Apple never falls far from tree

GAELIC GAMES: IAN O'RIORDANmeets the Burkes, the Kilmacud Crokes father-and-son duo who share both a name and an enduring hunger for winning club titles

AROUND KILMACUD Crokes one is known as Pat’s father, and the other as Pat’s son. They’re of similar height, build, and appear similarly motivated. Even with the history of close ties that bind one club and one family this father and son seem largely inseparable. Not just in looks. They could probably pass for brothers, if they wanted to. Cut from the same cloth.

And someone should have warned me. Interviewing a father and son can get a little confusing. Especially if they’ve the same name, the same personality, and are still living under the same roof.

After they pose for a photograph in the club dressing room they’re asked which of them is Pat Burke, and we all laugh. In the end, when it appears there is at least one thing which sets them apart, I ask Pat Burke if he has any regrets his son didn’t make the big breakthrough.

“You mean with the Dublin footballers?” he asks.

Actually no, I meant with soccer – but his comeback is something of a giveaway: you can take the boys out of the country, but you can’t take the country out of the boys. Pat Burke was born to play Gaelic football, and it turned out his son was too.

It also happened to be with the same Dublin club, where they both won All-Irelands, just 14 years apart, and if soccer hadn’t once been his son’s preference then one might easily have been mistaken for the other – on the same playing field.

They’re sitting in front of me now, in the Kilmacud bar, a few days before the All-Ireland semi-final showdown with Crossmaglen, and it’s hard to know who seems the more anxious about the big game; the father, or the son. This place has become their home from home – although not the bar, it should be noted, as they’re both non-drinkers.

Pat Burke was born in Clare, and for many years played his football with Kilmurry-Ibrickane. In the early 1980s he began commuting to Dublin, working with the old Telecom Éireann, then got himself a flat in Blackrock. His wife, Siobhan McInerney, is also a Clare native but they’d reached a junction in their lives, and football signposted the way.

“I was still travelling up and down to Clare for club football,” he says, “but around the end of 1986 decided to make the move to Dublin full-time. It was really about being able to work and still play club football at a competitive level, without adding in eight hours travel. I was familiar with Kilmacud Crokes from the All-Ireland Sevens, but it was Myles Clancy who really convinced me to join.

“He also had a strong Clare background, just a huge GAA man, and had been with Kilmacud himself since the 1960s. So while I was thinking about it, Myles really persuaded me Kilmacud was the right place.

“I know some people would have thought I’d made the wrong choice. Certainly in those years, Thomas Davis were very strong, would win three Dublin titles in a row. Parnells had just won two in a row as well. At that time also Civil Service had a tradition of players from the country. Kilmacud had never won a senior championship, and had only gone senior from 1977.

“So it wasn’t chasing medals or anything like that. But even then it was a very good set up. You only had to come here, even at that time, to see the way fellas went about training, the work ethic. Pat Duggan, whose son is on the team now, was the manager, and fellas went about their football the way I liked it.

“Straightaway it was a club I wanted to be involved with. Now it took another five years before we actually won anything. We just lacked that bit of winning mentality. But definitely the big breakthrough was winning the county championship, in 1992. I suppose that was as high as any of us had really dreamt. The likes of myself, Mick Leahy, Mick Dillon had been there a long time.”

So where was his son born? Clare or Dublin? “Actually I was born in Limerick,” says Pat Burke, his son. “My mother being from Lahinch we were down there for the summer, and Limerick was the nearest hospital. But I only ever lived in Clare for a couple of months, during the summer. Growing up, though, I remember going to a lot of training sessions here with dad. Tommy Lyons was their manager, and I remember the dark, wintry nights, with dad running around the pitch, and Tommy barking at them. I saw how hard they trained and the effort they put in, and in many ways they were my heroes growing up.”

But Pat’s son had other heroes too, in soccer. He started secondary school in St Mac Dara’s in Templeogue (where he now teaches) and one teacher, Sean Ryan, first opened the avenues to soccer.

“Dad was actually a good soccer player as well,” he says. “But I think the attraction for me was playing a game every weekend. With Gaelic you weren’t guaranteed a match every weekend. Sometimes it was hurling. And matches were called off pretty regularly. With soccer I was playing every week, and I was getting good opportunities out of it, with Dublin league teams, and then clubs over in England. When you’re 13 and getting those sorts of opportunities it’s hard not to look in that direction.”

And what did the father think of this? Only later does he confess to being a big Manchester United fan (“before it was trendy“) but it can’t have been easy to watch his only son prefer soccer over Gaelic. “To be fair, he was playing Gaelic and soccer and all that kind of stuff in school. People here in Kilmacud couldn’t understand why he wasn’t playing Gaelic, but my belief was that whatever sport you’re into, you have a cut at it. And you encourage that.

