THE passing of Jim Connolly is a watershed for a great many people in the County Down area.
Here was a sportsman of immense standing, one of a rare breed who gave joy through his many exploits yet remained humbly rooted to an area which embraced him with the warmth afforded to a favourite son.
Always approachable and amenable, Jim was never happier than being in company and sharing in the stories and experiences of those around him. He had a rare gift for making everyone feel better about themselves and for knowing they always had a friend in him. Facebook notices of his death drew an unprecedented outpouring of tributes and comments from across the region and demonstrated the levels of affection in which Jim was held.
As a footballer he had few peers. His time with Downpatrick Rec was marked with cup and league successes, culminating in lifting the Steel and Sons Cup in front of record attendances at the Crusaders Seaview ground for the first drawn match and the subsequent replay.
Supporters from Downpatrick travelled in their thousands, marking the event one of the most widely celebrated sporting achievements of that era. The gate receipts were the highest ever recorded for the annual showpiece of amateur soccer in Northern Ireland, so much so that for the first time the income exceeded the VAT threshold, which meant tax had to be paid.
On the day the Rec won that Steel Cup replay, Distillery tried to sign Jim as he left the pitch. He turned them down with a typically firm but gentlemanly refusal and stayed with the Rec for another four years, helping them to add to their cabinet of silverware.
Jim ‘Coot’ Connolly was a player of exceptional talent. A classy and cultured defender, he is remembered for his unique ability to rise above other players, most of whom had a distinct height advantage, but lacked Jim’s trademark for timing his runs and hanging in the air for longer than ought to have been humanly possible. Many a spectator were left speechless after matches, shaking their heads in puzzlement at his exploits. Yes, he was that good.
Tony ‘Dart’ Curran, who was the Downpatrick Rec goalkeeper, said it was “sometimes scary” playing behind Jim. “When I walked with Coot or talked with him or more often had a beer with him, I felt I was in the presence of greatness.
So much so that everyone wanted a part of that, and his wife Angie and family had to learn to share Coot because he just made you feel good about yourself. For that we as a community are eternally grateful to them. His footballing ability was absolutely extraordinary. I played behind him and said to him on a few occasions ‘Coot you scare me. The things you do defy the laws of physics and gravity’. He would jump for a ball start to come down and without touching the ground go up again. I swear it.”
Tony added: “The world is a sadder place for his leaving but somewhere up there he’ll be playing with the guys that have gone before him and maybe BF (Brian Francis Smith, one of the founders of the Bar League) will be managing. I hope they will keep me a place on their team.”
Former Rec manager Jim Prior was devastated to learn of Jim’s death. “Like all his former teammates I am cut to ribbons that Jim is no longer with us. As a footballer, he was simply out of this world. The other players on our most successful team were in awe of Jim and all loved him. He had star quality written all over him.
He could do things that others couldn’t do, whether that was on the training ground or in the toughest of matches. I can’t remember him putting in less than a five-star performance.”
The Rec’s former club secretary, Patricia Murray (née Bell) remembers Jim as the baby of the Steel Cup team. “My deepest and heartfelt sympathies to Angela and all his family and friends. His laugh, smile and craic will be truly missed,” Patricia said.
Jim Connolly’s impact with Downpatrick was repeated at his next clubs, Ards and Killyleagh YC, where he suffered a career ending injury. He had been with the club for just two seasons but left an indelible mark. One of Killyleagh’s stalwart players, Philip Jennings, posted his own tribute. “Great memories of watching Jim for the great Down Rec team and playing with him at Ards and Killyleagh. A real legend in local football, but even more than that, just an absolute gentleman.”
Despite his injury, Jim returned to football several years later to turn out for the Downshire Hospital, with whom he won an all-Ireland medal winner in 1988 under the management of Brian Cheetham.
But the question always remained about what could have become of this precocious talent had he been able to stick with one of English football’s premier clubs.
His trials there were cut short by homesickness, more particularly an abiding love for his recently widowed mother. Downpatrick was his anchor. Family, friends, and the Stream Street precinct of his youth were too deeply ingrained for the young Connolly to ever contemplate leaving them behind. It was never a regret for Jim. Indeed, if anything, the choice to stay reinforced his passion and love for the area. He perhaps never knew how deeply those feelings of connection were returned by those who had the good fortune to know him.
Jim’s trials were at Nottingham Forest, Newcastle, and Everton, all three organised by local scout Bill Oakes. Everton came closest to getting his signature after pursuing him back to Downpatrick, although it was later learned that Newcastle too badly wanted to bring him on board.
Local sports writer Charlie McStay recalled being contacted in later years by one of the Newcastle coaches who was enquiring about what had happened to Jim. “Newcastle knew they had a gem on their hands, but he slipped through the net.
All the coaches rated him at the highest level and believed he would have gone on to become a true star of English football,” said Charlie.
What a journey that would have been. All the way from Dunleath City and Santos in the Downpatrick Youth League to the pinnacle of professional soccer.
Although soccer was Jim’s first love, he was an accomplished boxer and in his early days was trained by Owen Kerr, a respected coach who was a friend of world heavyweight champion, Floyd Patterson. Coincidentally, Owen was uncle to Cathal Kerr, who married Jim’s sister Bronagh. Small world!
Jim also played juvenile and senior football for the Downpatrick Russell Gaelic Union, which this week remembered him as “more than just a great footballer.”
An online RGU statement said: “He was one of the nicest guys you could ever meet. A true gentleman with an infectious laugh, he will be sadly missed by all who knew him.”
Away from sport, Jim trained as a mechanic and later became a minibus driver at Knockevin School and the local hospitals. He then joined Ulsterbus as a driver at the Downpatrick depot and rounded off his career as a groundsman at the Delamont estate. Always active, always
busy; that was the Jim Connolly way.
Throughout his life, Jim’s singular passion was his family and friends. He was devoted to his wife Angela — the couple were together from their teenage days and were rarely seen apart — and to his children, Aurla, Blaine and Clare. Nothing brought him greater happiness also than the birth of his grandchildren, Ruby, Darcy, Fianna, Fiachra, Grace and Eve. He is also survived by brothers Pat and Martin, sisters Ann, Marie, Bronagh, and Eilish, by his father-in-law Paddy Teggart, and by sons-in-law Feargal and Jude and his daughter-in-law Megan.
Theirs is not a private grief. It is shared by countless hundreds who remember the boy and man who gave so much pleasure and for whom there is always a place in their hearts.
Joe McCoubrey