he is a real leader for us.”

Fitzgerald acknowledges that other crafty hurlers are involved too. “Seán O'Leary-Hayes played with Cork, Conor Hammersley with Tipperary,” he adds.

“We've lads that played U20 and minor with their counties. We're very happy with the panel we have. We feel we've a nice strong panel. Aside from having good hurlers, we've a hugely committed bunch of players.

"Anything we've asked, we trained on a Sunday morning at eight o'clock for the past couple of weeks.

“They're getting out of bed at five and six o'clock during the week, they don't flinch about getting up for an early start on a Sunday morning. They're up and at it, everybody is putting their best foot forward, in fairness. We're delighted with the bunch of lads we have.”

Encouragement is provided by the fact that some clubs are beginning to develop homegrown and the club hurling scene is healthy according to Fitzgerald. “We've six senior teams this year, we've junior teams, and novice teams,” Fitzgerald remarks.

“The novice teams are basically your homegrown teams, Shannon Gaels, Le Chéile, and Rockland. Shannon Gaels and Le Chéile have won the novice in the last two years, they've put teams into junior too, which is great.

"It shows the number of players they have, that they can put out two teams.

“Then you've another few junior teams, the likes of Limerick, Clare, Tipperary. So, you've six senior, five in the junior, and three in the novice.”

The fact that James Breen is in the travelling provides a dash of hope for the next generation of New York born hurlers. “James Breen is the standout player on our panel, who has come through the minor board,” Fitzgerald says.

“James has been involved for the last two years in the Connacht League. He has good experience at this level, he was also involved with the New York footballers for a year. He was our captain in the World Games when we went home two years ago.

“He is a really good lad, I think his family background is Kilkenny. So, he has big hurling roots. He is a good lad, he never misses a training, he is there ever night, you'd be delighted for the likes of James being involved.”

Fitzgerald is busy connecting the past, present, and future of New York GAA. On Wednesday evening New York hurlers will fly to Dublin.

Another chapter is set to be written in the New York story.