The exiles' lament
A piper leads the teams in the parade before the Connacht SFC match between New York and Sligo in Gaelic Park, New York. Sligo won the game easily.
THOSE were the days. It was the mid-1990s and the GAA scene in New York was thriving.
There were so many good days, in fact, that Louis Holland can't pinpoint the exact date of the afternoon that springs to mind as he tells his story.
"I think it was 1994," muses Holland, currently the manager of the Big Apple's GAA side but just a player at the time.
Back then, the foreman carpenter was just another immigrant from Ireland making a living while retaining the link with home by immersing himself in the football scene.
His team had failed to make the county final at Gaelic Park but he went along to enjoy the occasion.
Back then, they would play both the football and hurling games on the same day.
He arrived late and could barely believe his eyes when met with the sight of four All-Star winners sitting on the bench.
"Never mind how many were on the pitch," laughs the Corkman. Those were the days, indeed.
It's different now. The city is different. The Irish community is different. And the GAA landscape has drastically changed.
Thrashing
Already, the championship campaign for Holland and his team is over.
The New York team suffered a thrashing at the hands of Sligo on the new Gaelic Park synthetic pitch last month, marking another abrupt end to their summer challenge.
There's no backdoor option for a team who can't travel to Ireland because almost their entire squad is living illegally in the US.
In recent years, they have come close to claiming scalps. Only last year, Roscommon faced a fright before securing victory.
The reality, however, is that such days are likely to be few and far between in the future.
Quite simply, the players aren't there anymore. Most of last year's team have already left for home. Holland can't preach on the topic because he will be returning to his native Cork himself in August.
His reasoning is that educating his three young girls in the States will prove far too expensive.
And finance, ultimately, is the key factor in the decline of GAA in the city that never sleeps.
"A lot of my friends that I came out with are gone home now," reflects Holland as he spoke in New York.
"That's just the reality, it's the way it is. The Celtic Tiger has had the reverse impact. There's no one coming out here now.
"The strength of the currency is a big factor. London is a lot more attractive in that regard these days and the fellas that go there have the advantage of it only being a short hop home.
"I lost 12 of my team in the last two years and they didn't come back. Eight of them are on county panels at home now."
Of course, there's a distinction between the fortunes of the county team and the fact that a glut of All-Stars used to make frequent vacations to the States in the years gone by. They are two different stories intertwined.
In the 1980s and '90s, clubs in New York wouldn't hesitiate in flying over inter-county stars, sometimes even for the weekend.
Greats like Larry Tompkins, Pat Spillane and Páidí Ó Sé were amongst those to make brief sojourns.
"At the time, it was a fantastic place to be," recalls Holland.
"There were terrific players out here. There wasn't a whole pile in Ireland back then anyway, so we had plenty living out here.
"Then you'd have teams bringing in two weekend players. Guys who would get dispensation from Croke Park on the Thursday to come out and play on the Sunday. I could go into my dressing room at the weekend not knowing who'd be there."
Now, with Ireland providing plenty of work, and the club championship and backdoor system giving sporting incentives to stick around for the summer, the player drain has dried up.
Other cities, like Chicago and Boston, still manage to raise the ire of some county boards at home by luring players away for brief periods. But it's a bidding war that New York no longer gets involved in.
"GAA is a professional game nowadays and we can't compete with that," explains Holland.
"The club game is a lot more popular, so they don't want to lose their players. We used to get guys from teams that got knocked out early from their county and wouldn't have a game with their clubs until later in the year."
Promising youngsters - such as college students - are still attracted by the 60-day sanction which allows them to play for clubs in the US during the summer, but Meath and Donegal are amongst a group of counties which have been seeking to get the permit dates changed so that players are left in a dilemma which, Holland believes, will practically force them to stay in Ireland.
"It means that they're looking for colossal money to come out.
"They've heard what guys are supposed to be getting in Chicago and they're looking to us for that." Instead, New York must look to the future. Under the guidance of Eamonn Deane, the Minor Board has been doing brilliant work.
This summer, they will send underage teams to Galway and Donegal - teams comprised of children who have never lived in Ireland. The reality, though, is that when the majority reach the age of 18, they will leave for college and most likely be lost to the game.
Those that miss out on college are likely to be involved in professions that are demanding on time and body.
"It's not like at home where many good GAA players are schoolteachers and bank officials that are able to work their life around their training," explains Holland.
"My boys are all pretty much working in manual labour, working long days in the heat out here. They can't go into an American foreman and say they're off to play a game of GAA."
'A lot of friends
that I came out with are gone home. That's just the way it is. The Celtic Tiger has had the reverse impact. There's no one coming out here now'In truth, the mood in New York is one of scepticism. They feel isolated from home and believe the GAA could be more supportive.
"We felt the referee in the Sligo game could have been better," continues Holland. "But, then teams don't want to come out here to play games very much. It'll cost them a lot of money to do that."
Scepticism
There appears little sign of a turnaround, so the ambitions of the GAA in New York remain modest.
It's a worry, but then so many of those involved have other things on their mind.
Many are affected by the planned reform of the immigration system in the States which has been proposed by a bi-partisan group of senators and is supported by President Bush.
Should the bill, currently a source of much debate, be passed then it will ensure green cards for undocumented Irish in the US who can prove their presence there before January 1 last.
If achieved, it leaves open the possibility that the New York football team might one day get to play a game in Ireland.
A distant dream, perhaps, but at least it's something to which they can cling; something more than memories of glorious days that will never return.
- Daniel McDonnell
