London's Chris Farley pictured at the Tailteann Cup launch. Photo by David Fitzgerald/Sportsfile
By Cian O’Connell
Chris Farley went to London to work and a bit of a break from Gaelic Football. That didn’t materialise, though.
Now in his second year with Michael Maher’s panel Farley quickly became accustomed to the way the GAA operates in London. It frequently has that kind of impact because the passion burns so brightly in those keeping the games alive.
“It is my second year in London too and I moved over to London to take a break from football and it is after turning into the opposite,” Farley laughs.
“Once I got the call I said I couldn’t pass up the chance to play county football especially with London because it is so different you’re playing with lads from all over the country and you have the London born lads as well. I’m sure it is the same with New York - there is something different about it.”
The Dromid Pearses clubman opted for a change of scene. “It was after Covid as well you were locked in for so long and I said look I want a bit of busy now because I was living in South Kerry, not much going on you're staring at sheep every day of the week so I wanted to come over and live a bit of the life because there was no restrictions in London at the time and it was level five back home,” he explains.
“So my thought process was to take a break from the football, but I got in with St Kiernan’s over there - that’s the local club - and we had a bit of success and then got a call from Michael Maher to get in with London. Winning when you get a taste of that you don’t really want to stop then.”
A primary school teacher Farley is relishing the hectic schedule between work, life, and football in London.
“I went in blind as regards the club scene because I didn’t know what the standard would be, but I was very surprised at the standard,” he says,
“There is some serious football over there and there are new lads coming in the whole time with people moving over for work and you don’t know who you are going to get each year.
“As far as the county set up I wasn’t sure with the facilities and how that was going to pan out because I know they don’t have their own base.
Dromid Pearses players Padraig Ó Suilleabháin, Graham O’Sullivan, Declan O'Sullivan with his son Ollie, Chris Farley, Dylan O'Donoghue, Aidan Shine O'Sullivan and Dominic O'Sullivan following South Kerry's victory in the 2015 Kerry SFC.
“So they train in Grasshoppers which is a rugby club and unfortunately you are training on a rugby pitch which doesn’t have the same dimensions so you are at a loss there trying to go through certain set ups and you are not really getting the mileage into the legs, but other than that it is a great set up.
“I’d say the plan for the future is to get a base for them and have a training pitch so they can bring the youth up through it as well.”
Farley doesn’t expect to be in London for too much longer, but wants to make an impact for Maher’s outfit in the Tailteann Cup.
“I’m enjoying it so far, but my plan is to be going back in the summer so it is short and sweet and that is what London have to deal with as well because they don’t have a guaranteed spine of a team,” he says.
“That’s me done yeah just the way things went I didn’t know how long I’d be over there at the start. The girlfriend is after applying for a course in Cork so decisions have to be made but we’ll go hell for leather for the Tailteann and hopefully end on a high.”
Farley taught in Moyross in Limerick, but continued to play with Dromid Pearses and South Kerry. Dromid have contributed handsomely to the Kerry GAA story in recent decades.
“Jack (O’Connor) is Dromid, Graham O’Sullivan is on the seniors and it’s a very small club,” he says. “We seem to have these players that come through. In fairness, Declan O’Sullivan was a fella to look to because he’s done it all, and then he managed us then in 2017, 2018 and 2019.
“We had great success, won our local championship which we were trying to do for 16 years and that was massive and got to our provincial final.
“We won the South Kerry championship and I know it’s not held in high regard in other counties, but that was the holy grail for us. We were beaten in the final about four times in the last six years before we won it, so that was one of the reasons I was staying around as well. Lads were looking at me going ‘why are you staying around to win this?’ But like, what it means to the local group.”
That particular mission was accomplished with Dromid Pearses. In the intervening years Farley has delivered for St Kiernan’s and London.
