Eamonn Deacy - RIP

[Ger Regan]

No worries at all, happy to facilitate this.
Has anyone else had problems donating to Acorns? I've tried to use my credit and debit cards to make the donation, but have been declined both times.....
FYI, we raised 100 euro over the cost of the wreath. Fair play to all.
g

[not3bad]

I missed the collection Ger, I have dropped a donation via Text detailed on the Acorns Site in his memory:

VILLA APPEAL Text AVFC12 to 70070 followed by your chosen donation amount (eg. AVFC12 £10). Don't forget the Gift Aid.

Should you get a confirmation text back when you do this?

Yes mate I did .. and link to sort out Gift Aid

Ah, spotted what I did wrong, sorted now!

[lennythekad]

Same as yesterday, close to tears reading this thread. Another day of walking round work saying "I've just got something in my eye...honest!"

I'm exactly the same, Perce.  Something about the man, his humble part in our greatest triumphs and memories of truly fantastic days at Villa Park. 

He seems to have encapsulated for many of us what we have lost in football - I can't understand why I am so affected by this to be honest but I am.

I'm glad I'm not the only one. I guess we all had our favourites with that team but when Eamonn came on as sub, the whole atmosphere in Villa Park changed with expectation and a united will to encourage the fella. It's really hard to explain unless you were there but there was something very pure and honest about him. He gave everything he had, like a boxer in a fight, he went out to do a job, completely focused and willing to put his body on the line, taking the rough with the smooth.

As somebody mentioned earlier, maybe we all saw ourselves playing for the Villa through him.

I went abroad on the day that the sad news broke, and for some reason haven't been able to put Eamons' passing out of my mind along with the lump in my throat. Got back today and read the thread and am now typing this whilst fighting back the tears. Other people more eloquent than me have expressed what Eamon meant to us, and perhaps more importantly, what Villa meant to Eamon.
R. I. P. Chick.

[Legion]

[Ger Regan]

Well, if there was any doubt about the popularity of the man, then there surely isn't any more. I've never been to a bigger funeral, on average the queue for giving condolences to the family was around 2 hours, there was still a queue around an hour long by 8. The removal to the church was meant to happen at 7. Literally thousands of people came out in the rain to offer their sympathies, including the president of Ireland.

Was good to see two large villa flags flying outside the funeral home, and lots of great pictures inside from various stages of his playing career.

[FrankyH]

 I like many other supporters remember him with great fondness, there's a list of players who may have played a few more games than Eamon for Villa , but if  you mentioned any number of them to me I might struggle to remember the player or even the game , not Eamon. If you saw him tackle it was engrained in your memory for rest of the week.Him and Sid must have been 8 stone soaking wet, yet both would launch into tackles against blokes twice their weight, but you would wince in fear for the other guy.
If anyone has got the book "When Footbal was Football Aston Villa" look at pages 142-143 a montage of the day we won the league at Arsenal.There's a picture of Pele on the pitch at half time (don't remember that and I was there!) and the opposite page a picture of Eamon behind Ron Saunders.Pele might of got on the pitch but Eamon won a medal that day as an Aston Villa player.

RIP Eamon

[Ger Regan]

Found this on WSC:

I interviewed him in Galway in 1999, one of my earliest assignments as a journo. The hook was that Man Utd had just made the Champions League final, Denis Irwin was going to play, and my editor wanted to do something about Irish players of the past who had featured at the business end of the European Cup.

He suggested getting hold of Eamon Deacy, on the grounds that he had a chance to get a European Cup medal with Villa in 1982 but turned it down to instead go off on Ireland's ill-fated tour of South America and the Caribbean (0-7 v Brazil, 0-1 v Trinidad & Tobago, and another game against Chile which I can't remember the result of). [GER - Is this true?]

Eamon initially didn't want to do the interview at all, out of sheer shyness. I talked him round, and presently got the train down to Galway, where we had a great chat in the Roches Stores restaurant on Eyre Street. Because it was so long ago, I can't remember too much of the resultant piece, but two things do stick out: that Eoin Hand berated him at half-time of the Trinidad game (one of the most embarrassing results in Ireland's history: T&T were an amateur outfit at the time and, in Eamon's words, were just "a team full of rasta men") for having put his shorts on the wrong way round ("That's how fucking organised you are, Deacy!"); and that he said he had realised his entire life's ambition the day he made his debut for Aston Villa. He said that he was not one of life's more ambitious people, and that as soon as he had played just one game in the top flight in England, he felt incredible and knew he had achieved inner peace. Just one game. That was all he ever wanted to do. In short, he had the kind of personality you hardly ever find in athletes of any kind now.

