‘Match for Hoss’ resumes next month

ON the first day of May this year, a group of local lads will play a game of football to celebrate the memory of their much-loved peer, Joe McDermott, and to raise money for the Kevin Bell Repatriation Trust who helped return their dear friend home following a fatal accident in Australia in 2015.

After a two year pandemic induced hiatus, the fifth ‘Match for Hoss’ (the nickname by which Joe was better known to his friends) will be played on the Sunday of the May bank holiday weekend.

One of Joe’s close friends, Barry Kerrigan, explained the importance of the match and the Kevin Bell Repatriation Trust.

Barry said, “After Joe’s accident in November 2015, it was arranged that we would play a football match every year in May around the time of his birthday – it would be a team from the Tamlaght Road, where Joe grew up, against a team comprised of his family and friends from around the town and beyond.”

Turning to the Kevin Bell Repatriation Trust who, to date, have repatriated more than 1,100 people on the island of Ireland, he said, ‘they truly are an amazing charity’.

Barry continued, “I – like many – only found out about Kevin Bell on the day of Joe’s accident, when I heard they were organising everything needed to bring Joe home to his family: His father, Tommy; mother, Donna; and sister, Laura.

“I couldn’t imagine anyone having to sort that out themselves in their time of grief, and Kevin Bell make sure families don’t have to.”

After being prevented from running the match as a result of Covid-19 restrictions for the past two years, Joe’s friends and family are hopeful for a large turn out as usual this year, and another fantastic day of fundraising, and, all-importantly, remembering Joe.

Commenting on her hopes for this year’s game, Joe’s sister, Laura said, “Joe’s best friends wanted a way to celebrate him every year so created the annual football match in which friends and family take on Shandon Park.

“Shandon Park was a great place to grow up, and never a day passed that Joe and his friends weren’t playing football.”