Larry Tompkins article

This isn't relating to anything in particular - whole range of things discussed, generally just a run through his career - my God he was some footballer. It's not mentioned here but finished two All-Ireland finals with torn cruciate knee ligaments, including pointing frees. This is very long so put ten minutes aside.

http://www.joe.ie/home/joe-meets/the-big-gaa-interview-larry-tompkins-plus-ca-change-0026643-1

See it starts with the old lie:

He was paid & in fact over-paid.

Sad that Larry is still peddaling that old lie as his excuse

kelf wrote:

See it starts with the old lie:

He was paid & in fact over-paid.

Sad that Larry is still peddaling that old lie as his excuse

Is this not that game of 'he said, she said'? I presume someone told you he was paid - twice, as I think you've put it before. But did you see the receipts, or did someone tell you that? Also, I don't think he actually says the he was paid in the article, does he? I'm open to correction on that, read it in a bit of a rush this morning. But I think the journalist refers to it rather than Larry.

"Football Captains-The All Ireland Winners" written by Brian Carty in 1993 had a full explanation of "The Tomkins Affair'' I've posted it before but it bears retelling. Similar to Johnson, Cork capitalised on a row in the Kildare camp. I don't believe that anything other than a desire to play county football motivated Larry Tomkins.
No greater or more loyal player than Larry Tomkins ever wore the all-white shirt of Kildare and it was a heart breaking decision for him to part company with the Lilywhites after falling out with the County Board over the purchase of an airline ticket. At the time it seemed nothing more than a storm in a tea cup but sadly Larry Tomkins has never since lined out for the county of his birth. Those who know him from the time he was a whip of a lad will tell you that all he ever wanted was to play football for his club and county. He himself confesses that the day he pulled on the Kildare jersey was one of the greatest trills of his life. So where did it all go wrong? What was it that made Larry Tomkins eventually decide to throw in his lot with Cork?
Admittedly he has seen a lot of good times since swapping the all white jersey for the red and white. He played a key part in Corks all-Ireland successes of 1989 and 1990. Better still, he was captain in 1990 when his adopted county conquered Meath in the final after losing to the same opposition at the same stage in 1987 and again in 1998.
‘’My heart was always with the Kildare team and I don’t think I ever missed a training session with them. I remember when I was serving my time in Kilcullen. I used to thumb in the fourteen miles for work at eight in the morning. I had to work hard on the buildings until six in the evenings and then try to get a lift in to Naas where the county team were training. At the time there would only be twelve of thirteen players turning up for training and there was no great interest and it was hard to get things going. After about two hours training, at ten o’clock I had to thumb my way home another seven miles. I was the only player from the club and there was no one going home in my direction. I wouldn’t get home most nights until half past eleven and then have my dinner. It was hard going three times a week for two years. John Crofton and Paddy O’Donoghue were two men I always had time for and they gave great service to Kildare. They will tell you that I never missed a training session and they never missed one either. At the time Kildare County Board were badly organised and players were not being looked after properly. It was an ordeal for players even to get expenses for travelling. It was a messy situation.’’
Larry finished his apprenticeship in early 1985 but then he found himself out of work for seven or eight weeks. Former Offaly footballer Mick Wright asked him to travel to New York to play football with Donegal and he agreed. He had been approached on a number of occasions before then, but always declined their invitations.
“I was always a total home bird. I enjoyed playing with Eadestown and with Kildare. I didn’t want to leave home at the time. I had to make the decision, as the building was not going too well at the time, so I decided to go for a few weeks to see what it was like. I went over in April for a week and played one game for Donegal, which we won. I gave them a commitment to spend the summer in America if Kildare were beaten in the championship. I played against Wicklow in the first round of the championship in early May. I was chosen as Captain and it was a very proud honour. After that I travelled to the states as a replacement on the All-Star trip and while over there I got full time employment as a carpenter. Eamonn O’Donoghue was Kildare manager at the time and I told him I would like to come home to play for Kildare in the next round if the County Board would look after the cost of the flight. And he said that would be no problem. I told him I still had a return ticket from the All-Star trip and, as the ticket was valid for one journey, all I would need was a one-way ticket. We were playing Meath in the Leinster semi-final and I could only come home for the weekend as I had to be back working on the Tuesday. I would like to have been home for a week beforehand, but unfortunately that was not possible We were beaten by Meath and that is where the problem arose.”
“They had told me two weeks earlier that everything had been arranged and that the ticket would be there. But they came to me after the game and told me that there was a problem with the ticket. When I went to the hotel afterwards Séamus Aldridge and Pat Dunny approached me and told me that the ticket they had purchased was costing them £740 and it was only right that I should pay half the fare, as they wouldn’t be wanting me any more. I’ll never forget the way they said it to me. I thought it was totally unfair and I asked them how a flight from America could cost so much. They told me it was the only ticket that was available. It was a business ticket and it did cost that price. I found it hard to understand why they could not have got a cheaper ticket”
“They gave me the cheque to pay for the ticket under promise that I would pay back half the money when I had it. As it happened, before I left New York I had suspicions that something would be amiss so I told a very, very good friend of mine, Donal Gallagher about my fears. He was over the Donegal team in New York and was very anxious that I would return to play in the New York championship which they were determined to win”
“When I went to the airport the morning after the Meath game I found that there was a double reservation. I suddenly realised it was Donal in New York who had made the reservation to make sure there would be no hiccups. The ticket he had booked had cost around £400, and the County Board had got their money. I felt that I was totally used and I was angry. Maybe if it was player that was on the scene for a very short time one might think that the County Board had a case, but I was with them for seven or eight years and had given total commitment to the County team.”
“There was only one thing on my mind and that was to play football and be good at it. And I knew the only way to do that was to train well and be part of a county team. It is a great thrill for anyone to wear a county jersey and that is the way I approached things. When I thought about what had happened I realised I was used and it was a terrible feeling. As far as the County Board were concerned, all my service to Kildare was worth nothing. I made no decision at the time. I was really enjoying my football in New York and the standard was very high. I captained Donegal on two occasions to win the championship and it was a great honour.”

