Tributes paid to Down Rec soccer legend Jim Connolly

Tributes paid to Down Rec soccer legend Jim Connolly

26 May 2021

JIM Connolly died on April 28 after a hard fought two year battle with illness. 

His passing was marked by a phenomenal level of tributes. 

Social media,work colleagues, team-mates and opponents alike expressed how well liked and respected he was in all walks of life.

He was first and last a family man whether it was his brothers and sisters, Angie and his children or his beloved grandchildren.

However Coot, as he was known, had another family which he held dear. He had been a vital cog in the Down Rec team which enjoyed great success in the late Seventies. 

But it was and remains the case that the Down Rec experience is defined by the enduring friendships which have stood the test of time. 

Coot grew up in Stream Street and the reason he knocked back opportunities to perform at levels his talent merited may well lie there. 

That part of Downpatrick had three working class housing developments, Ardpatrick and Russell Park with Stream Street and Ibrox Park in the middle. 

Ibrox was their playground, the place where Coot first kicked a football. 

He was a Stream Street kid and it seems he never wanted to be anything else.

When Jim Prior took him to Down Rec, it was a marriage made in heaven. 

In that dressing room you had another more senior Stream Street kid. Coot would have idolized Tony ‘Dart’ Curran in those days as he was the leader of the pack.

Russell Park resident Barney Fitzsimmons was there too, a swashbuckling  goalscorer who enjoyed something akin to Roy of the Rovers status at the time.

Then you had the late great Paddy ‘Geordy’ Galbraith, who combined a hard man reputation with a heart of gold. 

Peter Mulhall was another player he would have admired, a winner who proved the perfect centre back partner for the laid-back Coot. 

The total respect he had for them was accorded to all of us even though he was a better player than any of us. That was Coot Connolly.

Prior realized that he needed to recruit from outside Downpatrick to fulfill his ambitions for the club and over a period of time he recruited players from Portaferry, Strangford, Ardglass, Dundrum, Crossgar, Saintfield, Killyleagh and Ballygowan. 

They were brought in for their ability but Jim couldn’t have known that the diverse personalities therein would create the perfect storm in the dressing room. 

Neither could he have anticipated the level of support which flowed from those villages in the seasons to come.

Dressing rooms are bastions of banter and slagging and with Dart jester-in chief, the group relished every minute they spent together. 

The five strong Portaferry contingent proved to be a vital ingredient, their earthy Ards humour and the opportunities their accents provided for slagging sealing their popularity.

Jackie Leckey and Barney Ross brought another dimension willing as they were to join in the shenanigans on and off the pitch. Coot loved the craic and happily joined in the banter. 

However, he left the slagging to other less sensitive creatures of which there were plenty. 

A good example was the time I decided to get the footballers perm which was in vogue at the time. I should have known better. 

I got slaughtered, Dart declaring that I looked more like Shirley Temple than Kevin Keegan.

Those were the days, as the saying goes, but happily there were plenty of good days ahead of us. 

We have had many reunions with Coot, an ever present and every one of them underlined the strength of the bond we enjoy so much.

Sadly those reunions tend to be confined to wakes and funerals nowadays and the baby of our team has now joined Shane Breen, Paddy Galbraith and Marty Ross on the sidelines.

Coot would have been the first to remind me that the Rec wasn’t only about the players. 

The one and only Charlie Oakes was highly influential in his role as assistant manager, while Austy Keating doubled as chairman and groundsman for many years. 

Joe Lyttle was our physio and his son Joe (Jun) a loyal player for years while my sister Tina was a committee member and a fanatical fan.

They were all fully paid up members of the Rec family and we continue to mourn their loss.

I would love to have name checked every single member of the Rec family in this piece but time and space didn’t allow. My apologies.

The laughter which rang through Coot’s house during his wake was a fitting farewell for someone who loved to laugh. 

He was a very special human being. We will miss him forever. Rest in peace mate.