Miscellaneous

Kerry O'Donnell remembers her father - the great American GAA man


by Weeshie Fogarty

 Q. Earliest memories?A. Sitting in Gaelic park every Sun enjoying the games taking the tickets every morning, helping out the New York minors. Everything revolved around Gaelic Park in our family.A. Without a doubt Gaelic games was the biggest part of our family life, the family revolved around it and G P. We were there every weekend and also during the week, it was a huge part of our lives and coming home for Minster and All Ireland finals.A. I am the youngest of eight, Kevin eldest, Rip. Brendan, Patricia, Bernadette, Geraldine, Helen, James all in NY bar self.Left home in 1920, met my mother in 1932 and got married in 1934. Eloped. Born in NY of Kerry parents from Brosna she was Helen o Callaghan, had 3 sisters and one brother. Father died when mother was very young, mother eldest and she was only ten. Visiting Ireland he became ill on the ship and subsequently died in Brosna. My grandmother took them back to N Y. Tough times kept lodgers might have done a bit of boot legging, mother wont like me saying this. To make ends meet.A. My father had 4 brothers and an older sister who married and lived on the farm next door Mart Catherine married Francie o Connor. £ Off the boys went on to become guards and Mikey stayed at home. Tim was the youngest.A. People will be very surprised at this especially if you ever met him. Took over G P 1945. Wall St crash a terrible time all laid of from the building trade. Was making 99 Dollars a week then down to seven dollars. Molly and Patsy Clifford were great friends of dad and his friends and Molly kept them in a rooming house which she ran. Always so grateful to them. Often told the story of walking down 139th St to the public Library, he had heard on the radio that they were selling apples for 5 cents and between the five of them they couldn't come up with the 5 cents between them to buy an apple. But they were happy to just go down and se who was buying them. A.  Didn't have things easy but I never heard him describe it as a hard life. I don't think W Weeshie that it was very different to other immigrant stories. They landed on the shores of Canada and America, worked very hard and made their way in life. A. Yes. He traveled from Tralee with his uncle, I believe on a donkey and cart. They overnighter in Tralee. On the Cobh the following day, shipped stopped at Southampton and then on to Montreal 14 days later. He often spoke of this in later years when he flew Aer Lingus in a few hours coming back to Ireland. A. No, my father had a great sense of adventure as sp many had in those far off days and I guess the life he had in later years made him forget any loneliness he might have experiencedA  At the time it was called Innisvale Park and he was just involved peripherally at first as he played with the N Y Kerry team and was also a delegate for the board there. Then in 1944 the lease was coming to an end. Paddy grimes and Billy Snow had the lease at the time and were not interested in renewingA. Gaelic Park is owned by NY City, The metropolitan Transport Authority. It's build beneath the train yards and tracks. It was developed as a GAA pitch probably around 1938. Fear was no lease GAA would lose the ground to soccer as there were people very interested in coming in and talking over the ground. So my father and I think it was Barney Mulligan, I am not sure here were approached and asked to take it over. Now this was a massive undertaking at the time. They agreed to do so and when they arranged to meet the solicitor to sign the agreement my father was the only one to turn up. The other man had backed down but my father decided to give it a go on his own. It was a very brave and courageous step by him. There was a huge fear that the ground would be lost to the GAA and this was the only reason he decided to step in and it all worked out very well for him of course. That was 1945A.  Now it was just post was and it was quiet enough. It did provide a service for the people of the city and also to the soldiers coming home because they were a lot of them Irish. Things became to improve, and the staging of the 1947 All Ireland final in Gaelic Park NY was a huge boost for the sport as it left native Americans know a little bit more about Gaelic games. So everything grew from there. A.  He never dwelt too much as promoting himself as the games were all important too him and the final added a huge profile to the games in New YorkA. The whole thing consumed him The GAA was his life on a daily basis and indeed the same thing goes for many others in new York. He would often be on the phone at 5 and 6 in the morning and the phone would regularly ring in the middle of the night due to the time difference between Ireland and America. We would have a constant flow of visitors especially from Kerry but also from all over Ireland.

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