{"id":329,"date":"2019-03-12T09:19:01","date_gmt":"2019-03-12T09:19:01","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/vroamam.com\/wordpress\/?p=329"},"modified":"2021-12-31T18:09:16","modified_gmt":"2021-12-31T17:09:16","slug":"gordon-banks","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/vroamam.com\/wordpress\/blog\/gordon-banks\/","title":{"rendered":"Gordon Banks"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

A Hero Who Could Fly<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Eulogy by Don Mullan
Stoke Minister Church, Stoke-on-Trent, England
4 March 2019<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n
\"\"<\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

Distinguished guests, dignitaries and\nfriends, I must begin by thanking Mrs. Ursula Banks, and her children, Robert,\nWendy and Julia, and extended family, for affording me this singular privilege\nof saying goodbye to the people\u2019s Knight \u2013 the supreme gentleman of football \u2013\nour beloved \u2018Sir\u2019 Gordon Banks. I extend to you all my heartfelt condolences. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

I am conscious that I am but one of many thousands\nof Gordon Banks fans, especially goalkeeping fans, across the globe who mourn\nhis passing. These include Graham Plimmer, England; Eric Talavet, France;\nAnthony LaPaglia, Australia; and Thor Helge Bergan, Norway.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Last year an old Super 8 movie of a\nchildren\u2019s football game was found in the Creggan Estate, Derry, in the north\nof Ireland. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

There is a wonderful innocence in the 1967 footage\nof boys emulating their footballing heroes, with goalposts of bundled coats and\njumpers. To us, these were the goalposts of unbranded stadia like the old\nVictoria Grounds, Anfield, Old Trafford, the Brandywell and Wembley. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The footage includes an 11-year-old\ngoalkeeper, in a yellow top, for I was the England number one goalkeeper, Gordon\nBanks – world cup winner, and soon to be six times FIFA Goalkeeper of the Year.\n<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There is nothing in the movie to suggest\nthat a few years later gun battles between the British Army and IRA would rage\nalong the field where the game is played; that civilians and soldiers would die;\nand that an unbridgeable chasm would open between my community and the Army,\nespecially after the introduction of Internment in the summer of 1971 and\nBloody Sunday in 1972. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Bitterness reigned in the aftermath of the\ntragedy and as I turned 16, the temptation to embrace the path of violence increased.\n<\/p>\n\n\n\n

However, two years earlier I had a life\nchanging experience, thanks to my beloved working-class father, Charles. Just\nsix-weeks after \u2018That Save\u2019 from Pel\u00e9, my boyhood hero travelled to\nneighbouring Co. Donegal with Stoke City FC for a preseason friendly. Seeing my\nhero from the terraces was my only expectation. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

But, unknown to me my father hid my famous scrapbook\n\u2013 a 500-page Crown wallpaper book – in the boot of his old Vauxhall Victor. We\npulled into Jackson\u2019s Hotel and he told me to wait with my mother and a friend.\nA few minutes later he emerged, animated and calling, \u2018Don, come here! Come\nhere!\u2019 Confused, I followed him into the hotel foyer and immediately spotted my\nscrapbook with a tall man leafing through it. Then my father spoke the magic\nwords: \u201cHere he is Mr. Banks.\u201d And with that, Gordon Banks turned around. Words\ncannot adequately describe that moment. It was, quite honestly, like being\ngranted an audience with God!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I was given unforgettable goalkeeping tips\nfrom the maestro. And to my parents delight he encouraged me to work hard at\nschool before autographing my scrapbook: \u2018Best wishes Don, Gordon Banks\u2019. But\nmy abiding memory is of the gentle courtesy and respect he showed to my mother\nand father, no doubt seeing in them a reflection of his own. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Irish \u2018Troubles\u2019 intensified and a few\nyears later I was asleep in my bedroom when I was awakened around 4 am with the\nroar of armored vehicles outside our house, followed by fists pounding on our\nfront door. An English voice shouted, \u2018You\u2019ve 10 seconds to open the door or\nwe\u2019ll break it down.\u2019 <\/p>\n\n\n\n

