THE customer who made off with a cherished All-Ireland football semi-final memento from Blake’s Bar in Letterkenny has offered a sincere apology for his actions.
The framed article ‘15 Men And A Baby’ was taken from the wall of the pub in the lead-up to Christmas.
The piece was written by local poet and author, Frank Galligan, and reflects back on Donegal’s famous All-Ireland semi-final win over Mayo in 1992.
It’s an article that has drawn attention and praise from so many who have frequented the popular Letterkenny pub over many years.
Its disappearance was only discovered on Monday night when Frank was in Blake’s along with his friend, the former Derry Journal editor, Pat McArt, who coincidentally, had asked Frank to write a piece on the big game for the paper all those years ago.
Kevin Blake, the owner of Blake’s, takes up the story: “I went to tell my son Harry that Frank was in the bar and that he was the person who had written ‘15 Men And a Baby’. It was only then that we realised it was missing.
“We were able to check back on our CCTV and discovered that it had been lifted from the wall on December 17”.
On Tuesday morning, Kevin took to social media to ask for help in tracking down the person responsible. Within a couple of hours, the customer had got in touch. And while he was genuine in his apology, he said the framed article was lost.
“Frank was actually in with us on Tuesday morning when he phoned,” Kevin said.
“We’re hoping now that we can get a copy of the article from the Derry Journal archives.
“It’s disappointing because it had hung on the wall in the bar for over 30 years. You don’t want something like that to be taken.”
The ‘15 Men And a Baby’ article paints a picture of the 1992 All-Ireland semi-final day in Blake’s Bar where among the customers was a man from Kilcar whose wife was in the maternity ward at Letterkenny General Hospital about to deliver a baby boy.
In the lead-up to the birth, and knowing how much her husband wanted to see the game, she’d suggested he go down to Blake’s to watch the match.
Frank – in his own brilliant way – captured the excitement and drama – both on and off the pitch – in his article.
“Would you believe it, the baby in the story called into the bar himself a couple of years ago to say hello,” Kevin added.
“Hopefully now we can get the article from the archives and get it put back up on the wall. As Frank said himself, the whole thing can then be satisfactorily resolved.”
