IT'S a remarkable story really. Ricky O'Flaherty, general bon viveur and pub owner, one time all Ireland medalist in Irish dancing, dual football player and sometime brickie who was on London's sites when Galway won the Cup in 1991, turns Inchicore cult hero, his goals taking St Patrick's Athletic to the brink of the double. Life begins at 30 and all that.
If there's a Man of the Moment going into Monday's FAI Harp Lager Cup final then it's O'Flaherty. Strong, quick and as brave as they come, he's scored 22 goals from all sorts of range in 38 games this season, including seven in his at times personal crusade to lift the cup for St Patrick's.
Pinch him he must be dreaming? "When I moved up at the start of the season I was hoping just to do well in the league, and to bang in a few goals. But to be top overall scorer, and to have won the league and be in the cup final is just unbelievable. Fantasy football, I think."
It's by no means the second coming of a fluctuating career. The ability had long since been earmarked. From youth football with Galway Bohemians, he joined Galway United when he was 16, subsequently earning the first soccer scholarship at UCG.
However, after his first year he took up an offer to go on trial with Coventry before joining Wolves. But it was the bad old days at Molineux under the reclusive Bahti brothers, when wages weren't always forthcoming. O'Flaherty returned to Ireland, mixing the two codes of football with Galway United and the Galway senior side, with a two year hiatus spent "in the States and London, working the sites, playing a bit of football and enjoying myself basically."
Not exactly a kindred spirit of Daley Thompson, O'Flaherty's all round improvement and Is goal haul last season was attributed by former manager Tony Mann ion to an improved fitness level. "Yeah, I suppose getting myself fit and concentrating totally on the soccer they were the two main reasons.
Along came St Patrick's, already endowed with three Galway based former team mates, and Brian Kerr, whom he knew from Irish Youths days. This season has been better than ever, playing off Liam Buckley, with stiff competition up front and with Kerr demanding more of him.
I'm enjoying the football we're playing with Pat's it's totally attacking football. They're a great bunch of lads and the supporters have taken to me. I'm that type of person. I like to give something back to them besides what's on the pitch. I feel players in the League have a duty to go and mix with the supporters."
A bus load of Galway supporters will travel from Ricky's Bar in Raven Terrace. "The one day they could be all tanked in the pub watching it on tv, they're all getting a bus up to shaggin' Dublin," he says with a hearty laugh.
"I think it has all the makings of a super game. You have two good, attacking sides, not afraid to score goals. Our confidence is flying at the moment, we're on the crest of a wave and I think we might have that little something extra, I don't know whether you call it hunger, or determination, or confidence but I think we might just have that little edge."
