Busgate
…as usual, Stevie (O’Donnell) wasn’t in his seat but was hanging about the place, chatting and generally taking the piss. All good-humoured fun with everyone looking forward to an important game against a good side later on in Dublin.
Then, suddenly, a message carried down from the top of the bus. Someone near the card school heard it and it got relayed to us at the back: ‘Christ — they’re saying the bus driver won’t drive up, and that we have to get off.’
‘You’re f**king kidding!’ exclaimed Muzza (Dan Murray).
But Danny Murphy answered, ‘No Muz, it’s true. Tommy’s the one saying it. They haven’t been paid and are refusing to move until it’s resolved.’
There was a mixture of excitement and bewilderment all around.
‘What the f**k are we gonna do?’ asked Muzza.
As I followed the rest of the lads down towards the front, I passed Joe Gamble who remained seated and was looking up towards the driver. He looked absolutely disgusted but he wasn’t moving. Everyone else was getting off the bus. Tommy (Dunne) had already gotten off and I could see him outside talking on his phone. I felt sorry for Tommy, having to deal with this bizarre situation — especially since the gaffer (Paul Doolin) was already up in Dublin, waiting for us.
Most of the lads exited the bus and were walking about the place, making calls and messing about. I passed the driver on my way out to join them. He didn’t seem too bothered about the whole thing. We all knew he was only following instructions and so nobody bothered to ask him anything. As I looked back, only Gamble (who was holding his head in his hands) and the driver remained on the bus.
‘What are we gonna do, Tommy?’ demanded young Deasy – always asking questions.
Tommy replied without flinching, ‘I’ll tell you what we’re gonna do: get the bus driver in a headlock, drag him into the bushes, and then tie Billy Dennehy [who’s a flier] to the bus so he can run us to Dublin.’
It got the boys laughing, but then Tommy went off to talk to club administrator Eanna, who was making more serious phone calls further away from us. He came back a few minutes later and told us, ‘Eanna called Tom Coughlan and the new club guy Liam…’ but I barely caught what he said next due to shuffling among the lads. Apparently neither Coughlan nor Liam Meaney could talk to Eanna because of some meeting they were in, or something like that. I then properly heard Eanna say something about Coughlan being the only one with access to the money, and ‘…if we leave it until they come out of those meetings we’ll miss our pre-match food in Dublin.’
Stevie turned to me: ‘This is f**king embarrassing. We’re setting a new low. I don’t think I’ve ever heard of any Irish team not being able to travel to a match.’
Myself and Murph suggested driving up.
‘OK, how many cars have we got?’ asked Tommy, and then he called all the lads into a meeting in front of the bus. We duly gathered around him in a circle.
‘OK lads, look,’ he said. ‘We’ll be waiting a few hours at least for Tom or anyone from the club to get this sorted, so…’
Just then Jerry Harris burst in, which was quite uncharacteristic of him, ‘Tommy, this is a downright disgrace.’ Jerry was red-faced and highly agitated. ‘This can’t go on — he can’t treat us like this.’
‘Calm down, Jerry,’ someone said, ‘it’s not Tommy’s fault.’
Jerry nodded and walked away to cool off, and Tommy continued: ‘…so look, some of the lads are saying we might drive up. What do youse think of that?’
Muz answered first, ‘No way Tommy, we shouldn’t drive up. We’ll be driving up every week if we do it now. It’s already happening to the under-20s.’
I hadn’t thought about it that way.
Just at that moment, ‘No-Show’ Joe (Gamble) stepped off the bus and, having overheard the discussion, offered his thoughts: ‘No f**king way should we drive. No f**king way.’
All the boys agreed, including Murph and myself, who both now saw what a foolish idea it was. The boys walked off into different groups, discussing the possible permutations. Myself and Lordy (Cillian Lordan) ended up with Jerry Harris, who was still seething. ‘This is the last straw now,’ he said. ‘There’s no way I could bring up all the gear in my van either — I just couldn’t do it.’