I rushed from my bedroom, calling to my\nparents that it was an Army raid. I was swept aside as 15 or more soldiers stormed\nin. I followed one soldier into my bedroom. He seemed to freeze as he surveyed\nthe wall. Instead of Republican and IRA paraphernalia the wall was decorated\nwith posters of the 1966 England World Cup winning team, of the 1972 Stoke City\nLeague Cup winning team, and giant posters of Gordon Banks. Visibly confused he\nasked, \u2018What\u2019s this mate?\u2019  I told him\nthat Gordon Banks was my hero and pulled from under the bed my scrapbook and\nshowed him my prized Gordon Banks autograph. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cSir!\u201d he shouted, \u201ccome and see this.\u201d\nPerhaps thinking a weapon cache had been discovered the officer arrived and soon\na line of British soldiers were queuing to see my Gordon Banks autograph. The\naggression suddenly dissipated and soon I was sitting on our stairway holding\ncourt with the British Army discussing Anglo-Irish affairs. When word came\nthrough the radio that I was to be arrested the officer assured my mother that I\nwould not be harmed. An hour later, as I stood facing a wall in an Army base, the\nofficer told me I was free to leave – and even offered me a lift home! <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Gathered as we are on the ancient hallowed\ngrounds of Stoke Minster where the great Josiah Wedgwood is buried, I must express\nmy gratitude to one of his descendants, BBC Radio Stoke\u2019s Tim Wedgewood, for\nrekindling that moment of magic my father ignited in 1970. In 2004, following\nan interview about one of my books, Tim asked me about my lifelong admiration\nfor Gordon Banks. Unknown to me he had Gordon Banks listening and 34 years\nafter my first audience with \u2018God\u2019, I was now talking to him live on radio. I\ntold him that my bucket list included having a photograph taken with him.\n\u201cAnytime, Don,\u201d he told me, and invited me to Stoke. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Thanks to Terry Conroy, I traveled over in\n2005 with my 14-year-old son, Carl, and Terry\u2019s two nephews, Paul and Mark. This\nwas an emotional reunion, even as a 49-year-old adult. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Beforehand, the songwriter, Phil Coulter,\nalso from Derry, famous for \u2018Puppet on a String\u2019 and the 1970 World Cup song\n\u2018Back Home\u2019, advised me to be careful. \u2018It can be a dangerous thing to meet\nyour boyhood hero as an adult\u2019. Phil was afraid that I might be disappointed. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Was I? Absolutely not. In fact, my\nadmiration and love for Gordon Banks increased. I realised the courteous,\ngracious, kind and gentle man who had shown so much respect to my parents in\n1970 was the same man I was standing before. He was not only the world\u2019s\ngreatest goalkeeper, I had a colossus of humanity for a mentor. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the past few weeks, I\u2019ve been deeply\ntouched at how the people of Stoke and Staffordshire, and fans from home and\nabroad, have festooned with reverence and respect, Andrew Edward\u2019s magnificent statue,\nerected with the support of the Gordon Banks Monument Committee. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the often-vexed history between Ireland\nand England, perhaps this is the first monument ever championed by an Irishman to\nan Englishman. I hope so. For me, it was an outpouring of gratitude to an\nEnglish sporting hero who, in the best way imaginable, changed the trajectory\nof an Irish boys\u2019 life. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

During her historic visit to Ireland in\n2011, Her Majesty, Queen Elizabeth II spoke words that touched many. At a\nbanquet in Dublin Castle she said:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201c\u2026\nit is impossible to ignore the weight of history\u2026\nthe relationship [between Ireland and Britain] has not always been\nstraightforward; nor has the record over the centuries been entirely benign. It\nis a sad and regrettable reality that through history our islands have\nexperienced more than their fair share of heartache, turbulence and loss. These\nevents have touched us all, many of us personally, and are a painful legacy\u2026\u201d <\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Five years before Her Majesty spoke those words, I had written a\nmemoir called \u2018Gordon Banks: A Hero Who Could Fly\u2019. It is my eulogy to an\nEnglish icon who allowed me to become his friend, and the friend of his family.\nRecalling my boyhood teammate and best friend, Shaunie McLaughlin, tragically\nkilled in a car crash in 1976, I wrote the following words. Words that\nencapsulate all that Gordon Banks has been to me:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201c[Shaunie and I] lived through exceptional moments together: we\nfaced what were for us epic choices about life and death and war and peace. <\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

At the same time, we lived in an era when sporting heroes were\nordinary and unassuming men whose very modesty was the oxygen of dreams. And\nacross the water, on a neighbouring island with whom we Irish had been in\nconflict for centuries, I had a hero who could fly. His name is Gordon Banks.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

From being a timid, fearful young boy, he taught me that\nimpossible doesn\u2019t exist. Unknown to him he helped save a young fan from making\nchoices that had brought too much sorrow and sadness to Irish and British\nalike. <\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2018Who knows? Perhaps it was his best save ever.\u201d<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Farewell, kind friend. Thank you, Gordon Banks! <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Don Mullan<\/p>\n\n\n\n

European Ambassador, Pel\u00e9 Little Prince Children\u2019s Hospital Research Centre, Brazil
Consultant, United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD) <\/p>\n\n\n\n


<\/p>\n\n\n\n


<\/p>\n\n\n\n


<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A Hero Who Could Fly Eulogy by Don Mullan Stoke Minister Church, Stoke-on-Trent, England4 March 2019 Distinguished guests, dignitaries and friends, I must begin by thanking Mrs. Ursula Banks, and her children, Robert, Wendy and Julia, and extended family, for affording me this singular privilege of saying goodbye to the people\u2019s Knight \u2013 the supreme 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