I never knew Brendan was not a native Galwegian. Born in Dublin, then moved to Cork before moving to Galway for work and settling in Renmore. He became more native than the natives in the end.
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RIP, a character
This extract from John O’Mahony’s autobiography highlights how much of a character Brendan Coffey (R.I.P.) was
“One of the most enjoyable episodes of the morning, (after the All-Ireland win in 1998), was when I met Brendan Coffey, who was the team’s unofficial mascot.”
“For over 20 years, the County board have been good enough to bring him on the official team coach to matches & make him feel part of the Galway GAA family.”
"I had a great relationship with him. He liked to call me ‘Boss’, and he came with us on all our weekends away as well as to all our matches.
On those weekends away, he’d sit outside the nightclub when the players were out for a few drinks.
The next morning, he’d come to me with his usual greeting of, ‘Boss, Boss’, and give me a first hand account of how they all behaved themselves."
“Galway meant everything to him. He worked in Roches Stores, where he bagged groceries, and if he spotted someone with a Galway jersey, he’d bring them to the top of the queue. He got in trouble for that a good few times!”
"At the end of every campaign he’d present an award to his Player of the Year, and it was usually whoever had given him the most lifts to matches.
He was central to the whole thing, the heart & soul of the group. This was as much Brendan’s victory as ours."
“When I met him on the morning after the All-Ireland final in the foyer of the hotel, he announced that I was the lucky winner of his annual award, and that he was going to make the presentation live on Galway Bay FM, who were broadcasting from the hotel.”
- John O’Mahony “Keeping the Faith” Autobiography
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Ah was beyong loveable. Used to join in the weekly game of 25 in Garveys back in the day but never lasted too long and would sulk at the bar then with a glass of red lemonade, waiting to share a taxi home with one of the lads. Also worked the door in Vivo(Gala now) free of charge for years. If you didn’t say please or thank you, you were is serious trouble
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He used to mind a parking place for Joe Devaney (the fella selling the horse gear in eyre Square stall). God help you if you pulled into Joe’s spot, Brendan would be out belting on the bonnet.
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Brendan turfing out punters from under the shed in Tuam so that he could give the seats to injured players always got a great laugh on cold Winter afternoons. The last time I saw it personally was against Derry a few years ago and even from the terrace across the way you could hear him give some poor youngsters an earful.
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Padraig Fahy from carnmore looks like he’d split you in half. There’s a lot of hardy lads on display there, and epic hurlers.
I greatly enjoyed looking at them.
Thanks 
I see the Galway county board made over 1 million in gate receipts last year. Highest in the country. Impressive.
Makes you wonder about all the cash gates in the past.
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Fair fiddling of funds going on there. Some rich men out of it.
A character indeed, and I had many run-ins with him as a kid at matches. He was very protective of county board sliotars, whereas I was very fond of relieving the county board of them as they sailed over the nets.
Walsh Waste used to collect the skips in Roches Stores, and Brendan would often open the gates for the driver. It didn’t matter who was driving the truck, but the bold Brendan would greet him as “Mister Welsh”.
Ar dheis Dé go raibh a h-anam.
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Lovely to see Denis Burke and Eanna Ryan on the same team there. Was it Denis or his brother that hospitalised Eanna in a club match, and ultimately ended his career?
I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again: Fuck Turlough. And fuck Cashel too.
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I was chatting to a lad involved in Eanna Ryan’s care, who said genuinely, that he was lucky it wasn’t significantly worse.
Eanna was one of the top handful of hurlers Galway ever produced, and a gent to his boots (he’d not remember me, but I met him when he was a Heineken rep back in the day)
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Was he’s injury not an accident?
Against Turlough? An accident?! 
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100% right on both counts.
‘Turlough beat their way to six in a row in the 60s’ is a well known phrase around our way.
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He still is
