John (Johnny) Kelly

Longford Town, born in St Brigid’s Terrace, studied in St Michaels, after which at the age of 13 he went to work as was very common back in the day. He worked for two years as a messenger boy for Harneys Jewellers. Johnny was a keen footballer and a good one at that, he was on the books for Cyrstal Palace. When he came back from England he had played amongst many teams locally and nationally, Longford Town FC and for Sligo. He went to work in London for Warnerpark/Northwich Hospital London. They had their own football team and here is a direct quote from the Longford Leader back in the day ‘’ Local footballer shines …Johnny Kelly, who recently went to work in England, had an outstanding game for the staff team where he is employed. scoring four goals. As a result he may soon have the chance to play a trial match with Crystal Palace. Best of luck Johnny.’’

Talking to Johnny he explained the way things were back then, you basically had nothing to do only play football for me. Radio was even scarce back then let alone all the technologies you have today. Playing football was also great for socialising, I had trials for 5/6 different teams. Played in a big grudge match, in the greyhound stadium, that is still talked about today. Shamrocks v St Helens. It was the Lucious Farrell knockout cup competition, only the teams that were in the Leader Works League could have entered. The big match itself thanks to Kevin (Bunty) Dempsey who also filled me in on how it faired out. They had a professional ref from the Roscommon League come over from Boyle, my own namesake and late Grandfather Michael Croghan, to ref. Kevin said it was unheard of to have such a ref at u15s match. What was also unusual was that both teams had lost both their first team goalkeepers. Johnny’s team was the Shamrocks, the match itself after 15/20mins, St Helens had gone ahead early. St Helens team they were a mixed team of best players in town, including a feuding family members who despite the agro got together to try to beat the bitter rivals. The Ref had to stop the game for a short time due to torrential rain, but the game went on after ten mins. Johnny was a very good player by all accounts and he was very adept at what would be illegal now, a sliding tackle amongst many other things. Jimmy Bucky Dowd scored a hat trick for Shamrocks and Johnny Kelly got the 4th to seal the win at 4 -1. They all went down to The American Bar afterwards, in town, the back of Harneys Jewelers today, for soft drinks and banter.