I’ve tickets to see Nathan Carter in concert next weekend at the TLT in Drogheda. One of my favourite venues and one of the most wheelchair friendly spots about. Wagon Wheel might have been the track which launched the Sheffield crooner into the bigtime, but, if he doesn’t sing The Homes Of Donegal it’ll be a major disappointment. I have a fondness for and affinity with the land of Tir Chonaill that sometimes is even difficult to summarise from this seat itself.
A land of gentle kindness would probably be my best shot at defining it. A people that, if they were anymore laid back would be prostrate. Yes, Daniel O’Donnell is the most obvious example of same, but, whether it be my departed friend Paddy Gallagher from Ardara, or Seamus, our fish monger from Killybegs or the foreign priest in Father Ted who coined the line ‘Sure I wouldn’t know, I’m from Donegal’.
Which is why you could totally picture Seamus Coleman dryly musing ‘Ach go on, sure we’ll give that there job a go’ when their knight in shining armour was summoned to Everton’s rescue following the latest calamitous turn of events at Goodison Park. Do The Toffees underachieve? How you answer that depends on how view the club. If – and there are plenty who do – you think they will be overshadowed by Liverpool (not just in terms of fundamental results) then you are probably of the view that Premier League survival represents achievement enough.
On the other hand, the line could be taken that they are a fellow top tier team in a big city like Liverpool – just as, for example, Fulham and Crystal Palace and Brentford are to your Tottenhams and Chelseas and Arsenals (in ascending order) in London. They certainly have the fanbase to back up such status. So why shouldn’t they be aiming as such.
Yet, for the vast majority of my lifetime, the blue half of Liverpool have spent their seasons firefighting their way away from the relegation trap door. I’m sure they know at this stage they got the bargain of this or any century when nabbing Seamus Coleman from Sligo Rovers for a mere €60,000. He was and quite possibly still worth at least 20 times that.
During his all too brief a spell in charge of Everton, Frank Lampard specifically singled Seamie out for his leadership qualities after they had pulled off one of their now famous great escapes.
Thus only confirming what us Irish have always known, but it was still great to him accredited as such during this week when he and Leighton Banes stepped into management roles for Thursday night’s FA Cup 3rd Round victory over Darren Ferguson’s decent Peterborough United side.
Regrettably, though, it appears to be a case of one and done in a managerial sense for the former Donegal Minor centre half back with the news that the club’s new owners have gone back dithering David Moyes even though they had somebody of the respect and standing within the club of Seamie (and Banes) and somebody of the proven world class like Jose Mourinho reportedly interested in the job.
But then, the trigger happy chappies at the head of the Toffee production line probably now have the summarily deposed Sean Dyche wondering what he did that was differently wrong compared to all his forerunners who were given considerably longer to try and impliment change than the affable, hoarse ginger.
That said, you’d love to be able to see inside the minds of these people to see what they envision a journeyman jobber like Moyes being able to do that the man before him couldn’t.
From an Irish perspective, though, interest should zone in on hoping that he affords Coleman the respect and status at the club which he absolutely deserves, both as a player and, when he eventually does head for the sideline, in a coaching role.
There should also be keen Irish interest in and hope that Moyes will give Cork lad Jake O’Brien a fairer crack of the whip than Dyche – who signed the full back from Lyon in France – ever did.
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