IN MEMORY OF TOMMY ALLEN

TOMMY ALLEN RIP

Death notice: Allen (late of Killeek, St. Margaret’s) 29th August 2019 peacefully at home, Tom, very sadly missed by wife and best friend Marian, daughters Ailish and Aisling, sons-in-law Ian and Adam, grandchildren Patrick and Caitlyn, brother Sean, in-laws, relatives and a wide circle of friends.

Removal to the Church of St. Margaret’s, St. Margaret’s, Sandyhill, K67 HX44, Friday 30th, arriving for 6pm. Funeral Mass on Saturday 31st at 10am followed by burial in Dardistown Cemetery. Donations if desired to St. Luke’s Hospital.

IN MEMORY OF TOMMY ALLEN

It is fitting that players, officials and supporters of Irish football’s fiercest opponents Bohemians and Shamrock Rovers will tonight put their rivalries to one side to remember Tommy Allen with a minute’s applause in Tallaght Stadium.

For Tommy was a man whose generosity transcended traditional footballing rivalries.

Most synonymous with Bohemians for his support and regular sponsorship – through his company Allen’s Pharmacy – spanning three decades, he is also fondly remembered by our oldest rivals at Shelbourne for similar generosity.

Shels fan Will Clarke remarked that he was “in his company one night in Tolka when he wrote a cheque for Ollie Byrne for €10,000 for a pre-season trip to La Manga.”

Further up the M1, the name Allen’s Pharmacy has adorned pitchside signage boards and match programmes at both Louth rivals Dundalk and Drogheda United.

Further north still, Tommy is also remembered at the likes of Newry City and Cliftonville.

News of Tommy’s passing reached us yesterday and everyone at Dalymount Park wishes to extend our condolences to his many friends and family.

If you didn’t know Tommy to speak to, the chances are you knew him to see.

His sense of style veered between dapper and outlandish, which was echoed in his personality.

Always fond of a silk tie, he also developed a liking for two-toned spats, canes (at least one of which resembled ceremonial swords), cravats and deerstalkers.

It’s fair to say Tommy enjoyed the attention. And who’d begrudge him that?

He was a popular figure who would regularly hold court in Dalymount’s Members’ or Jameson bars where it was standard for those in his company to have a look of bewilderment on their faces.

That was because Tommy was a man full of anecdotes so tangential in nature that it was hard to know whether he was telling you an epic truth or a very tall tale.

But the regularity with which his stories would later be corroborated by someone else made you believe him the next time he spun you a yarn.

His generosity to the club cannot be overstated.

It was once the norm to look at the player sponsorship page in the matchday programme and to see at the name of his business and the names of every member of his family each assigned a player. He took out memberships in their names. He paid for the refurbishment of the Members’ Bar. He paid for teams’ overnight stays, trips abroad and countless match and matchball sponsorships over the years.

Some of those match sponsorships were as head-turning as his dress sense.

On occasion he took over the Jameson Bar and hired in his own caterers. While his hand-picked select few Bohemian friends dined on beef bourguignon, they were simultaneously being entertained by a jazz band he had hired in. Quite what those on the other side of the wall in the first team dressing room made of the racket is anyone’s guess.

While such occasions were extravagant, there was a more humble and personal side to his generosity also.

Only last year he collared me in the Jameson Bar and told me that I was looking stressed. Unable to think of a better answer on the spot, I replied that I was just a bit tired. “Do you have trouble sleeping?”, he asked. “Eh, yeah… sometimes,” I replied, a little uncomfortable with the intrusion.

The next time I saw him, many weeks later, he slipped a prescription pack of sleeping tablets into my hand and gave me a big smirk. Whether that was entirely necessary – or indeed legal – is up for debate.

But it is one of many examples that his generosity was personal and kind-hearted as well as public. It also made you realise that he listened and took in more than you might have given him credit for.

Since the news of his passing, there have numerous examples of these traits shared by Bohs fans and friends. People who still treasure the silk tie he gave them a decade ago or other trinkets and mementos they still hold dear.

Bohs fan Greg Molloy remembers: “About 20 years ago I admired his new handmade gold Bohs ring. At the next game he presented me with the exact same his and her rings for myself and my wife. That was just one personal gesture, his financial support for Bohs was off the scale.”

That over the top gesture of generosity sums him up. Dalyer on a Friday night is the perfect melting pot of wonderful eccentrics. Well we’ve just lost one of the best of them.

One former Bohs director remarked: “He may have been the maddest man to ever set foot in Dalymount and that’s a hell of an achievement.”

It is hard to disagree. Who else would knock on the dressing room door after a game wearing a deerstalker hat to hand Keith Long a load of loose strawberries? Who else would offer a player a silk tie if they stopped picking up yellow cards?

He was one of the great one-off characters that makes up the patchwork quilt that is Bohemians and the League of Ireland.

And Irish football is all the poorer – both figuratively and monetarily! – for his passing.

May he rest in peace.

Luke O’Riordan 

 

HUGHIE DEMPSEY – HEAD OF HOSPITALITY AND FORMER DIRECTOR:

Tommy was one of the most dedicated sponsors the club has ever had and a great friend to us through the good times and bad.

His support for the club was unbelievable. He’s one of those characters that defines us as a club – one big family.

He was always an eccentric, but in a good way. He had a huge range of interests and everyone at the club was very fond of him – Roddy Collins used to even let him travel on the team bus!

Over the years I developed a great friendship with Tommy. I’ve brought him to games, I’ve brought him to hospital. I’ve even put his socks on when he did his back in! Everyone says he was very dapper and he did. He always looked 100%… but it started with the socks!

But you’d do that for him because he’d do anything for you.

I’ve brought him his Christmas dinner cooked by my wife. Starter, main course, dessert! But he never asked for that or for anything. He was more interested in conversation and company. He had a great passion for football and loved talking about it.

He helped Bohs the most but he helped a whole host of clubs and even owned one in Slovakia at one stage. He spread his money across football because football was his passion.

We will miss him dearly.

STEPHEN BURKE – DIRECTOR 1990-2019:

Tommy Allen, eh?
Just what can you say?

He was generous, too generous if that’s possible.
Not just to Bohs and a bunch of other clubs, but to individuals.
He first got involved with Bohs around about the 1998/99 season.

Allens Pharmacy; a little shop in Summerhill that advertised country-wide!

You never knew if he was really being serious; he was often just winding you up, or so he’d eventually say.
A fierce name-dropper, he had some whacky ideas and angles on things.
He always knew everything and everybody… and it was difficult, nay, impossible to correct him!
He was part of the League of Ireland scene, supported it when few others did; we will always love him for that.

He drank.

He was fearless, reckless even, which got him into some terrible scrapes – he was violently mugged when Bohs played in Minsk – such incidents just adding to his ‘out there’ reputation.
He was, obviously, quite a character.

A very decent footballer in his day, he loved music, especially soul.
He loved music and football, what’s not to like about someone like that?
And he grew the biggest strawberries ever seen – not a euphemism!

He was different, certainly; larger than life.
He will be missed.