“The Sam” drew an enthusiastic young audience in a previous visit to Philadelphia.
Jim McGuinness, manager of the Donegal Senior Football Team that this year snagged the All-Ireland Senior Football Championships, played on Philadelphia’s Donegal team for five short weeks in the summer of 1996. He visited Philly again in 1999, and evidently liked what he saw.
When he arrives on Tuesday night for one more visit—this time to the Philadelphia Irish Center—he’ll have some splashy company. It’s called the Sam Maguire Cup, more familiarly known as “the Sam,” awarded to the winning senior football team.
“Jim McGuinness was here 13 years ago,” says Louie Bradley, chair of the Philly Gaelic Athletic Association team, the Delco Gaels. “He hasn’t been back in all that time, and he knows a lot of people here, which is why he wants to come back.”
The Philadelphia visit is one of several in the U.S.—a kind of victory lap that will take McGuinness and the cup to such Irish hotbeds as Chicago, Boston and New York City. The Irish Center event—billed as “An Evening with Jimmy McGuinness and the Sam Maguire Cup”—will also bring to town two Donegal all-stars, Mark McHugh and Michael Murphy.
As eager as McGuinness is to visit Philly, the Sam Maguire tour schedule is tight. Bradley says the local Gaelic Athletic Association, which had only a couple of weeks to pull things together, was hoping to get the Donegal delegation to come to town on a Saturday, but “we had to take what we could get. We are lucky to get them.”
Nevertheless, the local GAA is expecting a great turnout on Tuesday night, with 250 to 300 of tickets already sold, with time to sell more. “It should be a big crowd,” says Bradley.
Admission to the event is $50, which will buy you hors d’oeuvres, dancing to the music of Sullivan Bridge, and photos with the cup, coach, and his all-stars. Kids under 18 will be admitted for free. (Bradley is expecting as many as 100 of them.) Local organizations, such as the Philadelphia Donegal Association and Donegal Philly GAA, will present tributes. State Legislators (and brothers) Kevin and Brendan Boyle will present a citation from the Commonwealth. The Donegal athletes can also expect to receive the key to the city.
The event runs from 7 to 11 p.m.
