Martin Carney

Martin Carney recalls earliest memories of attending big GAA matches in Croke Park including the 1959 All-Ireland semi-final between Dublin and Kerry. He discusses the role that football played in a childhood in Donegal where alternative recreational outlets were few. He mentions his Gaelic football experience in primary school and in a secondary school run by the De La Salle brothers who displayed a serious commitment to all things Irish. Carney discusses the peculiarities of the Donegal club scene up to and including the creation of an amalgamated team, St. Joseph’s, drawn from clubs in Bundoran and Ballyshannon. The men behind the St. Joseph’s initiative are described as visionaries and are credited with the rise in Donegal’s GAA fortunes in the 1970s. Carney charts his own sporting progression with school, club, university, county and province through the 1970s, shedding light on such issues as media coverage of Gaelic games, the influence of the Down footballers of the 1960s, the Irish language, the divide between soccer, Gaelic football and hurling in Donegal... While playing for Donegal in the Ulster championship in the early 1970s, Carney spent a number of summers in New York and he recalls his experiences along with observations on the Irish community in New York.