North London Shamrocks' adventure continues

By Cian O’Connell

It has been a busy two decades, but North London Shamrocks are still going strong.

Retaining the London SFC illustrates the progress that has been made, ensuring another AIB Connacht Club encounter against Ballina Stephenites beckons on Saturday.

In the underage ranks, young footballers are being developed and the ladies section of the club is gaining members and momentum.

Chairperson Keith Egan, a founding member of North London Shamrocks in 2005, is encouraged that this is a particularly good time for the club. “It is, I'm only back on Sunday as our U14 girls and we set up a Gaelic for Mothers & Others in parallel with our friends at Holloway Gaels, so, we're just back from Sligo,” Egan explains.

“Obviously, the seniors, at the moment, get the most limelight, but certainly the club is progressive at all levels. That is what you want to do every year - to keep improving and adding people and volunteers. We just want to promote Gaelic Football outside of Ireland.”

That isn’t an easy task, but club are seeing the value of developing underage talent. The landscape is changing. “We have a homegrown team,” Egan says about the importance of building for the future.

“Over here in London, if you've more than one adult team, and we've three. In our case the third adult team has to be a London born team. Two of those, including a young fella that was U17 last year, Seán Gaynor, he has progressed and played for a few minutes in our county semi-final against Fulham Irish.

“Another young fella that was U17 last year, Theo Ritchie, they're both on the panel for Saturday, and they've come through our underage system. They've been here since they were U6s.

“Shamrocks are only 20 years old in total. We only got founded in 2005. The youth side of it started about five or six years later. From a perspective, what we call that conveyor belt, having numbers from U7s all the way up to U17 and progressing them to adult football.

"It is only in the last 10 or 11 years that has taken off. With Seán and Theo we're able to see it now on the adult senior football side.”

The fact that North London Shamrocks are competing in a competitive environment, retaining the county title, shows what can be achieved. “You've a lot of great clubs here, well established clubs like Tír Chonaill Gaels and St Kiernan's, who have been the dominant forces over the last 10 to 20 years or so,” Egan says.

“Certainly, another great club, Fulham Irish, who were founded just a year after us in 2006, they've established themselves as a good club in London. We were always looking at them and the success they were having and wondering when it was going to be our day?”

There was a steely determination about North London Shamrocks in 2024 when the breakthrough happened. “Unfortunately, there was a tragic occurrence, one of our founder members, Tosh Kilcommons, a gentleman from Offaly died,” Egan explains.

“He was one of the founding members, along with myself and tragically passed away in August ‘23. He was the ultimate club. He took every job that was going. He was the manager for the first 10 years, he was chairman, and was secretary at the time of his passing.

“At his funeral, and there were a few beers involved, but there was a promise made that in honour of him we'd leave no stone unturned in order to win that Championship in his honour.

“It is thanks to people like John Madigan, another founder member, with his brother Paddy, and other lads that have just driven it on so much in the last two years.”

Coaching wise Peter Witherow and Michael Boyle have contributed significantly. “While it is great we've those youths coming through, you do need for that rapid progress, you need to look to bring a few lads in,” Egan adds.

“John and Paddy, lads like Brian Conaghan, we're very lucky we've a couple of Donegal All-Ireland winners in Peter Witherow and Michael Boyle, who has helped us no end with regards to that recruitment process.

“It has been a phenomenal last two years, we're really looking forward to Saturday, seeing how we're going to do against one of the powerhouses of club football. They're 39 times winners of their own County Championship; we're really looking forward to seeing how we get on against the best.”

So, how and why were North London Shamrocks formed? “There had been a couple of clubs within the vicinity of where we are now,” Egan replies.

“One of them was called St Theresa's and another was called Shannon Rovers/Sam Maguires. St Teresa's folded in 2003 and Shannon Rovers folded in 2004.

“I played for Shannon Rovers for one year, and there was a big rivalry between them. Again, to get lads football, any rivalry was tossed aside, and we were all one big Shamrock happy family now.

“We've been going for 20 years now, it is our 20th anniversary this year. To win back-to-back is a very nice way to do the 20 years.”

Based at Tottenhall Road, North London Shamrocks have forged relationships with the local council which has been hugely beneficial. “You've lads like Mick Duffy, Paddy Madigan, and Brian Conahan, within the club that have worked tirelessly to allow us to have our own base,” Egan says.

“We’ve managed to get a lease from Enfield Council in order to attain the clubhouse. That is our base now. The joys of London property, everything is on a lease basis, but we seem to have a very good relationship with the local authorities.

"Hopefully, that can remain our base for a long time. It is difficult. As with everything else, a lot of people are willing to put in the hard yards to make it happen for us, to continue that progression. The original lease was for 10 years, within that time we've made some big improvements.”

It is a community hub, especially on Saturday mornings. “We've our own kitchen area where you can cook food for the players,” Egan adds.

“One of my highlights is always on a Saturday when we've our youth training. You've lovely sausage and bacon sandwiches being made for all of the coaches and the kids, who can come in for their sweets and drinks.

“It has four or five changing rooms, we're certainly up there as one of the busiest GAA grounds in London along with Greenford where TCG are and Barnet where St Kiernan's are, and Wormwood Scrubs where Fulham are. It is a very busy place, we're lucky to have it, and fingers crossed we will have it for many years to come.”

Links continue to be forged with schools in the area with London GAA Community Development Administrator Cormac Duffy providing assistance. “About three weeks ago we'd a schools tournament, we invited a number of schools to play a blitz competition,” Egan reflects.

“Cormac does fantastic work for us, going around in schools. He was part of that; he has been a great friend of the Shamrocks. He is willing to do whatever it takes to get schools involved. Mick Duffy is our youth chairman, himself and others have put in a lot of work to create those contacts in the schools, trying to get them involved.

“You've a lot of second generation Irish, but we've players from non-Irish backgrounds. The more, the merrier is our philosophy, long may it continue.”

The North London Shamrocks story is worth following.