Cormac McArdle Interviewed by Keith Wallace
September 27th 2007.
Home is where the heart is! Five years after departing Oriel Park, Cormac McArdle returned to his hometown club two months ago, hoping to help Dundalk back to the place where he had last played with them. Cormac left for America after the club’s relegation from the Premier Division in March 2002, with an FAI Cup medal seven days after that painful demotion not even enough to keep the youngster from going on a four-year trip Stateside.
McArdle had spent his early years at the club working his way through the youth teams under Tommy Connolly, before eventually making his first-team bow under Martin Murray in the third round of the aforementioned cup triumph. Incidentally, his club debut came away to tonight’s opponents, Kilkenny City, but as the local winger explains, it was a surprise inclusion in the starting eleven. “I thought at first that I’d be on the bench,” McArdle recalls, “but then we went down there, there was some talk of injuries and a few lads pulled out, so at the last minute I was told that I was actually starting. It was good in a way, because you didn’t have the nerves and you didn’t have to deal with the whole build-up to the game. It was a great experience. There were older, more experienced men there who talked you through games.”
Dundalk went on to win a cup classic 3-2 with Cormac playing a key role in the victory, but that was to be his last serious involvement in the team until the final week of the season nearly three months later. “I was at Colaiste Ide and there was talk of going over on a scholarship,” Cormac explains. “I had my mind made up by then that I was going. I don’t think Martin Murray agreed with me, so I think I played in Kilkenny and that was it basically for a while. I still trained with the squad, but I knew I was going on a 12-day tournament type thing just before the FAI Cup final if we got there; I remember watching the semi-final against Rovers from the sidelines. Obviously, it would have been nice to have been involved, but I had made my mind up, and had it planned all year. So, I went over and played in the tournament, and when I got off the plane, my father told me that James Keddy had got injured. I laughed at him basically, I didn’t believe him, so once I got home then, Ollie Ralph gave me a call and asked would I go to a game against Monaghan the next day. I went down there and played 30 minutes – that was it then, I trained for a week and was involved in the final.”
Despite easily winning 3-0, that match in Monaghan saw Dundalk relegated for only the second time in their history, but the squad had little time to think about it as they faced Bohemians in the FAI Cup finale at Tolka Park one week later. “It was an abnormal feeling,” the 24-year-old admits, “because we were preparing for a cup final, so everybody was buzzing in that respect, but we were after getting relegated, so it was weird enough. I can’t really remember back too much about the relegation, because I know I was concentrating on the cup final – I didn’t know what to expect at all. Right up to it, I didn’t know what to expect, because, as you know, you don’t get to play in too many throughout your life. Once we got over the game in Monaghan, we started concentrating on the final. To be fair, from Christmas on when I got involved in the team, we went on a great run and we were flying. The mood was really good up to the final. We had got relegated, but we had played ten or twelve games and we were in great form. We had thought that we were going to get out of relegation trouble, so the confidence was really high and the mood was really good. I think that really helped going into the final.
“Chris Lawless was drafted in to play on the left-wing and I was put on the bench. There was great Dundalk support at it, it was crazy. You’re just sitting there hoping to get a run, but just taking in the atmosphere – it just flew by. Then I think Chris got cramp or something like that and I was asked to step in. I just went in and listened to David Crawley and a few others giving out instructions. We were 2-1 up at that stage and we just sat in and played out the rest of the game; we were pinned in for the last 20 minutes. It was a great experience, because you don’t win too many. There was good talk afterwards about trying to keep the team together, and I definitely would have stayed with them, it’s just I got the opportunity of four years in the States and academically it would have been great as well. I had my mind made up by that stage – America was a great opportunity.”
So, how did that move to the US come about? “From September 2001, I had started training up at Colaiste Ide on a one-year course, and that puts you in touch with coaches in America. You train with Colaiste Ide and play in different cups throughout Ireland. Basically, because of that full-time training, my fitness vastly improved, which gave me a chance at Dundalk. There’s always a tournament at the end of March for Colaiste Ide over in America, and we went to the University of Memphis and played in the tournament. You play your twelve days and then coaches, if they’re happy enough with you, offer you a scholarship, or a half or quarter scholarship, and then it’s up to you if you want to go back. Basically, every year Colaiste Ide go over for a tournament and then you come home. Then the lads that are lucky enough to get offered something go back then at the end of that Summer.”
