Streets of New York: Breslin remembers Exiles' first Championship game 25 years ago

It’ll be 30 years this summer from when Donal Breslin opted to find greener pastures across the Atlantic in the city of New York, but in all that time, the Big Apple hasn’t taken a lick off the strong drawl associated with his native Donegal and the GAA.  

This Sunday, New York will travel to O’Moore Park in Laois for the preliminary quarter-finals of the Tailteann Cup, 25 years ago this week from when New York made their first travel home to take on Mayo in their first-ever championship game in Castlebar.  

New York’s relationship has been a complicated one with the GAA mainland. Since entering the All-Ireland series in 1999, for the first three years of the arrangement, New York travelled back to Ireland for their games in Connacht, but they fell to heavy defeats to Mayo, Galway, and Roscommon.  

They have still yet to record a win on Irish shores, and it took them until April 2023 for the Exiles to record their first championship win (in their 23rd time of asking) following a penalty shootout win over Leitrim, in a night that has been dubbed by the GAA as ‘The Bronx Tale’.  

Breslin, a native of Gaoth Dobhair, experienced five seasons with the New York team and was unfortunate never to be on the winning side.   

He doesn’t visit Gaelic Park as much as he used to, citing the long commute from Staten Island and the serious decline in the Irish people he once knew and played with in the ‘Park.  

When it was put to him to recall his championship experience in Mayo, 25 years on, he almost had to take a few moments to see if the date was correct.  

“I remember it well, was that in 1999?” he asked.  

“Yeah, we had a really good New York team at that time. We played Mayo in Ireland that season. We went back 10 days beforehand and ended up in Cork where we played two games. Unfortunately, I ended up getting hurt in our first game and our centre-back Owen Cummins from Tipperary got hurt in our second friendly against Corofin.  

"We had a lot of injuries before the Mayo championship game which was a big loss. I wasn’t able to play, Owen Cummins wasn’t able to play, and Sean Teague, who went on to captain Tyrone and was probably the heart of the team, was also unable to play, so we knew it was going to be hard.”  

Now a retired carpenter, Breslin’s talents were far from any Ordinary Joe. There was always a hint of what he could’ve made of himself if he had stayed in Donegal.  

He captained the county minor team in 1988, and the U-21 side three years later, before being drafted into the Donegal senior training panel under then-manager Brian McEniff. He would remain there for three seasons before eventually making his way across the Atlantic where he would set up his new life.  

“I moved here in 1994 with my wife, we settled in Staten Island where my family all eventually moved to. We ended up staying here, and at the time when I was younger and still playing you couldn’t stop me from travelling over to the Bronx to play or watch a game in Gaelic Park at the weekend,” Breslin said.  

“It was a long commute up to the Bronx that time, but you did it because you wanted to play a bit of GAA, but I don’t get up there much anymore unfortunately.  

“I was in and out of the Donegal panel under Brian McEniff around that time, I remember after Brian left the job, there was a changing of the guard and PJ McGowan came in, but I had my mind made up then that I would go out to New York to work for a few months because work in Donegal at the time wasn’t great, and it just so happened I never went back.  

“The senior panels were small back then, not like they are now where there are over 40 players involved, so I was always in the training panel under Brian. I would’ve come up through the ranks with the likes of Tony Boyle, Jim McGuinness, and Mark Crossan.  

"I captain the county minor team and U-21 team, and then I got a bad back which put me out for seven months, but I would’ve been training with the seniors right up until the All-Ireland final in 1992 when I was 24.”  

Taking up life in New York, Breslin deemed himself to be in the right place at the right time. He would finish work in Staten Island before making the hour-and-a-half commute to play for Donegal/New York. And it was around this time that the then New York GAA president Marty Maloney pushed for the Exiles' inclusion in the All-Ireland and Connacht championships.

From a Donegal point, he was not alone on that panel in 1999, he was joined by the likes of Eunan Doherty from St Michael's, Gerry Kelly from Red Hugh's, Gary Dowd from Pettigo, and Stephen Cassidy from Gaoth Dobhair.

“We started training in January in –10 degrees for the 1999 season,” Breslin said. “There was little professionalism involved, but we did train hard, we just weren’t getting the practice through games to see where we were at.”  

After a couple of hard months were put down, the numbers were trimmed to 22, with four reserves to travel for the Connacht quarter-final clash in Castlebar.  

“I can just recall going back to Ireland, and all we did was eat and train. We did it the right way, but at the same time, we probably didn’t do it the right way if you know what I mean,” Breslin said.  

“We probably got a bit sloppy in terms of preparation, and also, as you know, we didn’t get to play anyone in good competitions. We played the Irish army twice in New York before we flew out and we played two friendlies in Cork against Clare and Corofin.  

“I picked up a bad injury in the second game which ruled me out, which was annoying as I was down to play at half-back. I think the team needed to be reshuffled and Stephen Cassidy from my club in Donegal came in to start in the forward line and scored a point that day against Mayo.  

“That was a top Mayo side and I remember us getting rattled early on, now we recovered well but we didn’t have our full squad out on the field. I was playing the best football I had ever played that year, and I ended up sitting on the bench.”  

The New York dream quickly died in Castlebar, with goals from David Nestor and Colm McManamon in the opening 15 minutes effectively killing the tie with the match finishing 3-15 to 0-10 points.  

“That game against Mayo had much media attention at the time because it was New York’s first championship match, but also, New York football at the time was noted for having unbelievable footballers out there. The competition was unreal, it was like ‘Any Given Sunday’, it was all county players out here,” Breslin said.  

“I remember after that Mayo game I went back to the team hotel in Westport, and that hotel didn’t know what hit it. People hadn’t been home in Ireland for years, so their families were down here, and it was just one big party that night.  

“I don’t think we had any issues getting in or out of the country. Remember, this was pre-9/11, so I think the GAA had someone in Shannon Airport to make sure it all ran smoothly, but that was another issue, a lot of good players didn’t want to take the chance and come back to Ireland in case they never came back to New York due to legal issues.  

A one-sided affair in Castlebar that day? Perhaps! But writing in the Irish Independent, Eugene McGee was suitably impressed with New York’s efforts: “I reckon that they would have beaten half a dozen of the county teams taking part in this year’s championship and possibly more. So, their right to compete in the championship, based on ability, should not be in question.”  

Breslin would travel back and play in Ireland for two more years with New York before injury prevented him from going on, with the Donegal man calling it a day for the New York side in 2003 at the age of 33.  

“We knew we weren’t going to go home and beat Mayo that day, but there was always hope that it could happen. I think the New York team that won last season against Leitrim, there were far better New York teams in the past, but the team last year just eventually hit the correct form on the night, we never got such luck.”  

Last year, New York finally got that monkey off their back, it’s now a case of can they hit bonus territory and get that win on Irish soil?