COLM Cooper insists he’s in no rush to invite any more Dubs into the Kerry ranks after a civil war soldier was finally granted a medal – more than 100 years after secretly winning one for the Kingdom.
Jimmy Bermingham was sent by Michael Collins to root out the IRA in Kerry over 100 years ago but ended up playing a major part in winning a Munster senior football crown in 1923.
8
8
8
Historians believe the Dub – who later played for Bohemians and Ireland – is the only person from outside of the Kingdom to ever win a medal for Kerry’s footballers.
His GAA exploits lay largely unknown until he told his disbelieving grandkids in the 1970s that he played for the arch enemy, and their decades-long search for recognition ended in the Dr Crokes, Killarney club this weekend where Jimmy was officially welcomed into the fray.
Gooch, 41, told the Irish Sun: “It’s such a strange and unusual story but a brilliant one at the same time. It’s just incredible, an unbelievable story even themselves didn’t believe it he said ‘I played for Kerry’ and they’re all ‘yeah is he still with it or what’s going on?’
“I can see the joy the family have so it’s fabulous to see it and be part of it and everyone in Crokes is delighted to understand the story and the history of it all, a deeper understanding of what it means.
“It’s nice to be able to tell it and see those links between the history of Kerry, soccer and Bohs.”
The eight-times All-Star and five times All-Ireland winner knows he was blessed to play for a county regularly pushing for titles, and has no problem when other players move to other counties.
But he’s in no rush to welcome any more Dubs, or see anyone go the opposite direction either – particularly his own young lads!
He laughs: “I couldn’t fathom not playing for Crokes or for Kerry when I was playing. It’s ingrained in us, I enjoyed that and will be trying to put that in my two boys, don’t be getting any ideas about going to play for Dublin, they’ll be going to Dublin but they won’t be playing for them!”
He added: “I’m a traditionalist. I like the local, growing up in Kerry, playing for club and county that’s one of the great things about the GAA, we have that pureness of just playing with your club from 5 or 6 to 36 of 46 in some cases, it forms part of your identity in life and that’s what I’ve loved in Kerry.
“Even when we travel, when we go to Dublin or talk to people in work I think your identity is where you’re from and who you play with. I enjoy that about the GAA. Being a traditionalist I like the playing where you’re from.
“If players have an ambition to play inter county and for whatever reasons it’s not working for them in their own county I don’t have a problem with that. Sometimes work and geography dictates that. I don’t have an issue, my preference is play for your own county and that’s what I enjoy.”
Last year the Irish Sun told how Jimmy, a Free State soldier from Dublin’s south inner city, quietly stepped into the ranks of a Kingdom side depleted by internment.
In October 1923, he starred as Kerry edged out Tipperary in Tralee, but kept it largely to himself for another 50 years when a new Dublin/Kerry rivalry began to bloom.
FAMILY DISBELIEF
Grandson Paul Bermingham, 67, who was in Killarney with brothers Terry and Mossy and sister Elizabeth, told the Irish Sun: “He’d been telling us stories the odd time and you’d be sitting there going ‘this couldn’t be true’.
“He’d say ‘We landed in Fenit in a cattle boat’ and we’re going where’s Fenit, what’s he on about? Or ‘We were shot at”, we’re going ‘yeah ok granddad’. Then he’d talk about soccer.”
After the war Jimmy won the lot with Bohs and played for his country against England in Belfast in 1930.
IRISH SUN APPEAL
An Irish Sun appeal in November 2023, after decades of work by his family, saw them granted a medal shortly after, when the case was taken up by Crokes legend Eamonn Fitzgerald who went to Donneycarney and met the siblings and their mother Bernadette.
He told us: “I was surprised when I first read the story but I was researching the war in Kerry and my uncle was very involved. I had some background information and knew the Dublin Guard came into Fenit harbour on August 2, 1922. 450 men sent down by Collins to wipe out the IRA in Kerry.
8
8
“Once I got the team and the Munster Council came on board it was straightforward.
“I was very struck when I saw his army records – he was 10 stone 2, and I knew Gooch was 10 stone. Red head, corner forwards, number 13, I said ‘jaysus’. When I got a grainy photo of the team showed it to Bernadette she said ‘that’s him’. He was like a jockey with big strong fellas around him.”
MEDAL JOY
Bernadette died a few months after helping to solve the riddle, but lived long enough to hear Jimmy would get his medal.
Mossy, 60, said: “100 years on it’s an amazing feeling. We have so much to thank. People who just kept us going. It was so emotional for all of us to be here and people in Dr Crokes have embraced it. I didn’t expect it.
“Everyone is so amazed, my God what a story. They’re very proud to say an international soccer player played for Crokes.
“My mam would have been belle of the ball last night. She would have been 90 on Thursday and she would have loved it. She pointed him out in the photograph. That was it. Complete.”
He added: “Jimmy was a stranger that day in 1923. He’s not a stranger anymore.”
8
8
