REMEMBERING THE GREAT MAN: PART 3

Back in 2002, I was asked to write about my memories of Jackie. And despite my bewilderment at being tasked to come up with something worth five minutes of anyone’s attention, I did my best and hacked out some reminisces, scanned the whole thing for typos and sent it on to the Bohs webmaster of the day, writes DAVID HALL.

Since then, it’s been hanging around on a server somewhere. Luke O’Riordan kindly dug me out a copy and it was my intention to reheat it and serve it up again because, in the decade since Jackie’s passing, I haven’t developed any new memories of him and the ones I have are subject to the type of degradation the passing of time imposes on everything eventually.

Looking at that piece now, two things occur to me; the first being that I have no missed vocation as a writer, the second being that I was trying to smile through the darkness of what was a tragic end for one of the club’s greatest-ever players by recalling my own childlike sense of wonder from Jackie’e earliest days.

It was a comforting retreat to the past; to a time when Jackie walked on this earth and swerved and shimmied and thrilled and delighted us. It was also a retreat to my own past; to a time when I lived for the next game and there wasn’t anything more important to worry about.

Now though, it’s impossible – at least for me – to think of Jackie without sadness. I recall moments of sublime football but I can never decouple these from the knowledge that this man died a lonely and sad death.

I wonder to myself, would Jackie have felt more appreciated – more loved – if we, Bohemians, hadn’t shown him the door just before he would have reached the threshold when he would have qualified for his testimonial.

Unfortunately, that’s what happened. That’s the note which closed Jackie’s career at Bohemians.

I’ve been aware for decades that Jackie felt hurt; he wanted his special moment, he wanted his day. But, strictly speaking, he didn’t qualify. So, magnanimity not being our middle name, he didn’t get it.

Given that I’ve never heard anything to suggest that Jackie was particularly avaricious in terms of money, I have never managed to shake the thought that this day, that he was to be denied, took on a meaning for Jackie that he invested with bad thoughts and bad feelings.

So, while we rightly treasure Jackie as one of the club greats, do any of us ever wonder what Jackie’s thoughts about the club were up till his death?

I do know that I wonder about this and have wondered for years.

It also raises the issue of the extent to which a club – any club – should extend pastoral care towards those who have made unusually significant contributions and whom are known to be vulnerable.

I don’t have the answer to this but I do know that I’m very sorry that my club never gave Jackie his big day out; he deserved it and it mattered to him.

Would it have made a lasting difference to Jackie’s mental well being? No, probably not, but it would have made me feel better as a Bohs fan if I knew that we’d given Jackie the send-off he deserved.

There certainly were individuals at Bohemians who did look out for Jackie over and beyond the call of duty, one notable being the late – and much missed – Ollie Whealan, who secured Jackie very decent employment in the care sector. I gather there were others too.

In the end, it’s impossible to know the contents of another person’s thoughts and I’m sure Jackie was an especially difficult read. But we do know what constitutes doing the right thing by others and that doing the right thing never gives rise to regret and recrimination.

Jackie is no longer with us and there’s nothing further to be done other than to keep the memories of his exploits as fresh as we can and to learn the lesson that there is a right way to bring the curtains down on a legend when their career at the club winds down.

If we want to honour Jackie, perhaps we can honour him best by ensuring that whatever economies a football club must make magnanimity isn’t one Bohemians will be found wanting for in future.

Meanwhile, the man who brought Jackie to the club, Billy Young, is still very much with us and, as fate would have it, there was also a very large magnanimity deficit in how the club dealt with him.

It would be a fine way to remember Jackie if the club addressed this deficit while it’s still in a position to do so.

*Image reproduced with kind permission of Sportsfile.

In Part 1, BohsTV’s ANDY DONLAN speaks to lifelong fans who relive their memories of watching Jameson play.

In Part 2, Evening Herald journalist AIDAN FITZMAURICE steps back in time as he recalls growing up when The Great Man was at his best.

In Part 3, lifetime supporter DAVID HALL poses a soul-searching question: Could we have done more for Jackie?