“Now I do like soccer. But I’d be a liar if I said I wasn’t surprised when he said he wanted to play soccer rather than Gaelic. My preference would have been Gaelic, but we viewed all sport as important, that you go for what you want, rather than be lead by your father. And I think sometimes at that age you’re better off being away from your father, in terms of coaching. We depend hugely on parents for our underage teams, I know, but sometimes there are advantages to keeping parents away, at that age anyway.”

Around this time, just as the son began focusing on soccer, the father was winning an All-Ireland club title with Kilmacud, in March 1995. Pat Burke started at wing back. He was 33 years old and was in his 16th year playing senior football. After that there were a couple of inquires about playing for Dublin (“before they realised I was a culchie“) but he was content with the club, winning another Dublin title in 1998.

“I was going on 37 at that stage,” he says. “I’ve been involved with coaching and management since, but there’s no substitute for playing. I keep saying that to him. I also spent an awful lot of time playing and not winning. I would have continued playing, but I had a hip replacement just a few months ago, and that’s from playing on as long as I did.”

Pat Burke watched from the Hogan Stand as his father won that All-Ireland club title, and even at 12 years of age knew the significance of it. But soccer had become his game — and his dedication and work ethic was already being noticed.

“Player soccer was a great experience,” he says. “I got to travel to England a few times, and played alongside lads who have made it. I played on a Milk Cup team with Kieran Richardson, Anton Ferdinand. I trained with Joe Cole, met Niall Quinn, Ian Wright. I had a few trials at West Ham, and also Nottingham Forest, Leeds, and Sunderland. But I know I was very raw, and wasn’t particularly skilful, or talented. Not at the skill level you see over there. I just tried to work as hard as possible.”

Although he didn’t sign with an English club, he was rewarded with a scholarship at UCD, playing in the League of Ireland. Then a serious ankle injury took him out of the game for a year. After that he signed with Kilkenny City, played half a season, and called it quits. He played his last match at the end of June 2005, and hasn’t played a soccer match since.

“I wasn’t really enjoying it anymore. Players were constantly coming and going, managers too. And there is a different mentality about a soccer club. With the Gaelic club it’s nearly always the same players every year. With soccer everyone is kind of looking out for themselves, and wanting to progress their own career. I really noticed the difference when I came to Kilmacud, where it really is all about the club.”

Pat Burke was manager of the Kilmacud senior thirds. “I think they were short of players for a match,” his son says. “It was a little daunting at the time. I ended up playing with Ray Cosgrave, Johnny Magee, and Paul Griffin, who were with Dublin. It was a rapid learning curve, and things happened so quickly.

“But I would have known a lot of the lads from going to matches with my dad, and being around the club a lot. So in that sense the transition was pretty easy. And people like Ray and Johnny had played with my dad, so I suppose they looked out for me in a way.”

“Can I say, that was a particularly well-run thirds team,” Pat Burke says. “And we weren’t short of players. We were short of subs. So he came on as a sub first. That was the middle of July. A week-and-a-half later he was on the seconds. And by October he’d won a senior championship. So he wins a senior championship after four months. I was playing 14 years before I won mine.”

So they never played together? “Not unless you include a five-aside tournament on holiday one time. Which we won, by the way. But there’s 21 years between us, and six years between me finishing senior and him starting senior.”

Then, in 2009, like father, like son, Pat Burke won the All-Ireland with Kilmacud Crokes, playing corner forward. There aren’t too many fathers and sons who can boast that: “There have been a few,” says the father. “The Morgans, in Nemo Rangers. Pat Duggan won an All-Ireland with UCD, and his son Pat won here in 2009 as well, as a sub. So it’s not that unique. But it was definitely the most satisfying day of my football career. All the family were up from Clare, his grandparents, uncles, aunts.”

Like his father, Pat Burke was noticed by the Dublin selectors, in 2005. He’s been in and out of the panel since, making several championship appearances, and even at age 27 hasn’t given up on it yet.

“I haven’t played an awful lot of football with Dublin. I was dropped again the year we won the All-Ireland, and Pat Gilroy brought me back in after that. I just feel if you’re playing well with Kilmacud then the Dublin thing looks after yourself. But every club player in Dublin wants to play for Dublin, and that’s my ambition too.”

These days it can’t be easy for the father to watch the son playing football, whether with the club or county.

“Do you mean, do I have a cut at him? I offer my opinion. Let’s leave at that.”

“It’s constructive”, his son says. “It’s great having another pair of eyes. He picks out certain aspects of my play that I need to work on. He knows his stuff.”

And what does the father see in the son? “We’ve the same bandy-legged run anyway. But it’s hard to be objective. We have a similar attitude too, in terms of commitment. But he’s more skilful than he lets on.

“Sometimes it’s more about knowing what you can do, and doing that all the time. You can show off the skills you have, or do the simple things right. But father’s can be the worst people to talk about their own son. Because you can be over-critical. Or else you can think they’re great.”

They look at each other, and I wonder is there any father who doesn’t think that about their son.