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I love Newry.
Love the people of our city.
And love to see them doing well … in any walk of life.
But especially in sport.
Keeping that in mind though, I feel I have to pose the question.
Why are so few Newry sports people successful at a national level?
In soccer. GAA. Athletics. Cycling. Tennis. Golf. Boxing. Swimming. Triathlon. Even in Darts and Pool.
And before I’m accused of being a sad, sour, embittered old man (which I might be anyway), as I said right at the outset, I love Newry. Love our city.
There’s little that would please me more than to proudly announce Newry have had lots of winners. Lots of champions.
But sadly it just hasn’t happened.
Can anyone tell me why? Is it lack of coaching, lack of finances, lack of ambition, lack of know-how, lack of facilities?
Or simply lack of dedication?
I wouldn’t say I’m a die-hard Newry City fan but I just love to see them winning and go to quite a few matches each season. In 2022 I remember going to see them play away to Carrick in a bottom six clash and I don’t remember being so nervous at any sporting event. Ever.
That night Newry won with ten men. A great result and that evening I left the Carrick ground floating on air. As I have already said, I love seeing people from our wee city being successful.
But after reading this article no doubt I’ll be accused of sticking the boot in.
Newry Town were formed over 100 years ago and in that time they have never won a major competition. True they did win lots of Mid-Ulster Cups, B Divisions, secondary Division One titles and a few minor cups.
But no Premier Leagues … or Division One before it became the Premiership.
No Irish Cups.
No Gold Cups.
Indeed, the only half decent trophy Newry won in their history was the County Antrim Shield in the eighties, when they had the goalscoring duo of Ollie Ralph and Marty Magee in the team. Indeed Newry have never got to a final of the Irish Cup or Gold Cup.
Another sad fact … Newry haven’t won a league match at home in over one and half seasons.
But were there Newry men who won Irish League or Irish Cup medals? Yes there are a few … such as Robbie Casey, Mickey Keenan, Brian Jennings, Marty Magee, Kenny Halliday, Raymsie McGuigan, Mark Haughey etc. But not a lot either.
What about International footballers who hailed from Newry? Yes we have a world beater in Pat Jennings and before him Peter McParland who still holds the Irish record for goals scored in World Cup finals (five in Sweden in 1958). Ryan McGivern too won quite a few International caps – and once when Northern Ireland played Portugal he was marking the famed Cristiano Ronaldo … and kept him from scoring.
Newry man Colin Clarke once held the Northern Ireland goal-scoring record. But he left the Town before his teenage years. So he wasn’t dogged by our failure syndrome.
Another thing. How many players from Newry have played in the English Premiership? The answer. Just one. Again it’s Ryan McGivern, who played for about 20 minutes for Manchester City against Sunderland in 2011.
Yet in the town (or city) of Newry there have been tens of thousands of budding footballers. Why then have so few made it to the top?
What about gaelic football? We’re not great in that field either. Ok so the fiercely competitive DJ Kane captained Down to All-Ireland glory and is the proud owner of two Sams. Tony Hadden was also a double All-Ireland winner as was Kevin O’Neill. While Kevin’s brother Sean, one of the greatest gaelic footballers of all time, won Sam three times. The sadly departed John Murphy was another Sam winner. As was Larry Powell.
Brilliant achievements. But the latest of those triumphs came 30 years ago.
In the fifties and sixties Newry Shamrocks and Newry Mitchels between them won the Down Senior Championship five times. While although the Bosco won the Down Intermediate title, they have never won the senior crown. In fact for close to 60 years no Newry team has been the kingpins of the county. And in recent years only a few Newry footballers have worn senior red and black jerseys.
As a town (or city) why are we not breeding champions?
Athletics? Well there’s Willie McCracken. He ran the Dublin Marathon in 2.23 in 1981. So far no one has beaten his time. Although Michael Fox has gone close and in truth in the future he might eclipse the mighty McCracken.