The piece appeared on a Sunday. That afternoon, my phone rang. It was Eamon. I braced myself for some kind of abuse or attack, fearing that I had got some detail wrong or misrepresented him in some way. Instead, he thanked me for the piece and said he hoped I was well. If you're a hack, especially a young one, something like that gives you a real shot in the arm and leaves you feeling good for the rest of the day.

His family had been in the fruit and veg business in Galway for years, and that's what he went back to when his football career finished. He seemed incredibly modest and laid-back that day in 1999. I hope the next 12 or 13 years were as good to him. I only spent two hours in his company, but he was one of the nicest and most decent people I've ever encountered. RIP.

[eamonn]

From the Evening Herald in Dublin the other day:

Deacy defied conventions

By Aidan Fitzmaurice
Tuesday February 14 2012

STRANGE, that a career which yielded two of the biggest prizes available to a footballer from this part of the world -- a league medal from England's top flight and a European Cup winner's medal, brought little else in terms of reward.

But there was nothing usual about the career of former Ireland, Aston Villa and Galway United player Eamon 'Chick' Deacy, who sadly passed away suddenly in his native Galway yesterday aged 52.

This was a soft-spoken man from the west of Ireland who had a career with one of the biggest clubs in England but willingly gave it all up to come home to Ireland and run a fruit and veg shop in Galway at the age of 26.

In an era of Tevez-style sulks and rows over handshakes, such an approach seems positively Victorian.

"There was a wholesomeness, an honesty and a naivety about Eamon which was very refreshing at the time and is now very rare in the modern game," is the recollection of Eoin Hand, manager of Ireland for Deacy's four-game spell as an international in 1982.

Despite being a league winner with Aston Villa in 1981 (five appearances in that title-winning season) and also a squad member when that side went on to win the European Cup in Rotterdam a year later, Deacy was a relative unknown and was only capped four times, all of them in friendlies.

The impression of Deacy is that, instead of being upset at 'only' getting four caps, he was thrilled to have played even once for his country. Greg Cunningham, the Manchester City player currently on loan to Nottingham Forest, previously told the story of how, days after he made his senior Ireland debut against Algeria in 2010, he got a card in the post from 'Chick' Deacy, saying he was glad that Cunningham had taken over his title as the last Galway lad to play for Ireland at senior level. "Eamon was very naive but such a lovely lad, a diamond as a person," Hand told the Herald after hearing of Deacy's passing.

"He played for me when we lost 2-1 to Trinidad and Tobago in '82. He was having a nightmare in the first half but so was everyone in the team. We'd had terrible travel problems and no sleep before the game. I still remember that Eamon had his shorts on back to front.

Incredible

"When I told him at half time I was taking him off, he didn't have a row with me. He just said, 'Thanks Eoin'. He knew he was having a bad game but he didn't sulk or moan when I took him off."

Incredible to think in this age of squad rotation, but things were done on a smaller scale back then, Villa famously using only 14 players on their way to winning the league title in 1980/81, and Deacy was one of them.

A team-mate recalled that Deacy initially declined when asked to go up and receive his medal, claiming that he hadn't done as much as the regular first-teamers, and manager Ron Saunders had to pick up his medal.

Deacy played little in England after that -- just four appearances in the 1982/83 season, 13 games for Villa in 1983/84 as well as a spell on loan to Derby County, and soon after the defender made the decision to come home to Ireland, playing part-time for Galway United (he was an FAI Cup runner-up in 1985) and setting up his own business, even though he had an offer of a contract from Derby.

-- Eamon 'Chick' Deacy, RIP

[eamonn]

...and the Galway City Tribune:

Galway loses sporting icon

February 17, 2012 - 7:00am
Tributes pour in from near and far after the untimely passing of soccer legend Eamon Chick Deacy
Keith Kelly

PEOPLE say you should never meet your heroes, as you’ll invariably be disappointed. That is not always the case.

Eamon ‘Chick’ Deacy, who died on Monday morning from a suspected heart attack, was a hard tackling man from back the West, the finest footballer this city and county has ever produced. He was my hero, and a hero to countless other people.