Thanks for posting.

Maybe its just me but that makes absolutley no sense. How could the county board have a ticket and also give him a cheque. Either they had the ticket or he had the cheque not both. So if he had a cheque for £750 quid why didn't he just go buy the £400 ticket???

Yeah Im struggling with that too. He says he got a cheque from KCB to pay for the ticket (£750) but when he got to the airport another ticket for £400 was already purchased for him by the crowd in New York.
So he could have just ripped up the £750 cheque and went back on the £400 ticket?? Therefore no big deal..KCB and Larry not out of pocket.

But then he says the county board got the £400 from New York and he still got back to NYC so Im really lost here!!!

Bottom line...he wanted KCB to fly him back which they bought an expensive ticket for and in return they asked for half the money which the crowd in NYC would end up paying. So wheres the problem?

Hard to follow but mountains and mole hills on Larry's part spring to mind trying to decipher that one.

Perhaps mountains and molehills is correct, maybe not. Tomkins was upset at being asked to pay half of the return fare, especially after the manager had said there was no problem in KCB covering the cost. This is in the context of after his contribution to Kildare GAA over the years, remember £350 would have been a lot of money in those days.

He had already used his own ticket on the flight from the US to Ireland. He used the £400 ticket to get back to the US and the County board got to keep their money. The county board would not have known that the NYC crowd were paying anything towards the ticket, nor did the care.

Larry would never have left Kildare if he had been asked to come back for the 1986 championship. The manager was told that Tompkins was not to be selected and this effectively finished his Kildare career

Hmmmm sounds familiar. Can't think though where I've heard that kind of thing before.

I didn't hear about him not being picked in 1986 because of a dictat but I would have thought the thing with the money was straightforward enough. He was raging to be asked to pay half of a ticket when he had made his own way home. He was especially raging when they got such an expensive ticket. And more so again when he found that while he had been told there was no other ticket, he found that the crowd in New York HAD gotten him a cheaper ticket, which made the story about the business class ticket being the only one available seem questionable.

All I can say is 'Thank fuck'.

They should have paid his air fare. Is that an excuse to up sticks and never play for Kildare again? Is it fcuk. Fair enough, live and let live, it happened 25 years ago, but don't try and dress it up as anything it wasn't: he left because he wanted to win things.