| Miscellaneous |
Details
Date: 1964
Ref: Celtic players play in disguise for charity tournament in Ireland!
Location: Moville, Inishowen
Soccer superstars in disguise thrill in Moville
Published: 08:19 Saturday 06 October 2012
Source: https://www.derryjournal.com/lifestyle/nostalgia/soccer-superstars-in-disguise-thrill-in-moville-1-4339200
It’s like something straight out of the ‘jumpers for goalposts’ era of football and nearly unfathomable now. Imagine the top names of the footballing world, say Gerrard, Giggs or Rooney, disguising themselves in false beards and turning out in a summer tournament for amateurs. Well, back in the early sixties, in the idyllic Inishowen surrounds of Moville, that’s exactly what happened.
One such team was the hitherto consigned to history, Carfin Emeralds.
The Emeralds came from Scotland, then leading the way in European football – Glasgow Celtic would be crowned European Champions by 1967 (it is said up to as many of nine Celtic first teamers turned out for the Emeralds.)
The brains behind the Emeralds was Moville native, Monsignor Jack Gillen, who by the early 1960’s was ministering in Scotland.
Monsignor Gillen had the brainwave of sending over a team of professionals who might sweep all before them but who would certainly swell the numbers flocking through the gates at the Bay Field.
But how could these footballers get around the fact that, contractually, they were prohibited from playing in such ‘junior’ competitions where any injuries sustained could damage their future careers and certainly jeopardise their relationships with the clubs who had them under contract and paid their wages?
Who thought of it then? The only solution? To come to play in the Bay Field in Moville in disguise! What kind of disguise? Masks, false beards and make up!
The Carfin Emeralds made their Kennedy Cup bow in 1963, but it was the following year 1964, that they really captured the imagination.
In the first round they faced Derry’s own Tonnage Dockers, the men from Down the Quay, managed by Sammy Wilson and Jack (Jeek) Doherty.
After this first match rumours flew fast and furious all over town: ‘Who are these guys?’ “ Whoever they are, they’re not as hot as they were cracked up to be!’ “Was that really the young Jimmy Johnstone on the wing” “Was that Pat Crerand in the middle?” “Naw not with passing like that” “Maybe he’s been on the stout since he got here?”
1-1 the result in the first drawn game and the ‘mystery’ team were maybe no great shakes? The replay told a different story .
Twenty minutes into the game Carfin were three up. Dockers now needed a miracle “Mc Clean tried desperately to get the Dockers attack moving but it was Emeralds who scored again,” records the Journal of the day.
And so it was: “Emeralds sparkled at Moville” the Journal headline summarising the replay, 7-3 the result and the biggest crowd of the season witnessed the demolition of Dockers.
No names to identify the Emeralds were printed in the local reports. Their anonymity a thing to spur speculation wherever football fans gathered.
The quarter final draw to be played in early September that year-pitched Carfin Emeralds against Rosemount.
The Derry Journal reporter described that quarter final as ‘one of the best games seen at the Bay Field since the inception of the Kennedy cup’s big money prize’.
Emeralds held on for a 3-2 victory but Rosemount could have dented Emeralds reputation with a storming second half comeback after being three down at the interval.
Some of the shroud of mystery seems to be unravelling from around the Carfin Emeralds team by this stage in the competition for at least two of their players- Mochan and Haughey their goalkeeper- are named by the intrepid Derry Journal reporter of the day.
Emeralds faced Foyle Rovers in the second semi-final.
Admission was 2/6. with buses leaving Great James Street at 1.30 p.m. to be in time for the 3pm (sharp) kick-off.
That encounter too was a close affair decided by a solitary second half goal scored brilliantly by the aforementioned Mochan.
But now the Journal is naming the Emeralds goalkeeper as Haffey,- any relation of the famous Celtic keeper of that name?- and while the Rosemount line-out is reported, man after man, there is no team sheet for Carfin.
This Carfin Emeralds semi-final victory meant they would now be playing Manchester Athletic in the final scheduled for October 11th “a Scottish – English cross- channel affair”.
The back page advert for the final includes the information that Tamnaherin Children’s Accordion Band would be ‘in attendance’.
Admission remained at 2/6. The Derry Journal coverage of the final includes several photographs, one of which is captioned “Members of the Carfin Emeralds team, most of whom wore false beards side-whiskers and make-up are introduced to Rev. H Gallagher C.C. Moville before the kick-off..”
The Emeralds completed a convincing victory, Derry born goalkeeper Joe Cassidy, ‘custodian’ for the Manchester team picking the ball out of his net seven times. For this match more Emerald players named are ‘ Rainey, Mitchell, Ward and Howley’ with “Coyle” now their goalkeeper.
And so the 1964 Kennedy Cup left for Scotland, and the north west footballing fraternity were left wondering just who were the mystery superstars in disguise.
That’s not a scar but the glue stitches from the false beard the player was wearing!
