Galway United's old boys make island trip to honour their friend
Honouring the two places in life he loved the most
George Guest probably had two places in life that he felt most at home; Terryland Park and the Aran Islands. The former was where he devoted so much of his life to his beloved Galway United – and the latter was where his mother Lily was born and where he went back to, all of his life.
So it was fitting that so many of his old Galway United friends made a special trip to Inis Móir last weekend - in tribute to George and to meet up with two of his daughters, who follow in his footsteps by spending as much time as life allows them on the island so dear to their dad.
The Galway United contingent – Gerry Daly, John and Tony Mannion, Jimmy Nolan, Johnny Glynn, Derek Rodgers, Stephen Lally, Terry O'Regan, Gordon Brett, Gerry Fallon, Joe Keating and Mike O'Toole – were joined by three old pals from their League of Ireland days for this special occasion.
Former Ireland international and Shamrock Rovers player and manager Pat Byrne and the O'Neill goalkeeping brothers – Alan of Shamrock Rovers and Dermot of Bohs – were on their first ever trip to the Aran Islands. But definitely not their last.
After a game of walking football - where the pace might have been slower, but the intensity undiminished – George's daughter Jillian and Louise came along for a special presentation from the old pros.
They have a social group called the First Friday Club which meets on the first Friday of every month for a bit of lunch and a catch-up - and despite his illness, George made one final outing to join them, not long before he died on January 1 this year.
The presentation to his daughters was a framed photograph of George and all of his old charges – a photo that Jillian and Louise said will now forever hang by the hearth in their Aran home-from-home.
The visit was the latest chapter in a connection between the islands and Galway United - nurtured by George himself who famously brought the FAI Cup to Inis Móir after Johnny Glynn's goal gave the club their biggest day in 1981, when George was an integral part of Joey Malone's backroom staff.
The players too travelled, at George's behest, to play a friendly on the island's pitch, so this was also a return journey for many of them, as they also remembered the great Ollie Horgan on the first anniversary of his death.
"George was such a big part of Galway United and such a huge part of all of our history there," said Gerry Daly, one of the prime motivators behind the trip.
"We all knew how much he loved Aran; how much he loved being here when time allowed – how he always felt at home on Inis Móir - and that's why it's lovely to remember him in a special way in the place he held so dear," he added.