Eamonn ‘Chick’ Deacy was a true Galway football man, in fact the land that the city’s football stadium, Terryland Park, is built on had once belonged to Deacy’s family. Though he had played at the highest level, he was capped for Ireland and was part of the Aston Villa squad that won the 1980-81 League Championship, he turned down the offer of a new contract with Villa to return home to Galway to play once more for his hometown club Galway United. When Deacy died of a heart attack in 2012 it was a fitting tribute that Terryland was renamed Eamonn Deacy Park.
He had enjoyed three spells at the club that called Terryland home. He was the man who scored Galway’s first goal in League of Ireland football after Galway Rovers (as they were then known) were promoted from the Junior ranks back in 1977 and bookended his Galway career as part of the Cup winning side of 1991 that defeated Shamrock Rovers. Appropriate as the renaming of the stadium undoubtedly was, something was missing, by the time Terryland became Eamonn Deacy Park there was no Galway United left to play there.
A disastrous season both on and off the pitch had seen the club fold in 2011, they had gone on a record run of 22 consecutive defeats, finishing bottom of the league with a mere six points and having conceded 115 goals. After acrimonious fall outs between the Galway United board and the Galway United Supporters Trust (GUST) the club did not apply for a league place the following season. This left Ireland’s fourth most populous city without a top flight club after a troubled couple of years. It not mean however, that Galway was unrepresented, both Mervue United and Salthill Devon (later rebranded as SD Galway) had in recent years progressed to the League of Ireland first division which demonstrated the health of the local Galway player pool.
However neither side had a broad enough appeal and could not hope to gain the overall backing of the city’s football support, an attempt was made with the rebranding of Salthill Devon as SD Galway in 2012 at securing a wider following. They even moved to Terryland Park for a season but they finished bottom of the First division table that year and failed to attract significant amounts of new fans.
Galway is a true sporting city, one of the few counties that compete at a high standard in both of the traditional Irish sports of Gaelic Football and Hurling, it is also the home of the Connacht Rugby team who have been growing steadily in an area gaining a reputation for developing talented young Rugby players. Although few Irish international football players have come from Galway, (apart from the previously mentioned Deacy) there aren’t many other well- known players from the area, current Millwall and Ireland keeper David Forde is probably the most notable footballing Galwegian playing currently.
Despite this Galway is still a proud footballing city. At their best Galway United managed to unite both city and county behind them in a way that demonstrated a tremendous amount of local pride in the team, whether it was their cup final triumph of 1991 or their European adventures against Groningen or Odense, matches which were played in remotes, rural and starkly beautiful locations around the county. The club has even attracted its share of celebrities; ‘rogue trader’ Nick Leeson was involved with United for a number of years eventually becoming CEO before resigning in 2011 with the club in difficult financial circumstances.
Another famous board member is current Irish President Michael D Higgins, an ardent supporter of Irish football; Michael D was the honorary president of Galway United for many years. The absence of a football focal point for the city was something that concerned many in the city, despite the withdrawal of the club from the league GUST remained working in the background to try and bring their club back.
Their work has not been in vain as recent developments have shown, the two other Galway based clubs, Mervue and Salthill Devon, agreed to merge with GUST and the Galway F.A. to administer a new merger/phoenix club to be called Galway F.C. They have been granted a licence to compete in the First division, a new manager, former Cork City boss Tommy Dunne has been appointed and a main sponsor secured.
The next difficult step will be for Dunne to begin gathering a squad to compete in the First division, he has less than three months until the season kicks off to assemble the 30 or so players he says he needs. Budgets in the League of Ireland have decreased significantly since the unsustainable days of the Celtic Tiger and most first division clubs like Galway F.C. will be forced to rely on young local talent playing for low wages or expenses on 40 week contracts. However what Tommy Dunne and Galway F.C. can hopefully rely on is the unified support of a great sporting city, a support that will return to Eamon Deacy Park in the new year and ideally to a new chapter for football in Galway, one devoid of last place finishes, financial turmoil and boardroom strife.