From When Saturday Comes (2013)
The strange case of the Carfin Emeralds
The strange case of the Carfin Emeralds
https://tirnaog09.blogspot.com/2019/08/the-strange-case-of-carfin-emeralds.html
Jack Gillen was born in May 1916 in Moville, Donegal but like many folk from that fine county life was to bring him over the Irish Sea to Scotland. For many it was the allure of work in the mines, factories or fields which drew them, but for Jack it was to work as a Priest among the Catholics of Scotland. It was said that the loves of Jack’s life were his faith, his family, his Parish in Glenboig and Celtic football club. Football played a major part in his life and he organised teams in just about every parish he worked in and would regale folk of the tale of the all-conquering Glenboig St Joseph’s team who had swept all before them in 1947. It transpired one of their players had been economical with the truth about his age and when the football authorities found out they stripped the team of their Scottish cup and banned them from competing in the Lanarkshire Cup Final just a few days later.
Like many an Irishman spending time working outside his native land, he kept in touch and visited as often as his duties allowed. His brother owned a hotel in Moville and by the mid-sixties had organised an annual football tournament for Junior clubs (non-Professional) which was to be called the Kennedy Cup. It was thought that a summer football tournament might attract more tourists to Donegal. The prize money built up as the years progressed until by 1964 the amount on offer was £2000. (£38,000 in today’s money) This of course sparked great interest in the tournament with teams entering from all over Ireland and the UK. It also meant that the Junior clubs involved were not above using ‘ringers’ to improve their squads and as it was played in the summer there were professional players around willing to earn a bit extra by turning out for club’s involved in the Kennedy cup.
Father Gillen was of course well aware of the prize money available to the winners of the Kennedy cup and got thinking of how it might be of great use in his working class parish back in Scotland. A seed was germinating in his brain and he had a host of connections throughout the church in central Scotland who might know of some decent Junior players who might be put together to form a decent team. The decision about what to call the team was perhaps swayed by Father Jack’s knowledge of the area around his church. His parish; St Teresa’s in Newarthill, was but a short walk from the grotto to Our Lady at Carfin built almost 100 years ago by unemployed miners and builders. So it was that the Carfin Emeralds was born and entered into the Kennedy cup in 1963. They did well but didn’t win the cup that year. Perhaps a higher grade of player was required to make them successful the following year?
The Emeralds of 1964 was to be strengthened by professional players who had been approached by Father Gillen’s contacts in various churches across Lanarkshire and Glasgow. There was however the problem of professionals being forbidden by their clubs from taking part in amateur football matches in the off season as the risk of injury was obvious. We can imagine the priest’s eyebrows rising when he saw the list of players willing to help him out and play for the Carfin Emeralds in Ireland. Some of the names on the list played for his beloved Celtic.
So it was that in the summer of 1964 one of the stranger episodes in the history of Celtic took place when some of their star players took to Bay Field Park in Moville, wearing a variety of disguises. It is said some wore false beards, wigs and even make up to allay suspicion but Donegal being Donegal there were Celtic supporters in the crowd who would have looked on knowingly. That little winger jinking past defenders looked familiar? In their first game against the Tonnage Dockers, a tough tackling team from Derry they drew 1-1 but the replay saw the Emeralds win 7-3 as they got more used to the conditions. None of the Emeralds’ players were mentioned in press reports of the games as the tournament unfolded by rumours were spreading and the crowds increasing.
A team called the Rosemounts were defeated next as the Emeralds swept into the semi-final where Foyle Rovers awaited. It was a tight game decided by a goal scored by Neil Mochan, by then playing for Raith Rovers and still a very fit and capable player. The Derry Journal had by now recognised some of the players and Haughney, Mochan and Haffey were mentioned by name. As The Carfin Emeralds Lined up to face Manchester Athletic in the final before a large and excitable crowd a photographer caught the moment the Emeralds were being introduced to local dignitaries. When the picture was printed in the paper it was captioned with the words…
“Members of the Carfin Emeralds team, most of whom wore false beards side-whiskers and make-up are introduced to Rev. H Gallagher C.C. Moville before the kick-off.”
The final itself was a triumph for the Scottish side who crashed seven goals past the Manchester side to win the cup. So it was that Father Gillen’s team won the cup and the prize money which was put to good use in his parish and beyond. The team lines of the Carfin Emeralds were conveniently ‘lost’ back in the mid-1960s and we may never be sure exactly which Celtic players took part in the tournament. We might guess the reaction of Jock Stein had he found out that some of his players were injury by playing in the Kennedy cup.
As for Father Jack, he served several Parishes in Scotland, his last being St Columbkille’s in Rutherglen, before retiring to his beloved Donegal in 1992. He passed away in 1995 and perhaps only he knew the full extent of his use of Celtic players in his team. He may have bent the rules a little but it was for a good cause. Footballers were more closely involved in their local communities than perhaps they are today. In those times if a local Priest asked a player to help out in a charity match or suchlike few would refuse.
It would be hard to imagine a modern day Carfin Emeralds taking the Field with Tierney or McGregor in their ranks. Perhaps the 1960s were more innocent times.