Cormac was one of the lucky ones to get offered a scholarship and left his native shores in mid-2002 at the age of just 19. Leaving home is never easy, however, the left-sided player admits that he wasn’t too worried about emigrating. “I wasn’t too bad,” he says. “If you finish secondary school, some lads are 17 and some are 18, but I was 19. I had spent the year living in Dublin, Monday to Thursday obviously. I really enjoyed being away from home, just trying to survive myself and doing my bit of cooking and whatever. So, at that stage, after being away for a year, it wasn’t that bad. I know I was excited about getting to America, and it was only the night before that you kind of sit down and say to yourself ‘this is crazy, I’m about to leave my family here’. But, the other side of it was, I knew five months later that I would be home for Christmas for a month, so that kind of plays on your mind as well. Obviously I headed off then; the first few weeks were tough, but you knuckle down then. I was actually lucky enough, I went over with a lad from Monasterboice, Francis McCullagh, and we kind of stuck together.
“America was top class. I went to two different colleges. The first college was Thomas University where I played with Keith Dunne. There were a few Irish lads where I first went, and a year or two later that’s where I met Keith. He arrived at our college as well. I spent about a year with Keith I think. I didn’t live at the same apartments as him, but we played on the same team. I got to know Keith pretty well, he’s a great lad. It was great to come back to Dundalk and know he was here – it gave me a bit of a start, because it’s nice to walk into a dressing-room and know a few faces. We had a good American coach over there, who had an Irish background. He wasn’t the greatest coach in the world but he had a good group of battlers and we done really well. We got into the top 25 in that league, and then I moved on to a far more professional team at the University of Memphis. We had a great coach there and a great strength and conditioning coach as well. It was a great level of football. The whole experience was great, it really makes you grow up. You go over there and you’re in an apartment, you have to fend for yourself; learn how to cook, learn how to clean, iron, the whole lot. I’d recommend it to anyone. It opens up a lot of doors for you.
“I finished up the four years and graduated with a degree. After I finished the scholarship, I went on trials with DC United, but there’s a foreigner rule in the MLS where you’re only allowed three foreigners – that’s the only bad thing about America. I done well at the trial, but they were saying that you really need to be an international player, so obviously that closed that door. I had a few opportunities to play at lower levels, but the opportunity to come home and play a decent standard of football was too great. I definitely do miss America and there’s a good chance I might go back in a few years, but I’m home to play football now.”
Cormac returned to Ireland in May 2006 and signed for Newry City three months later thanks, once again, to Ollie Ralph. “Ollie was the link there again,” he explains. “He has been pretty good to me. He called me up and said ‘look, you’re home, you’re fit, do you want a few games?’ and I said ‘yeah’. I’d look at anything, because you’re coming home and you don’t really have too many opportunities. Roy Coyle called me, the manager at Newry, and he had been on to Ollie, who was his assistant, and I just took a chance and went down and trained. It was great actually, there was Paddy Quinn, Brian McChrystal and David Ward there, so there were four Dundalk lads and the Northern lads were great as well. It’s a very good, competitive league, but I think there’s a vast difference between the teams at the lower end of the league compared to teams like Linfield, Glentoran and Cliftonville etc.. I had a great year with them, but the opportunity to play with your hometown was too strong.
“The only reason I left Newry was because of the offer of football here. I got offered another contract and I really wanted to sign, but once John Gill came in, there was no decision to make. I wouldn’t say it was the plan (to return to Dundalk), but it’s always in the back of your mind. It’s your home town and it’s such a great set-up. When you step out of training and you have only two minutes to go up the road, it’s a great bonus. You always support the team, even when you’re not playing with them – I used to be always down here cheering on the team on nights I wasn’t training or playing with Newry. It’s always a big thing in your heart to come back and to play with your hometown club.”
