In February 1986 Castlemartyr GAA set out on a Tour to London. The trip was organised mainly by Christy O Sullivan and Bernard Lawton to celebrate our East Cork win of 1985. This is my attempt to document the trip and show some photos which were previously unseen as I only found them myself a few weeks ago when I was looking for some material for the history project.I was delighted to see how the passing years have not aged some of the people involved. I am open to correction on any thing I write here, as the passing of time plus a fuzzy recollection of some events, mean I think this is what happened. Also I will try not to slander anyone but if I do don't sue me:- I'm broke!

We set out on Friday evening from Cliffords pub having gathered that morning which ensured a good atmosphere on the Bus. We travelled with Slattery's coaches which were quite popular at the time as a cheap way of getting to London, but were a slow and tiring way of travelling, as you could say goodbye to a nights sleep while you travelled. Ah! but we were young and tough at the time and could only see a bit of crack for the weekend. The group photo at the bottom of the page was taken on the steps just down from Cliffords before we left and I can guarantee you we were never as fresh and clean looking again for the weekend after that. Official Castlemartyr GAA Club jumpers had just been purchased and it was with pride that we posed for the camera that day.

As we left the pub to much shouting and cheering I will never forget the look on the 20 or so people who were already on the bus bound for London. They had got on previously at other stops and did not expect to be sharing with our rowdy gang the whole way to London.It was to be an experience for them that they would remember all their lives. I think we started a sing song before we had got to Killeagh and the atmosphere was brilliant. First stop for the bus was Waterford city where the driver took a break for an hour or more and guess what? We went to a pub. It was a pattern to be repeated many times over the weekend - When in doubt go to the pub!.

The Ferry crossing was an enjoyable affair with much singing and laughter though when the ferry docked during the night and we faced a 5 hour bus trip to London at 4a.m.in the morning we then realised why people paid extra money to fly. 

Saturday was given discovering the delights of London and the number of galleries, museums, and places of cultural interest that were visited could not be counted as we didn't go to any!. Saturday night brought us to Cricklewood (the Irish Home in London) and suffice to say we did the club proud. "The Crack was good in Cricklewood"

Sunday morning we woke to a bad day and over breakfast our Chairman and leader Christy O Sullivan informed us that the football game we were supposed to play against a local team was cancelled. The field was unplayable but if we really wanted to play they would sort something out. To say we were gutted would be an understatement having travelled all that way and having got our team spirit and bonding to an all time, but we put a brave face on it and went out to enjoy the day. The local team (I can't remember who they were, please tell me if anyone knows) sent taxis around to transport us to their clubhouse. We took them on in a variety of other sports that we were proficient in (Darts, Pool, 45) and a very pleasant evening with a few drinks and songs followed. 

Monday we journeyed home a tired and weary crew but we still had that bus trip and ferry crossing on Monday night ahead of us. How people kept going I don't know but the spirit was still great and we laughed, joked and sang our way home. We arrived back in Castlemartyr on Tuesday morning and quietly dispersed to our homes for a week to sleep and recover.

While in London we were visited by many people who had moved there especially the Mc Lellan crew, sons of the late great Frank who was in fine form for the weekend in his own inimitable fashion. When he sang "I did it my way" all I can say was he most certainly did. Others who travelled included some of the great characters of the place at that time. The one and only Brendan Wade("The Wader"), Jim Clifford with his infinite supply of jokes, Pat O Mahony who could lift the crowd in an instant, Bernard Lawton always the messer,  Haulie Garde (I'll say nothing in case of legal action), William Whyte ("Bill the Liar") with his version of the truth and Paul Mc Grath who lived in the area for a few years but has since returned to England. 

Included in the Photo below is Margaret O Sullivan but we were joined by Liam and Angela Collins in Youghal to bring our female travelling party up to a staggering 2. I don't know how they survived. I took some other photos on the trip but in an incident on Sunday night my camera was taken by 2 people (I know who!!!) to prevent any evidence of their efforts to integrate with the local female population from being displayed. It has never been returned despite navy divers searching a pond in Hyde Park and the photos here were from an earlier film.

Our apologies 15 years later, go to everyone we met and might have upset that weekend and especially to the people on Slattery's coaches, some of whom are still in counselling for post traumatic stress. Just in case you might be reading this and thinking this was only a knees-up for a weekend, we went on to defend our East Cork title that year and the spirit and mood in the club was never better.