“It is unbelievable what the Boys Club created in your mind and your thinking,” Mike Corbett says about Our Lady’s Boys Club.
“That is basically how I started up Corrib Rangers up here, to give something back to the locality and the community. That was badly wanted at the time because there was nothing else up here. The respect I got from the parents and the kids was all I ever wanted.”
Corbett occupied a central role in the formation and development of Corrib Rangers decades ago. The lessons learned with Our Lady’s Boys Club counted for a lot. “Myself and John Tierney went to a juvenile committee meeting, we asked them for permission to go in there," he says. "It wasn't easy. Eventually we got in there.
“Mick Killeen told me it would be five years before we got anything, he was right on to the day. It took us five years between losing games, if we drew a game it was an achievement, don't mind win it.
“Our first victory was the Castleconnor Cup U13, then in the same year we won the U10 Colleran Cup. Rangers had loads of success after that, but that was the start of it. They won all the way along the line, any league that was in it or any cup, if it wasn't one year we would win it the next year.
“We had a lot of success. Even at junior winning the Connacht Cup would be the pinnacle for Rangers. The only thing they haven't won is the premier league and they lost out on that on two occasions against Hibs and Athenry.”
Corbett fondly recalls how sport became an integral part of his life growing up in Galway. “My love of football started with Fr Lally's a long, long time ago, I played U14 with them, that is when it started under Pa Boyle, then I went on to play with Boys Club, went all the way through until I was 24 years of age,” he says. “We had numerous successes with the Boys Club. It was very successful underage, we had a great team, as time went by they became junior players.”
Considering the service and opportunities Boys Club provided for so many it remains a real pity that they don’t feature in junior football now. “All of a sudden it just died, the results weren't going our way and unfortunately I was the chairman of the club when it folded,” Corbett says. “It was a sad day for Boys Club.
“We had stalwarts like Johnny Mannion, who was an outstanding person, we had Billy Mannion, other fellas wanted to keep going. It won't come back that is the way it is now.
“It is heartbreaking, I went back to Boys Club around five years ago trying to ressurrect underage football, there wasn't the numbers there to do that.”
Corbett was always eager to assist young players. “I was on the juvenile committee for a number of years with Br Justin, Michael O'Connor, Mick Killeen, Frankie Connell, all of these people were big into the juvenile movement at the time,” Corbett recalls.
His playing days brought plenty of joy too. The memories of matches in the Swamp are still etched in Corbett’s mind. “I could go through the Bohs team, outstanding players - Damien Bradley, Tony Killeen, you loved competing with them,” Corbett says.
“You didn't know where the shot was going to come from. Bohs really were very strong, the likes of Paddy Power, the Carrs - Jimmy, Billy, Tommy, and John - we had Martin Folan at junior level, John O'Connor. I played with Hibs for two seasons, it was incredible the players they had up there.
“You would go to watch these games, that is why the Swamp was full of people, and up in Bohermore when they played up there. People followed the teams because the standard of football was unbelievable. We didn't realise how good it was.”
The passion and stories will always be passed through the generations.
**Listen to the full interview with Mike Corbett on this week's 'Cian on Sport' podcast available on Soundcloud, Spotify, and Apple podcasts.
