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Gary Bownes Tribute.
This tribute was written by David Clarke with the help of a number of people 5 years ago after Gary's death and published on the old Irish League Forums website.
On Sunday, 26th June, 2005 the Irish League family was rocked with news of the passing of highly-rated Dungannon Swifts striker Gary Bownes.
The following tribute would not have been possible without the guidance and input of the Bownes family, Gerry Byers, Gordon Lee, Julian Nixon, Harry McConkey, Whitey Anderson, Ray Sanderson, Johnny Hallawell, Gareth Liggett, Joanna Clarke, Joe McAree, betty from ILF and John McVitty for photographs.
IN THE tightly-knit world that is Irish League football the sudden loss of a highly respected and popular individual in the game causes widespread and genuine sorrow. A recent example of the football community coming together to mourn one of its own was the untimely passing in December 2004 of the Chairman of Loughgall, the late Raymond Nesbitt. The sudden death of a player, however, brings its own distinctive shock and sadness. The sense of loss is deep as we mourn one so young, gifted and popular and wonder what he might have gone on to achieve.
Gary Bownes, who died on 26th June 2005, was an Irish League talent whose star was in the ascendant. Arguably the most gifted Fermanagh footballer of his generation, he was a player whose name the small football fraternity in the Erne county had spoken of for years as potentially the first Fermanagh player to win honours at the top level in the Irish League since Jimmy Cleary at Glentoran. Gary had been a household name in the Fermanagh football community ever since his performances for the County as a 16 year-old at the 1995 Milk Cup, and years serving his time at Second Division club Ballinamallard Utd. "Who's yer man the No.10, he's a class wee player!" was often heard from visiting supporters to Ferney Park and so, at the beginning of last season when he arrived at Dungannon Swifts, not many had heard this unusual name.
Some Saturday afternoon radio commentators and match reporters who hadn't done their research were continually found out during last season. Was it really pronounced "bo-nez", as one reporter seemed to use persistently any time he was checking in from a Swifts game? Perhaps he thought Gary was one of the Portuguese contingent at Stangmore Park. If he had only bothered to make a random call to any phone number in Fermanagh he would most likely have been told "sure it's just 'bonus'". Simple. Not that Bownes is a common name in Fermanagh, just that almost everyone in the county knew or knew of Gary Bownes. The astute Joe McAree at Dungannon Swifts knew exactly who Gary Bownes was and must have felt he had won himself a bonus when he finally signed Gary from Ballinamallard Utd in the summer of 2004 after several attempts. In what turned out to be his only season at Stangmore Park Gary Bownes made an immediate impact on the Carnegie Premier League with a top goalscoring contribution to the Swifts' historic 2004/05 season when they finished 4th place in the table.
Beginning with 2 CIS Cup goals - his second in the 1-1 draw at Portadown which secured Swifts a quarter-final place against Linfield - Bownes netted against a total of 9 different Premier League clubs last season including the Ports & Limavady Utd in both league & cup, and home & away in the league against both Ballymena Utd and Institute. Scoring in the final 2 games of the season at home to Omagh Town and once again at Shamrock Park - 2 crucial wins which dramatically clinched 4th place for Swifts - Gary fulfilled the promise of 15 goals in his first season which he made to McAree on the day he signed. "Bowney" had quickly become popular with the management team and players at Stangmore Park and was an immediate hit with the fans. It was clear to everyone back at Ballinamallard, who still saw him regularly during the season, that he loved playing for his new club.
Born on Christmas Day 1978 in Carrickfergus, Gary was the perfect present for his parents Ken & Irene, who would become his biggest fans throughout his career along with his younger sister Joanne. Gary spent his early childhood in Ballinamallard before moving to Cookstown during his primary school years. On the family's return to Fermanagh he attended Portora Royal School in Enniskillen - traditionally a rugby school - but it was with the round ball where the young Gary's talent lay. His natural flair for the game was nurtured by the Ballinamallard Youth system through the early 1990s and he progressed through the age groups to become an exciting young player for the senior club with the IIIs and the Reserves in the Fermanagh & Western league.
As Dungannon Swifts players, officials and fans witnessed last season Gary's commitment to his club was total. Consider also season 2001/02 at Ballinamallard. After an early end to a tough Irish League campaign with the first team Gary offered his services to Reserves' manager Gordon Lee. With 9 games left in their Fermanagh & Western Division 1 campaign the season looked over already for the Reserves. There was only the slimmest mathematical possibility of winning the title but in reality the team was struggling even to secure a top half of the table finish. The mere sniff of a title spurred Gary into action. He almost single-handedly turned the season around for the Reserves, leading them to win 25 of the remaining 27 points to surge up the table and take the Division 1 title, bringing the coveted Mercer Cup to Ferney Park. Gary had won a league title and he was hungry for another at Irish League level.
Blessed with wonderful balance and artistry Gary earned the nickname "Gluefoot" at Ferney Park for his ability to keep the ball at his feet whilst leaving the opposition bewildered. In contrast to his humility off the pitch he oozed confidence on it and delighted the fans with his cockiness which sometimes saw him beat defenders and go back for more, before giving a wink to the bench or his adoring fans. And of course he could score goals, wonderful goals, with either foot - from a sublime curling free kick, or an audacious penalty which seemed barely to trickle over the line past a nevertheless totally deceived keeper, to walking the ball into the net leaving a trail of defenders and the keeper behind him.