We were stood near the front of the bus and the driver was looking out at us. It looked as if we were stopping him from driving away, when — of course — the opposite was true. At this point I remembered that I had a camera in my college bag, and I went to get it from my seat at the back of the bus. These photos could be worth taking, I thought.
Muzza followed me onto the bus, asking, ‘Do you have the number of that girl [Emer O’Hea] from 96FM? I’ve tried calling RedFM but couldn’t get through; I’m gonna try 96 now. People need to know we’re being treated like this.’
I gave him the number, and discussed with him briefly whether going on the radio was the right thing to do.
‘Well we’ve tried calling Coughlan and the club…’
I agreed: ‘I suppose it might finally show them up a little — let people know what we’re dealing with rather than the spin that’s usually given out to the media.’
Muz got through to 96FM and started chatting live on the radio about the situation. I went back outside to where some of the lads were eating their own food that they’d brought with them. Then a photographer arrived and wasted no time in taking photos of us (thus rendering my own photos worthless). As usual the boys acted up for the cameras.
Photos were taken of us all standing around Dan Connor’s beaten-up Fiesta, and after Dan shouted, ‘How many football players can you get into a Fiesta?’ more shots were taken with a few of the lads sitting in the boot of the car.
‘We could’ve picked a nicer car, for f**k’s sake,’ said Murph, laughing.
Stevie warned: ‘We’re making fools of ourselves here.’
At this point we heard that 96FM had started an appeal to come up with the money for us to pay the bus company. They’d apparently reached €900 within a few minutes and they’d thought that was the price for the trip to Dublin, but we owed the bus company something like €2,500 so they had to raise the target.
Stevie summed it up nicely: ‘We look like we’re begging now.’
Then more news, this time via Muz: ‘OK lads, they’ve got the money. It took them about 15 minutes. We’re off to Dublin again — get everyone on the bus.’
As we piled back onto the bus, Gamble said to me, ‘It says a lot about the people of Cork that they’d give out money for us to get to the game. Fair f**king play.’
As we took our seats and discussed events, one of the lads asked, ‘Did you see ya man with the wad of cash?’
Billy Dennehy explained: ‘Some random guy turned up in the car park with €900 in cash. He was gonna give it to one of the lads until he was told we didn’t need it anymore.’
Later, Muzza said that Coughlan had actually come out of his meeting and paid up the money for the bus company in the end, and that the bus company were going to come onto the radio and say it was all a misunderstanding.
As we were driving towards the tunnel a minibus passed us on our left, slowed down to our speed and beeped its horn. We all turned to see the people on the bus, some waving their hands out of the windows, others with their hands against the windows, all waving what looked like leaflets. I was trying to figure out what the leaflets were, and then I saw… ‘they’re waving €20 and €50 notes, the b*****ds!’
All the boys enjoyed the humour.
‘They must’ve been listening to the radio and then spotted our crest on the bus,’ said Stevie.
They moved past us but then slowed down so that we had to pass them again. Again they waved money at us, and I saw a few of them were drinking bottles of beer and realised they must be Cork City fans going to the game. Just as I was about to tell Stevie, who was standing in the aisle near me, he jumped up on the seat next to the window, turned around and pulled down his pants.
This got a huge reaction from both buses, and Stevie, egged on by the reaction, turned his head, still with his pants down, and gave the other bus a two-fingered salute. Stevie was delighted with himself until Nults (Mark McNulty) told him, ‘That was a f**king fans’ bus, ya idiot.’
Stevie stopped grinning and said, very seriously, ‘You’re f**king kidding.’
He sat down and took some time to take it all in, before laughing and reflecting to the lads, ‘And the worst part of it is that I turned my face and gave them holly too.’
This is an extract from ‘Second City’ by Neal Horgan which depicts Cork City FC’s 2009 season. It was longlisted for eir Sport’s Sports Book of the Year. You can buy ‘Second City’ — and Neal Horgan’s first book, ‘Death of a Football Club?’ — by clicking here.