Chick was very much a hero to his family. The youngest of 10 children born to Christine and Miko Deacy of High Street in Galway City, where Deacy’s Fish Shop stands today. The family soon moved to St John’s Terrace, off Henry Street.

It was Miko who was unintentionally responsible for the nickname ‘Chick’, as his brother Don recalled this week.

“There was 10 of us in the family – Michael, George, Mary, Neil, Ernie, Tommy, Dixie (RIP), myself, Dessie (RIP) and Eamon. We hadn’t a lot of money, so it was Eamon who was brought everywhere by Dad, and we were fine with that, that was just the way it was.

“He’d sleep in the bed with Mam and Dad when he was a baby and Mam would be terrified that Eamon would be crushed – he was such a slight, skinny little thing, and my father was a big man. Dad used to call Eamon his ‘little chicken’, he’d go looking for him as ask ‘did ye see chicken?’, and we took up on that, shortened it to ‘Chick’, and the name stuck,” Don said.

There are both tears and laughter as Don recalls some anecdotes involving Chick, such as the time he told his younger brother to buy a Lotto ticket as the jackpot was around €8 million.

“He said to me ‘what would I want with €8m’, and I said ‘you could always give it to me’ and he had a good laugh at that.

“We played together for West United, and I remember after one game as we were going to the pub, he gave me a tenner and warned me not to go buying drinks for the pub, but to use it for myself. Then when we went in, he bought a round for everyone – that was the kind of person he was, he was always giving,” he said.

Some of Don’s best memories revolve around the West United side that won the Connacht Senior Cup in 1975, which featured three of the Deacy brothers – Des, Don and Chick.

“Des was outside right, I was right full, and Eamon was right half. We were playing a game in Castlebar, and this fella Chick was marking was crucifying him, he was giving him an awful time. Myself and Des said to him ‘leave him to us, we’ll sort him out’ but Chick said no, he’d look after himself.

“A couple of minutes later he floored yer man with a tackle, and he had to be stretchered off, but typical of Eamon, as we were celebrating on the bus on the way home, all that was worrying him was if yer man was okay – that was Eamon, whatever happened on the pitch, stayed on the pitch,” Don says.

* * * * * *
He was a hero to the people of the West, and to West United, the club with which he started, and ended, his career. Club chairman Patsy O’Connor recalled this week how Chick captained the side that won the first-ever U-11 trophy in Galway, and even then, those back the West knew they were watching a special player.

“He stood out, even at that early stage. That team had some great players, but Chick was that extra bit special. When he returned to the club in 1992, he really inspired the young lads in the area, he really lifted the club, and there was a great buzz around the West
“He was a great role model for young people, he used to train every day, and he set a great example,” O’Connor said.

[eamonn]

One more, (sorry, but they're all interesting reading where you learn something ever more prouder about the man):

Football icon to be mourned by thousands

GALWAY ADVERTISER, FEBRUARY 16, 2012.
 
By Linley Mackenzie

Sporting personalities from Ireland and England will gather in Galway today to bid farewell to one of the city’s best loved legends, Eamon Deacy.

Eamon Deacy, known as “Chick”, died suddenly on Monday morning en route to work at the family’s greengrocers in Sea Road.

The Irish soccer community will be led by FAI chief executive John Delaney, while several clubmates from Aston Villa’s 1980/81 League and European winning team, will attend, including Gordon Cowans, Ken McNaught and Aston Villa director Robin Russell.

They will farewell a sporting icon, who despite playing on some of the most illustrious football stages in the world, shunned the lime-light and wanted no reward but to play the game of football he loved so much.

Eamon Deacy was a Galway man through and through. Growing up as the youngest in a family of 10 in Henry Street, Eamon attended St Joseph’s College, The Bish, as his father Michael, his uncles and his eight brothers had. It was from his father he became known as “Chick”.

“Dad always used to call him his little chicken,” recalls Eamon’s brother Michael. “He’d say to him, ‘come on my little chick, we are off to football.’”

It seemed he was destined for the game. His mother Christina Molloy hailed from Terryland, and it was his grandfather who sold the land to the Galway FA that was to become Eamon’s “home” pitch for most of his life.

A natural sportsman, Eamon was a fine athlete, played rugby with the Bish and also with Galwegians, while he also played Gaelic football with St Michael’s. But from an early age, it was football to which he was most attracted.

