Of all the players that have lined out for Galway Rovers/United over the years Gerry Mullan stands out as the most versatile. Newcastle man Mullan represented Galway at soccer for Galway Youths as well as Rovers/United. He played minor football for the county and was capped for Connacht while at Corinthians. Beat that! Gerry was obviously sports mad as a kid and every spare moment was spent playing soccer on the green at Moyola Park with his mates or lining out for a Corrib Shamrocks team that dominated Galway football for years. "Brother Justin set up Shamrocks in 1973 and ran it for 15 years and he was a major influence on my playing career," announced Gerry. In 1981 Gerry and Brian Long graduated from The Corrib Shamrocks academy to join Galway Rovers. "This was huge for us as we were both schoolboys playing alongside seasoned campaigners but we were accepted and quickly established ourselves in the team." That was quite an achievement for two such young and inexperienced players in a tough competitive league!

Gerry played for Rovers during the winter and minor football for Galway during the summer of 1982. In fact 1982 was a pivotal year in his career as the Galway Youth team were beaten finalists in the Irish Cup final. Eight of that team went on to play for Galway United: Jimmy Nolan, Stephen Lally, John Naughton, Michael o Toole, Ger Flaherty, Noel Mernagh, Brian Long and Gerry Mullan. He quickly established himself as one of the most promising mid-fielders in the League of Ireland but at a time when many would have had an eye on impressing cross-channel scouts the mercurial Mullen decided to change codes and switch to rugby. "There was a lot of uncertainty in the club and some of my friends were playing with Corinthians so I decided to give it a go." He was good enough at out-half to be selected for Connacht against Ulster in 1986.

Luckily for Galway United Gerry returned to Terryland gradually, playing a few games here and there before reaching his peak years in the late eighties to early nineties. In 1992-93 Galway won the First Division title and Gerry was voted the division's player of the year. Playing to terrific crowds in Glenina the following season United finished third in the top division. After a few strong performances in 1988 against Shamrock Rovers (who he frequently scored against) and Dundalk there was talk of interest from Aston Villa. Naturally Gerry would have loved to have followed in the footsteps of former team-mate ‘Chick' Deacy and gone to Villa Park but he acknowledges that his ‘missing years' cost him that opportunity. "You really want to be heading over to England when you are between 17 and 21 and I probably wasn't hungry enough for the opportunity. But hindsight is 20:20 vision."

Gerry has some great memories of his time at Galway United having played alongside such greats as Deacy, Lally, Mernagh, McGee, Bonner, Carpenter, Flaherty, Nolan, Gough etc. He also had his fair share of managers, playing under Herrick, Mannion, Malone, McDonagh and McGee. He is very impressed by the financial stability in the present set up as the lack of this throughout United's history caused a lot of problems and in-fighting. "A few times we came close to having a really good team but then players and managers would be let go and we were back to square one. In fact the current squad could use some more experience as it is a relatively young group and you need experience more that anything to survive in this league. To attract the best to Galway you need big money and to offer the potential to challenge for the league and Europe. Asked his fondest memory Gerry recalls playing Shamrock Rovers in 1988 at Terryland. "We were down 2-0 early in the match, with ‘Chick' sent off after 16 minutes. But roared on by a buoyant crowd we turned them over 3-2!" In Gerry's own words: "Remember the good times and laugh about the bad ones!"

- Mike Geraghty        http://www.mgwords.com/