THERE should be a statue made from the finest bronze of Jackie Maxwell in the grounds of Belfast City Hall.
It should be accompanied by a plaque explaining exactly who this giant of a man was and what he did with his life.
Without fear of contradiction, Jackie Maxwell did more for the youth of Lenadoon than any government or statutory body ever did. He was an utterly selfless individual who didn't let personal tragedy beat him.
St Oliver Plunkett Youth Club thrives to this day because of his altruism.
'Jackie Maxwell's Black and White Army...' echoes still among the 'Plunkett kids who never met him.
His memory will never die...
AMID the burning of Bombay Street and the siege of Ardoyne 50 years ago, the fledgling St Oliver Plunkett Youth Football Club was born in the Lenadoon area of west Belfast.
The football club, which was an offshoot of the Blessed Oliver Plunkett Youth Club, was formed to give the kids in the area a sporting focus.
These were tumultuous times in Belfast where hundreds of families had been displaced through the violent sectarianism that swept through city and beyond and found themselves in new housing areas such as Lenadoon.
They were refugees in their own city.
With the considerable help of the-then parish priest Fr Stewart and local man Bertie Buchanan, the club acquired a temporary base in the local school's assembly hall in 1969.
The club eventually moved to a wooden portacabin, a modest dwelling, in 1971.
Cliftonville provided the new youth club with a red linen kit before they declared black and white would be their colours.
Men such as Danny Collins, Tommy and Pat Johnson and Dominic McEnhill became key to getting the new club off the ground and before too long ‘Plunkett’s raw talent were winning leagues and cups in the Down & Connor Youth Football League.
St Oliver Plunkett was further energised by the arrival of local man Jackie Maxwell in 1971.
Jackie Maxwell was a special kind of volunteer, a one-of-the-kind: charismatic, straight-talking, compassionate and tough.
Jackie would soon become the beating heart of the club despite the fact that the youth club’s doors were shut and funding was withdrawn. But he regarded obstacles that were designed to be overcome.
His living room became the club’s headquarters, his garage the changing rooms and his Volvo Estate Car the team mini-bus.
The running joke at the time was that 'Plunkett were the only side to suffer cramp before games with up to 10 kids crammed into Jackie's car.
Jackie only became involved in the club after he tragically lost his two sons Gerard and Sean – aged 10 and 13 - on December 11 1970.
As normal, Gerard and Sean headed up the Glen Road to do their newspaper round when a car knocked them down and killed them.
'Plunkett chairman Marty McLaughlin says of his former mentor: “Jackie always maintained that it was the club that saved him rather than his unstinting dedication that saved the club.”
St Oliver Plunkett spawned the professional careers of Anton Rogan, Phillip Mulryne, Paul McVeigh and Jim Magilton.
Although ’Plunkett was achieving sporting excellence on the field, Jackie once remarked that he would have organised snakes and ladders just to bring the kids in but everybody wanted to play football, so football became their game.
“Jackie was revered," says McLaughlin. "He was tough talking but with a heart of gold. Back then you only got respect by being totally straight. He was totally selfless."
Jackie died in 2012, aged 75, but he’d already created the next generation of volunteers at 'Plunkett.
Just like Jackie, they are helping to make their community better - and they're making a good job of it.
Today St Oliver Plunkett have 48 boys teams, five ladies teams and close to 100 coaches competing at elite and local grassroots level.
“Many of those involved in the running of the club and the coaching are ex-players who came through under the tutelage of Jackie and carry on the ethos he insisted upon,” McLaughlin says.
“Jackie once said that it gave him as much satisfaction seeing a lad kick a ball down the street on his way to training as watching them lift trophies.”
Jackie’s death in 2012, he says, was a “hammer blow” to everyone associated with the club - just a month after watching ’Plunkett sides win three NIBFA Cups.
In 2017 ’Plunkett became the first club in Britain and Ireland to win the UEFA Gold Grassroots club award for not only their exemplary standards on the pitch but initiatives off it.
McLaughlin adds: “We had 11 teams – 150 kids – at the Foyle Cup this year and after their games they were singing: ‘Jackie Maxwell’s black and white army’. These kids are 10 or 11. Jackie’s passed away some seven years; these kids don’t even know him – and yet they were singing his name."
On September 7, St Oliver Plunkett will celebrate its 50th birthday in a special ‘Black and White’ gala evening in Belfast’s City Hall.
The invite is extended to anyone who ever kicked a ball, washed a kit, drove a bus or supported the club in any way.
It will be a night when one of the greatest human co-operatives ever created in this city comes together to celebrate the past, the present and almost certainly the future. Always the future…
Tickets for the event are still available. For more information contact: Marty McLaughlin 07729691215, Fiona Morgan 07977178345 or Brendan Mervyn 07921833217.
