Ollie Lynch has fond memories of Tara club

It is the camaraderie Ollie Lynch remembers most clearly; the laughs, the banter, the trips to places like Birmingham, Coventry and Leeds to play games.

During the 1980s and the early 1990s the Trim man played Gaelic football for Tara GAA club which is based in Greenford, west London; the ground it shares with a rugby club located close to McGovern Park, Ruislip, the home of London GAA.

He also managed the team for a few years and in 1995, under his stewardship, the Tara men reached the Promised Land, winning the London and British championships before succumbing to defeat to Armagh side Mullaghbawn Cuchullain's in the All-Ireland Club SFC quarter-final.

Now just over 25 years later the achievement of that team remains a cherished memory for Lynch, a moment that he looks back on with a fondness that runs deep; something that is shared by others in the club.

"It was a lovely moment for me personally that we did so well that year, there was a huge satisfaction especially involved in managing a team from London that made it to the All-Ireland quarter-finals. It's something I will always remember," he recalled last week when he spoke to the Meath Chronicle.

Like many young people from Ireland in the 1980s Ollie Lynch looked to London to find work in his trade as a carpenter.

A half-forward who knew how to create and take opportunities Lynch became involved with Tara GAA club that had a history going back to the 1930s.

GAA clubs were - and no doubt still are - vital in helping young emigrants get a foothold in a new city like New York and London.

If you were a good footballer or hurler the chances of getting work increased tenfold. There were other benefits too.

"It was huge for young players moving over there. GAA clubs in London found you work, found you accommodation to start you off in a house with other Irish lads who would also be involved in the GAA," recalls Lynch who was more than a capable half-forward.

While he worked in construction sites around the huge city during the week, Lynch could be found in the playing fields of London at the weekends in the green and gold colours of Tara as they went in search, more often than not in vain, for glory.

The fact that Tara wore green and gold back then, and still do so today, may not have been a coincidence as it is understood at least one emigrant from Meath was behind the setting up of the club.

In the early 1990s that connection between Tara and the Royal County was still clearly intact as one of the players to turn out for the Greenford club was Ollie Murphy, the Carnaross and Meath forward who already had a reputation for the way he could ransack a defence in an instant. Paul Shankey and Conor Martin were other Meath players to turn out for Tara briefly.

When Lynch hung up his own football boots he took on the challenge of managing the Tara team. "The chairman of the time, a man from Leitrim, Proinsias Rattigan, asked me if was would be interested in managing the team so I went for it," he recalls. "We struggled for the first couple of years I was manager but then we got a good team together and it took off for us in 1995 when we got a good group of players together."

To say it "took off" is probably an understatement. Tara left the launch-pad like a rocket winning a number of competitions in London including the Tipperary Cup (equivalent to the Feis Cup) and the London SFC championship. They pushed on to claim the British championship too with Donal Reid who had won an All-Ireland with Donegal in 1992 among their number.

"In that '95 team we had three players from Meath Declan Carroll from Seneschalstown, my son Stephen Lynch and Paul Mallon from Navan O'Mahonys. We beat St Mary's in the final after a replay.

"Our first outing in the British Championship was against a team from Leeds, then we beat the Sean McDermotts from Birmingham in the British final in Luton that qualifed us to take on Mullaghbawn in the All-Ireland quarter-final," recalls Lynch whose two other sons Aaron and Daire both now play for Trim.

This was the big time for Tara and while they put up a strong challenge against the Ulster champions on a cold winter's day in December it was not enough. Mullaghbawn Cuchullain's won by five points.

The great adventure for Ollie Lynch and his colleagues was over. A few years later he returned to live in Meath but those memories have clearly never faded.

While he looks back fondly on those days Ollie Lynch knows from people such as great Tara stalwart Sean Faughnan that Tara could do with more players.

"Emigration has died off and any young Irish people are going to south London to work in white collar jobs in the City rather than north or west London, like they used to."

Changing times but those glory days from the past remain as potent as ever for Ollie Lynch.

The Tara players who appear in the photograph above are (from left) back - D Reid, J Harnan, P Rafter, R Harnan, P Diamond, M Hession, S Heir; front - N Hayes, P Mallon, J Divine J Harte J Cusack J,Darcy (captain), C Quinn, S Lynch.

Those who may be planning to move to London in the post pandemic era and are interested in playing football with Tara can contact Sean Faughnan on +447850307058 or Proinsias on +447738573610.