Gary had spells at both Coleraine and Bangor during his time at Queen's University studying Engineering. He finished his studies early with the intention of resuming at a later stage and returned to Ballinamallard where he linked up with old teammates like Nigel Keys, Bob Carroll & Gareth Liggett who were by then forming the nucleus of a promising and youthful side in the Irish League Second Division. The timing was perfect as player/manager Harry McConkey - himself one of only a handful of Fermanagh men who had made it at a higher Irish League level - was putting together a squad of the best young talent available in a small county like Fermanagh with the total population of a large suburb of Belfast. McConkey's aim was to bring an Irish League title to the county, won by a team of Fermanagh players, and he felt Bownes was one of the keys to fulfilling that ambition.
McConkey made Bownes one of the lynchpins of his team. Though great to watch, more often than not in the first couple of seasons the young side found itself regularly smothered by the older, wiser and harder men of the Second Division. However, McConkey persisted with this free-flowing style which suited Gary down to the ground and he emerged as one of the key players in the Ballinamallard Utd team which in season 2002/03 made history by becoming the first ever Fermanagh team to win an Irish League title.
The creativity of Gary Bownes, at 24 one of the elder statesmen in the team, was a crucial element in this success as he finished the season top goalscorer again. Ballinamallard Utd doesn't benefit from the level of financial backing of other Irish League clubs and that particular season finances were tight at Ferney Park. Gary won his Irish League medal playing for the shirt on his back. In the same season Gary also played in the Intermediate Cup Final against H&W Welders, by coincidence at Stangmore Park, but the dream of the league & cup double was ended when the normally deadly penalty taker missed in the shoot-out. He was fallible after all. Nevertheless his outstanding performances for Ballinamallard that season were rewarded with selection by Mervyn Bell to the Northern Ireland Junior International squad for the autumn 2003 tour to Holland where he was joined by former Ferney Park teammate Shane McCabe, by then at Glenavon, with whom he would later link up again at Swifts. Gary was Bell's first choice for the No. 10 shirt.
Joe McAree was biding his time to sign Bownes for Swifts. He had tried to tempt Gary to Stangmore Park after Ballinamallard's Irish League title win but Bownes committed himself to remaining at Ferney Park for another season. The likeable youngster had come to his attention during the 1995 Milk Cup when Joe was running the Co. Tyrone set-up.
Bownes's goals took Ray Sanderson's Co. Fermanagh side all the way to the final of the Milk Cup Plate competition where a team of Blackburn Rovers hopefuls including Damien Johnson & Damien Duff were too strong. McAree had witnessed a natural talent which he was determined to watch for the future. Gary never forgot the value of his experience at the Milk Cup and he gave a lot of time back over the years coaching and fundraising for the Fermanagh Milk Cup committee. He took an interest in the Irish Youth League and regularly enquired from the u18s players how they were getting on. The teenagers coming up through Ballinamallard Youth looked up to him and wanted to be the next Gary Bownes.
During season 2003/04 Gary decided to take a short spell out from the game and from his work as a draughtsman at Fisher Engineering to travel to Kenya to undertake charity work with disadvantaged children. He would miss a few crucial league games for Ballinamallard but McConkey knew that it was something Gary had to do. His time in Africa proved to have a profound effect on Gary who, as well as being the life and soul of any party, was also a deep thinker as well as a young man of faith. McAree came knocking again at the end of the season and this time Bownes could not resist his wooing and finally made the step up to the Carnegie Premier League by signing for one of the most ambitious clubs in recent years, Dungannon Swifts. Gary left Ferney Park after a presentation made to him by former Ballinamallard player and Northern Ireland international, then with Manchester Utd, Roy Carroll at the 2004 annual dinner and with the good wishes of everyone at the club, delighted that he was getting an opportunity to shine at the highest level in Irish League football.
Gary Bownes went on to become top goalscorer at Dungannon Swifts last season and became the first ever Swifts player to be awarded the Guinness Football Writers Player of the Month Award for his performances in March 2005. He took great pride in his award, and also in the Manager of the Season Award going to the man whose persistence had brought him to Stangmore Park. Gary had won a new legion of fans and admirers throughout the Carnegie Premier League for his silky skills on the pitch and his friendly nature off it. At Ferney Park too he created a tremendous sense of pride among his old friends at what he had achieved in his first season in the big time. "Told you so", was often to be heard at Ferney Park along with the sound of mutual backslapping as the confident predictions of many at the club of Gary's success at Carnegie Premier League level were finally realised. The fact that Ballinamallard Utd were struggling in the First Division, not helped by Gary's departure, didn't matter. To most it seemed Gary Bownes had the world at his gifted feet as he prepared to travel with Dungannon Swifts on their pre-season tour to Canada this summer before embarking on what promised to be another, perhaps even more successful, season in the Carnegie Premier League.
Gary's star was extinguished suddenly on 26th June, and we will never know what he might have gone on to achieve in the top level of Irish League football. Like an increasing number of young men in Northern Ireland today Gary suffered from an illness about which, in this modern age of advanced medicine, little is known and even less understood. Depression isn't something that you can just snap out of, like a bad mood after your team gets beaten on a Saturday and then a few hours later or the next day you say, "sure it's only a game of football" or "ah well, there's always next week" and you go on with your daily routine. Depression is a debilitating illness which can consume the sufferer and, like any other illness, requires sometimes intensive medical treatment.
Few knew the full extent of the burden Gary was carrying recently in trying to cope with his depression. In spite of treatment and the loving support of his family and closest friends, the illness led to his untimely death at the age of only 26.
Thanks for the memories Gary.
Rest In Peace.
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