New York GAA honours Frank Brady with Lifetime Achievement Award

Frank Brady, the second oldest of ten – seven boys and three girls, was born in Manorhamilton, Co. Leitrim, to the late Bernard and Mary Kate Brady in the early fifties. After attending the local primary school, the young Brady lad received his secondary education at St. Patrick’s College, Cavan, where he represented the school in football, handball and cross-country, winning an Ulster medal in the latter.

Frank continued his athletic and academic careers at Maynooth, and graduated with a B.A. and H. Dip. Ed., while also representing the university in soccer and Gaelic football, winning a Universities League medal at Croke Park in 1970. Further credentials followed as Frank qualified as a primary school teacher at St. Patrick’s College, Drumcondra, while also winning a Trench cup medal with the trainee teachers. He began his teaching career in Ballintrillick N.S. Co. Sligo, before moving to Glangevlin Co. Cavan, where he was instrumental in promoting youth football.

Indeed promoting football has long been a focus of the Brady family. The Brady Cup, which was sponsored by Frank, was an annual competition for many years in which first –year post primary students played in. The cup was in honour of Frank’s late uncle John Joe, also a teacher, who was an ardent promoter of Gaelic games in north Leitrim in the 30s, 40s and 50s.

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Frank began his football career with the Sean McDermott club before becoming one of the original members and players on the newly formed Glencar-Manorhamilton club in 1969. Success came quickly, as Frank was centre-back when they won the junior league in their inaugural year. He had a good run with the newly formed club; they won the junior double in 1970, the intermediate championship in 1973, the senior league in 1976 and the senior championship in 1977.

Besides being a player, Frank was also the trainer for a few of these years. He also played in all grades with Leitrim as well as winning cup and league medals with Manor Rangers and Glencar Celtic in the Sligo-Leitrim soccer league in the mid-seventies.

The Manor man first arrived in the States in 1970 on a student visa, but would regularly return in the 70s during his summer holidays to work and play with Leitrim. He moved permanently to the States in 1978 and continued his very active sporting career. Frank played soccer with the New York Shamrocks, ran with the College Point Track club and played Gaelic football with Carlow. Really the only thing Carlow about the club was the name, as most of the players were from Kerry.

Besides being a regular player for nearly a decade, Frank held a variety of positions, including trainer, captain, secretary and he was their guest of honour in 1983. He also won a Metropolitan League medal with the Shamrocks as their goalkeeper. During these years while juggling a variety of jobs, Frank returned to the academic world and was conferred with a Master’s Degree and a Doctorate in Education from New York University.

The Brady Bunch celebrates Frank's award - (from left) Kelly, Douglas, Frank, Helen and Sharon

In the early nineties he resumed his allegiance with the Leitrim GFC and over the next decade, with Frank at the helm, and Frankie Dwyer, Paddy Gormley and Danny Doohan RIP as the backroom team, and what became known as the Brosie and Donahue era, Leitrim would win five New York senior football titles. He also published a history to commemorate the centenary of the club in 2004. He was the club’s guest of honour in 2005.

Frank’s football involvement was not just confined to Leitrim. He was the first to manage New York when they entered the Connacht championship in 1999 and for a few subsequent years as well. So far Frank has the sole distinction of being the only individual to manage both the New York men’s and New York ladies’ teams. He also refereed for all three boards, and he’s currently an active referee with the ladies.

In the nineties and noughties Frank was active in the St. Barnabas club and coached a number of youth teams with Davie Hannon and the late Jim Joe Brady R.I.P. In later years he had a very successful stint with the St. Barnabas junior and intermediate teams as their trainer and was part of Eamon Deane’s management team. He was the club’s guest of honour in 2009.

Frank was also part of the management, along with Dessie Reilly, of the very successful Cavan ladies team. He was honoured by the Ladies Board in 2019.

In the nineties Frank was a track coach at the St. Paul the Apostle elementary school in Yonkers where his children Douglas and Sharon along with Michelle McVann(Kerry/Donegal) won Westchester titles in middle distance races. Frank has been an avid runner since he was a teenager and has completed dozens of 5ks and half marathons through the years. Most recently he has been running with Team Aisling.

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Aside from Frank’s involvement in the GAA, he also dabbles quite extensively in journalism. He is a prolific writer of letters to editors, and his submissions have appeared in all the main publications of both sides of the Atlantic, but especially the New York Post and the Daily News. He is currently the Gaelic Sports columnist for the Irish Echo. Frank has also been the subject of a chapter in a book by the Irish Times sports journalist Keith Duggan about football in New York, titled, “The lifelong Season”.

In 2016 Frank authored a chapter “The GAA in America and the Nationalistic Movement” published by the United Irish Counties Association, titled “The 1916 Easter Rising, New York and Beyond”. Frank, along with a Leitrim lady, Fiona Smyth(nee Finneran) were the driving forces that brought Scor to the New York GAA.

He has been a writer and distributor of the Leitrim Guardian in New York for more than thirty years, and in 2015, Frank was named the Leitrim Guardian Person of the Year. Frank, a former president of the County Leitrim Society, has been a very active member for many years and received the Distinguished Service Award in 1996.

Over the last decade Frank has been on the Board of Directors of the Aisling Center, and also a founding member of Team Aisling. He’s a lector at St. Paul, the Apostle Parish, in Yonkers.

Paralleling Frank’s extensive sporting and cultural exploits, was a very successful academic career. He joined the faculty at Long Island University as an instructor in 1990, and rose through the ranks to become a full tenured professor and chair of his department before retiring in 2015. His scholarly research was integrated into the prevailing university textbooks. He also lectured periodically at Queens College, Lehman College and NYU.

Naturally since retiring Frank has been spending a bit more time on the golf course, especially on the Sheridan Tour, where handicaps are regularly challenged In the summers he can be found tooling around in his vintage cars in the scenic hills of north Leitrim. 

Frank has been married to Helen (nee Clancy), a native of Glenade, Kinlough since the seventies. Helen is a retired x-ray technician and nurse from Montefiore and is a noted vocalist and artist. The nuclear Brady family includes son Douglas, a sergeant with the Yonkers Police Dept. and daughter Sharon, a speech language pathologist in Connecticut.

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The extended family includes Douglas’s and Kelly’s six year old twins, Owen and William, and their three year old sister Emma Rose. Frank and Helen have been residing in Yonkers for more than three decades, but make frequent visits to Leitrim, where they still have a house.

We are grateful to Frank for his many years of dedicated and enthusiastic commitment to the NY GAA, and we are delighted to honour tonight.