“From the time he could walk, he was out the back yard with a football,” says Michael. “By age 13 he was always down at the Swamp, frequently by himself, kicking a football around. I suppose it was the game that gave him the most satisfaction.”

As a youngster he joined West United and, as is typical of a man who never forgot his roots, he finished out his playing days with his childhood team, playing in the over 50s.

Yearning to test his ability further afield, he worked hard to get to the top, playing with Clyde for a time in Scotland along with stints at Sligo Rovers, and Limerick. Of course it was with Galway United, formerly Galway Rovers, that Eamon provided the Galway sporting community with so many days of enjoyment. A fierce tackler, who gave 100 per cent on the pitch, he was known as the “ midfield dynamo” who scored Rovers’ first goal in the League of Ireland against Thurles Town in 1977. It was fitting that some 15 years later and in the twilight of his career, he was a member of the Galway United side that claimed the FAI Cup with a 1 - 0 victory over Shamrock Rovers.

However it was across the water where Eamon Deacy deserved to play, and he received his opportunity when Ron Saunders of Aston Villa signed him. He was to play at Villa Park for five seasons, during which time he established himself as a key member of a squad that won the first division title in 1980/81 and went on to win the European Cup. Although he did not play in the European final - opting to play for Ireland for whom he was capped four times - he reluctantly accepted his cup winner’s medal.

It was the life of which he dreamed, yet it never changed the man. He is often aptly described as demon on the pitch, but a gentleman off it.

“I remember he had never had a red card and wanted one,” says Michael. “One day he creased a guy and was duly sent off, but he ended up crying with guilt, asking himself why did he do it.”

He met his wife Mary when she, as a young journalist working for the Galway Advertiser, went to interview the soccer star. He returned to Galway to be with his family, turned down an offer to play with Derby, married, and continued to delight the crowds wherever he played.

“He was at the top of his game when he came home, but he never forgot the people he knew in Birmingham. Not only did he always call Ron Saunders every New Year’s Eve, but he never forgot his landlady. A couple of years ago he got in his car and drove to Birmingham so he could attend her funeral.”

Eamon Deacy was a relucant hero. He hated the idea of receiving accolades which he richly deserved - most recently a Hall of Fame award at the Galway Sports Stars and an Honorary Doctorate from NUIG in 2009.

“Eamon always saw the good in people and he was forever 20 years of age. He was a modest, kind, and genuinely devout person who lived for his family. As the youngest in the family he was extremely close to his parents - it really was a relationship to behold, ” says Michael.

Decency, modesty, and integrity are just some of the words friends and family have used to describe the popular 57-years-old. He may have made his name as a brilliant footballer, but it was Eamon, the person, the father, the husband, the friend, and the mentor who will missed.

Eamon is survived by his wife Mary O’Connor, daughter Dawn, and son Jake, and his brothers and sister Michael, George, Mary, Neil, Ernest, Tommy and Don. He was predeceased by brothers Nicholas (Dixie) and Desmond.

Eamon Deacy is reposing at Conneely’s Funeral home this evening (4pm to 7pm) with removal to The Augustinian Church where his funeral Mass will take place tomorrow at 11am.

Ar dheis Dé go raibh a hanam dílis

[Ger Regan]

Fantastic find Eamonn, great to finally find out where his nickname came from. There were a few theories doing the rounds.

Incidentally, as I was doing the rounds of the family, more than one of the family members thanked me for wearing the villa scarf. They're truly an amazing family.

[Villan For Life]

Fantastic find Eamonn, great to finally find out where his nickname came from. There were a few theories doing the rounds.

Incidentally, as I was doing the rounds of the family, more than one of the family members thanked me for wearing the villa scarf. They're truly an amazing family.

Ger as far as you could tell through the crowds, did the club send a representative?

[Archbishop Herbert Cockthrottle]

Excellent reading eamonn and well done for organising the wreath Ger - I will donate to ACORNS accordingly.

No, it's just a bit of dust in my eye....cough, cough.

Eamon Deacy RIP

[Ger Regan]

Yeah they did. Robin Russell and the four ex-players mentioned before were in attendance. I hear that a lot of the villa memorabilia around the funeral home was sent over by the club. Whatever else people may think, I'm happy to see us acting with such class in these type of circumstances

[Dr Butler]

with all these great posts and even though I only saw him play and never actually met him, it feels like I was there in Galway myself....
cheers everyone

UTV  Eamon