By Paul McLoone
In the early 70’s Ballyshannon was engrossed in football fever with Donegal winning it’s first Ulster title and local GAA club St. Josephs serial winners of the County Championship.
Most homes had just acquired their first television sets and with BBC Northern Ireland freely available Match of the Day highlights was the hot topic in local pubs and hostelries.
In 1972 Derby County were the league champions with Leeds United winning the FA Cup, but it was also the year that local football fanatic Michael Donagher decided that a town soccer league needed to be established.
Employment was plentiful in the area and as a result there was huge interest in the League. Ten teams entered with players from Fermanagh, Derry, Tyrone, Sligo and Leitrim featuring, some with League of Ireland and Irish League experience.
The army base at nearby Finner Camp had a soccer pitch on campus at the time which was the venue for all matches in the inaugural league in 1972. Because of the troubles in Northern Ireland at the time Finner was a hive of activity with soldiers from all over the country based there.
As a result the Army entered a team in the League and were hot favourites to win the first title.
However, a couple of young local lads thought they would have a go at this and with many of them living in Benildus Avenue and supporters of Manchester United (the Busby Babes) they came up with the novel name of the Benildus Babes.
The Benildus boys were doing their Leaving Cert that year and acquired a few college mates to make up the team and entered the League which was a 9 a side tournament.
Dessie Coughlan, the team captain says, that he’s not sure if the additional players were college mates or drinking buddies of his brothers.
“It was a motley crew to say the least with the average age around 17 or 18 and considering all other teams were grown men with a lot of football experience we were given little or no chance. Indeed, Bookmaker Andrew Doherty who was a rookie punter at the time rated us as 40/1 rank outsiders. The lads had never played soccer as a team before and training and practice amounted to 4 a side’s in the Handball Alley around the Mall.”
Brendan Gallagher, a young lad who went to school with the boys fancied himself as a sports journalist at the time and amazingly received permission from Jervis King, the then editor of the Donegal Democrat, to write a weekly report on the league but insisted he use another name as an alias.
He decided to go under the name Mannix and lone behold the League received massive coverage and was the talk of the football community at the time.
Dessie was both captain and manager.
“The back line consisted of Louis Boyle on the left and Sean Boyle on the right with myself and brother Noel anchoring the defence. It was a really tight unit with the two Boyles like lightning overlapping down the flanks.
“The centre half partnership worked like a dream, I was the enforcer whilst Noel’s elegance, dominance and poise was a sight to behold. The Drummond brothers, Frankie Sheerin and Martin Doyle never stopped talking about Match of the Day and tactics so we told them to sort out the middle of the park. Midfield generals is how I’d describe them with style, grit, panache and great vision exuberating from all four of them.
“Michael Melly was a big lad who played Gaelic so we stuck him in goals, this proved an inspirational choice as he had a great pair of hands, catlike reflexes and was goalkeeper of the tournament.
“Paul McLoone had played a few games for St Josephs and was just told to go up front and stick the ball in the net. Many a good kicking he got for doing just that as the older lads from the opposition didn’t like getting a lesson from the ‘cubs’ as we were called.”
The Babes sailed through the league and beat all around them proving too fast and nimble for the older opposition and were crowned champions with two points to spare.
Not to be outdone the local GAA club Aodh Ruadh then arranged a 7 a side league and the lads couldn’t resist entering a team. The format suited them perfectly and they won the competition with ease beating the Gardai in the final match to clinch the title.
“The coup de grace that year was when St Joseph’s entered a team in the Harvest Fair Soccer Festival under the name of the MNC,” said Dessi.
“We met them in the final and they kicked us around for the full game but we beat them 3- 0 with McLoone scoring a hat trick, what a gem he turned out to be notching up 25 goals for us that season.”
‘The treble’ says Dessie, ‘we did the treble before it was ever heard off, we should have been called the Class of ‘72. The team ethic was brilliant with pressing, covering back and breaking at pace all in our DNA, long before these buzz terms came into vogue.
“Unfortunately emigration broke up that team but for one year we had some of the best craic of our lives with Mannix making us famous with his ace reporting skills.
“It was real Roy of the Rovers stuff and our story reflects why we love to see the underdog come out on top. It is amazing that 50 years have passed and absolutely marvellous that all of us are still alive and kicking.
“As a reward I brought the boys out for a wintry hike last week to freshen them up, what a laugh that was even if I did nearly freeze the backsides of them!”
