Inside Track: Another run for league-winning Arsenal photo

The accompanying picture has been doing the rounds on social media of late. Not for the first time – nor is it on a maiden voyage on these pages.

When exactly it last appeared here, I don’t know. But this being a week when material for a few pieces came dropping slowly, it’s getting another run.

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It shows a league-winning soccer team by the name of Arsenal. It says under-16 in the caption, but I think it may have been a lower age-group..

Yours truly is stuck in it. Surprised? Well, let me tell you that those of a certain political persuasion won’t be surprised, but shocked, to learn the presentation of trophies took place in Dundalk’s AOH hall.

The team was in the care of Frankie Whitmarsh, who was not only a great supporter of schoolboy soccer, but a pure gentleman. He’s seen to the left with his charges, all of them a picture of innocence.

The final was played in the mecca of schoolboys’ and Junior League football at the time, Joe’s Park, next door to Oriel. I can’t remember who we were playing, but I know we won 2-0.

Our captain, Gerry Coleman, scored the second of the goals near full-time, and as he turned away in delight, he shouted: “It’s all over bar the shouting.” This could have been the inspiration for what Kenneth Wolstenholme came out with a few years later.

Our captain and centre-forward came from a Mulholland Avenue family that had, you could say, divided loyalties.

His brother, Willie, played with Dundalk, Drumcondra and the League of Ireland, and there are many who say he would have made it had he tried his luck in the English League.

Another brother, Ollie, also played soccer, but it was Gaelic football that two other siblings, Seánie and Tony, chose as their sporting outlet.

Seánie won a Louth senior championship medal with Dundalk Gaels in 1952, while Tony gave the Ramparts club outstanding service over a long number of years.

Myself and Kevin Mulligan became involved in the newspaper game when it came time to earn a few quid. While I began at the printing end of things in the Democrat, daily getting covered in ink, the only time Kevin got his hands dirty was when changing the tape on his typewriter at the Argus.

He progressed from reporting to become Editor, playing a huge part in his paper’s revival in the 1980s. I, too, took charge of a red pen of mass correction, but had to journey a much farther route than my colleague to get there. We continue to hammer out a few words each week.

Brian McEneaney was our goalkeeper all those years ago – more than 60 of them – and Des Finnegan was a cultured midfielder, and also had a fine singing voice. John Pepper, from Pearse Park, died all too young.

Also gone to his reward is Dick Delany, who, along with myself and Liam Mundow, won Louth minor championship medals with Gaels in 1962. Dick was from Malachy’s Villas, as were Kevin Johnson and James Flynn.

Christy Guest was from further out the Ardee Road, and Frankie Byrne – like myself, boasting of a solid GAA background – lived in Ballybarrack. John Ralph lived on St Alphonsus Road at the time.

Brendan Callan, like Gerry Coleman, had a good pedigree. His brother, Francie, was a great Oriel Park favourite, spending two spells there. In between, he was with Doncaster Rovers for a short time.

It would have been longer had Francie, as he told this paper a few years ago, not become homesick. Williamson’s Place was where he wanted to be, back playing his football with the Lilies. Great memories.