But how does Willie’s time compare to national level? Not great, I’m at pains to say as the current Irish Marathon record in 2.09. And Internationally that’s a huge eight minutes off the best recorded time for the 26.2 miles – as the world record now stands at 2.01.
And take the popular 10k distance. No Newry runner has ducked under the half hour. And in fact no man or woman from our city has broken 31 minutes. Though Newry AC athlete Gary Crummy looks capable of running a 29-minute 10k.
But here’s a wee story to emphasise the gulf in class from Newry athletes to top national runners. In February 2022 Gary Crummy ran a flat 5k in the Armagh International Road Races and did the exceptional time of 14.31 … the fastest 5k ever from a Newry athlete. A brilliant performance. But what was his position in the event? Unbelievably there were 84 quicker runners that evening!
Knowledgeable people might say Eamon McConvey ran under 30 minutes. True but Eamon was born in Belfast and was then running for a Belfast club, Olympic, I think. And I remember Eamon telling me himself when he did that fabulous time he didn’t even make his club team. Three others were quicker. It sure puts things into prospective.
Ok now we’ll go to boxing. The late Danny McAlinden, born and reared in Newry, won the British and Commonwealth title when he defeated Jack Bodell at Villa Park in 1972. Though many people saw this fight as a wrestling match with Dangerous Danny getting the verdict. Again though when he won the title Danny was boxing out of the Edgewick club in Coventry. Incidentally my late brother Pat knew Danny well as he was also living in Coventry and he too boxed for the Edgewick club.
Presently Conor Wallace, who formerly lived on the Armagh Road in our city, is living and boxing in Australia and is making quite a name for himself as one of the top boxers Down Under. But again he had to leave Newry to become an iconic boxer.
In fact the only other Newry boxer to make a name for himself on the big stage was Adrian Patterson who won an Irish Senior title in the nineties and was selected to box in the Commonwealth Games.
Since then, although the late Seamus McCormack tried really hard in his Sacred Heart Boxing Club and the likes of Owen Murphy did too, they failed to see any of their prodigies make it at national level.
Why?
Why?
Why?
Cycling? Always popular in Newry.
Champions?
Well!
Brian Monaghan and his son Barry are probably the best known and the pair did cross the line first in quite a few races. In fact Brian won a stage in a massive race in France and actually held the yellow jersey … while he did well at home too.
Barry wore the green Irish jersey on occasions. While at present Cloughreagh Park’s Gareth O’Neill looks the best bet to make a career at the two-wheeled sport.
But no Newry rider has ever won a single stage in the Ras Tailteann, the nation’s biggest race that has been running since 1953. In hundreds of stages, many have tried but none have succeeded. Seamus McGreevy was once second on a stage as was Dermot Monaghan, the younger brother of Brian. But again no winners.
Why?
Triathlon? It’s a sport I know well, having been involved right from the start in 1983. Newry started brilliantly too and had one of the first triathlon clubs in Great Britain. Plus in those early days we had triathletes, such as Padraig Lynch and Kookie O’Hagan representing Ireland in England and on the continent while Martin Patterson won his way onto the 1990 Auckland Commonwealth Games team.
But in more recent years … not a lot.
Indeed not a single born and bred Newry man or woman has ever qualified for the World Championship in Hawaii. While by contrast there are quite a few from south Armagh, such as Owen Martin, David Griffin, Patrick Muckian, Adrian Garvey and Peter Tomany etc, have qualified to race on the Big Island.
Presently Mattie Kinkaid is our big hope and has picked up quite a few wins. But Mattie’s from Warrenpoint.
Swimming? There have been quite a few fine swimmers in our town, such as Kevin Magill, Gavin Brown, Shea Rafferty etc.
And some have even been called into the Ulster squad. But I don’t think any Newry swimmer has represented Ireland in a major championship.
But you get the picture. Newry are not breeding sporting champions.
Why not?
I’d loved to be proved wrong.
Maybe I’m missing out.
Hopefully I am.
Anyway, I’d be interested in hearing your views.
