Just like many Irish lads Liam Gavaghan grew up dreaming of playing for his county.
Except Liam Gavaghan isn’t your average Irish lad. In fact, he’s not even Irish. He’s London born and bred and identifies himself as English, even if his Sligo father Liam senior tells him different.
Many of his friends growing up in Greenford, west London, didn’t understand his love of Gaelic Games. Soccer was their sport and he played a fair bit too, but catch and kick was always for him.
The 26-year-old is in his second year as captain of London’s Gaelic footballers and he’s at the forefront of a new breed of footballers native to the British capital who are representing their county.
I’m a big believer in this; London is their county and they looked to play for their county just like any lad at home in Ireland did. - Ciaran Deely
"I wanted to play for London growing up - I wanted to play senior football," said Gavaghan, who is in his second year as the Exiles’ captain.
"When I was growing up my Dad brought me to Ruislip to watch London play in the Connacht Championship. There’d be big crowds there and I wanted to be part of it. When it got to 14, 15, 16 I picked football over soccer because I preferred it and I was better at it.
"Dad is GAA mad and when I was young we’d watch all the games on the telly - he’s obsessed!
"The mates I grew up with were from a soccer background and some of them went on to play semi-pro. The commitment playing for London is huge and they don't really understand it.
"They’re off booking their summer holidays or going out at the weekend and I can’t do that and then they can’t get their head around the fact that there’s no money. But I love it."
Gavaghan’s commitment is unquestionable. He works as an engineer with London Underground and he’s permanently on night shifts.
He trains with the rest of his team mates in Ruislip in the evening and then heads straight to his job. Then he has to adjust his body clock at weekends to make sure he’s fit and ready for games.
His parents, Margaret from Swinford in Mayo and Liam from Tourlestrane, moved over the water in 1988 with their two boys and a girl. They went over for a year, but never came back for good and went on to have two more children - boy and girl twins, including Liam junior.
They settled in the Burough of Ealing, with its strong Irish population and connections. It’s the home of Tir Chonaill Gaels, the most powerful club in London, and McGovern Park in Ruislip, where the county team train and play home games.
Who would have thought in the snow London Gaelic football team would manage to get access to better facilities to train in than most Irish #GAA teams! The full sized soccer pitch in the indoor Dome in work at QPR FC has certainly come in handy for us this week!👍 pic.twitter.com/TU0x8cKC83
— Ciaran Deely (@CiDeely) March 1, 2018
London now have eight local born players on their panel, most of them regularly starting, and a few more on a development panel that they use to make up for the lack of Under-20 inter-county football.
"Where I went to school there was a strong Irish community and there were plenty of second and third generation Irish," said Gavanghan, speaking to RTÉ Sport. "A lot us were part of Tir Chonaill Gaels so I have a lot of friends from there.
"The club has an English-born team now - they play in the junior leagues in London. The club has a good underage structure, but there were a lot of lads dropping off at 18 because senior football is a big jump up. This is giving them a platform to make the jump from minor to senior."
London are currently enjoying their best League in donkey’s years and they’re currently fourth in the eight-team Division 4 table with three points thanks to a win over Wicklow and a draw with Limerick.
On Saturday they take on table-toppers Laois, unbeaten and virtually untroubled so far, in Ruislip in what will be a real test of how far they have come.
According to manager Ciaran Deely, the former Wexford footballer who is now a sports scientist with Championship soccer club Queen’s Park Rangers, having a native born captain was key to his plans.
He said: "From the beginning, when I came in, we wanted to push the London-born players as soon as possible. And this isn’t something started by me, there was work by the managers that were in the job before like Noel Dunning and Paul Goggins.
"I’m a big believer in this; London is their county and they looked to play for their county just like any lad at home in Ireland did.
"It wasn’t a case of just getting anyone as captain. Liam Gavaghan is probably our most high-profile player, he’s a leader, our scorer-in-chief and the lads all admire and look up to him.
"Our identity is a mixture - we have players from Ireland and from London. And London is a melting pot - we reflect that and that’s our identity.
"I want to see a backbone of London-born players, who will stick around and commit to it. But we also need the lads who are long-term in London and settled as well as the lads who come over for a year or two for college or work.
"There’s fantastic talent in London - the young lads have that swagger of London and they have something different about them."
Neither man, Deely nor Gavaghan, see a day when 15 natives man the London team, though they both share the view that a strong local backbone is vital for football in the city to continue to prosper.
Gavaghan notes: "Go back just three or four years ago and there weren’t near as many London-born players on the team. We have eight competing for places and a few more on the development panel.
"We grew up together, playing against each other, and that makes it much more like a county team at home.
"I was a very proud moment when I was made captain. Ciaran asked me at the end of 2016 to be captain for the 2017 season and it was a huge honour for me.
"I grew up here and I’ve played for London since I was Under-14; it means a lot to me."
Going back to the vexed question of nationality, Gavaghan says he doesn’t support national teams in any sport, including soccer or rugby.
He’s proud of his Irish roots and will always have fond memories of the summers he spent in the west of Ireland. Ultimately though, he’s a Londoner.
"I’m London born and I’m English, but my Dad say I’m Irish!" he laughs.
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