Declan Bogue

YOU’D KNOW THE elder statesmen and stateswomen of the Sean McDermott’s club in Birmingham.

They are the ones with that curious accent mixture where Irish and Brummie meet. A lilt on top of a lilt and distinguishable to the trained ear from the London Irish patois.

They are also the ones who remember The Big Time. When the British champion teams went straight into the All-Ireland club series back when the competition itself was a little bit illicit and not fully inside the GAA establishment.

In 1975 they won the Warwickshire and British championships, beating London champions, the Kerry-centric Kingdom in the final of the latter.

That put them in to an All-Ireland quarter final and they spent a winter training hard in Highbury Park in the Moseley district. Eventually they met Roscommon Gaels in Dr Hyde Park on 8 February 1976.

By half-time, they were ahead 0-6 to 0-1, without a blanket defence in sight. Despite the best efforts of Hugh O’Connor and Paddy Bent leading the defence, their lack of regular games cost them for fitness.

The final score read 1-6 to 0-8 in favour of Roscommon Gaels. The deeper detail was that Sean McDermotts were presented with a penalty midway through the second half. Ollie Brady of Redhills, who would later go on to become Cavan’s first All-Star two years later, missed it.

It was the highest point the club ever reached. It’s not as if they were strangers to a winning podium – they are one of the most successful clubs in Britain – but the standard dropped off with less and less emigrants making Birmingham their home.

Now, you’ll know the old hands as they are the ones with the Irish accents. They have reared children who are all to all intents and purposes Brummies, but are also dued in the wool Irish and devoted to the GAA. So much so that only three of the Sean McDermott’s team now are Irish-born, the rest a mixture of second and third-generation Irish.

They will be there this Saturday when they contest another All-Britain football championship final, this time against Wandsworth Gaels.

The game will be played at the centre of Warwickshire GAA activities, Páirc na hÉireann in Solihull.

There is a chance there could be a strong teeny-bopper fanclub there too, as Niall Horan is the most famous supporter of Wandsworth Gaels and is frequently partaking in their after-match socialising.

For the record, the Irish born players for Macs will be Ryan Devlin of Derry, who interestingly works as a strength and conditioning coach at Aston Villa, John Rogers of Meath and Mayo’s Joe Owens.

Keeping it going, has been the story of Noel McLean’s life since he came over in the mid-60s from Skibbereen.

“We always had that problem compared to the other places. But in fairness, we had a fair bunch. You know now you could have a lad coming on at 16 and they might retire in their early 20’s. We were playing on (until) we were 35 or into our 40s to keep it going,” he explains.

One of the original founders of the club was a Cavan man, Jimmy Smith. He had great faith in creating a youth policy in Warwickshire that blossomed to become the very same structure that Jack Grealish passed through for rival club, John Mitchell’s.

Initially though, getting it off the ground was a struggle.

“It didn’t take off that well. The feeder belt was still Ireland and the second-generation lads were soccer players, trying to play Gaelic,” says McLean.

As with any parish back home, family names started being associated with the club; the Dowlings, Folans, Bennetts and O’Connor’s.

Conaill Dowling is 29 now and he was one of the first batches that would eventually backbone a team that is almost entirely English-born.

“What we were doing then, all the others are starting to do,” explains his mother Michelle, daughter of Noel and club secretary for the last 34 years.

“We went into the Catholic schools in our area of Birmingham and started training and coaching them, then brought them down for a Saturday at the pitch.

“We could have anything up to 100 kids from 5 to 15 any Saturday.”

Noel McLean with his daughters Michelle and Caroline.

At present they boast teams at U7, U9, two at U11, U13, U15 and U17, and girls’ teams all the way through the grades, a senior ladies’ team and two men’s sides.

Michelle’s husband is a walking club legend, Joey Dowling. He made his debut in 1990 and finished 26 years later. In that time he won 67 honours, including 15 senior Warwickshire championships, four All-Britain titles, and a landmark All-Ireland Sevens Junior title in 2014 at Kilmacud.

Most of them celebrated long and hard in the nearby Casey Joe’s, the unofficial clubhouse.  

Even this year, the club was at the World Games in Derry and took away a title.

“He (Joey) was a semi-professional soccer player. A good player. And to be fair to him he spent years coming on and scoring the winning goal,” recalls Michelle.

“He was with Solihull Moors, and he was with a load of others (in soccer). To be honest, I didn’t take much notice, I was more wanting him to play Gaelic.”

On Saturday, the McLeans and Dowlings and many more will be there by the side of the field, roaring their heads off in a mixture of voices and accents, keeping that little patch of Solihull green.