By Dylan O’Connell
If Irish football is one large pyramid, very few have a view of it like Bandon native Richie Holland. The Galway United coach has seen and done it all, from working at local level to standing on the line in the League of Ireland while overseeing the development of a number of underage internationals. Holland’s pathway to the top of the domestic game has taken a lot of turns, and he tells Dylan O’Connell all about his road to the top.
“I took over an under 18 team in Bandon – I was only a couple of months over age actually,” says Holland, looking back.
“It was my mates and stuff. They had no coach. So I could do it and all that kind of stuff. It kind of kicked off from there.”
That was the start of a career that would take Holland from the Cork Youth Leagues to the League of Ireland Premier Division, to his current home at Galway United where he works under Enniskeane native John Caulfield.
What took things to the next level was a FÁS coaching course run by Cork City legends Mick Conroy and Paul Bannon.
“I really got into it properly when I was in the FAS course with Mick Conroy and Paul Bannon,” he explained.
“I was at Cork City at the time as a player as well. I got an injury on the course, on the FÁS course.
“I broke my foot. Mick got me to take charge the team for a couple of games because he saw the kind of leadership qualities in me. That was my first kind of taste of doing tactical stuff and being involved with players while doing team meetings and stuff.
“That was the first kind of exposure to it. So I went on and did my introductory badges while I was injured. I just continued it from there.
“Then I started taking teams when I could in the evenings. I started getting my hours in, in terms of coaching sessions around West Cork. I was doing different teams and all the rest of it.
“I went into the West Cork League and I did two Kennedy Cups with them, the West Cork League. I continued with Bandon and I coached some underage teams at Ballinhassig. Eventually then went on and did my B licence.”
Holland had serious momentum at that point in his career and he used it to gain more coaching roles around Cork.
“I was working for the Cork ETB as a sports tutor in Cork city,” he added.
“I was going around to youth centres and doing football programmes and stuff while I was still playing as well.
“Eventually did my A licence. I was Kennedy Cup manager for Cork as well in 2017. I got the Noel O’Reilly Coach of the Year Award from the FAI that year as Grassroots Coach of the Year.”
“I got the call from John Caulfield in the middle of 2017 to say I would come into Cork City and work in the academy. I was in the academy and Colin Healy got involved after. We were on the same team then, their Under-19s. I worked with the academy and kept up my education. Eventually Colin progressed to academy manager and first team manager. I went in with him then.”
Holland and Healy went into a City team that desperately wanted to feel good about itself after experiencing relegation in 2020 from the Premier Division, just three years after claiming a league and cup double. The coaches led the club to promotion in 2022, at the expense of Galway United and Waterford, an emotional achievement that was celebrated across Cork.
That was made even better by the emergence of David Harrington, a goalkeeper that is now declared for Wales at international level. Mark O’Mahony and Franco Umeh broke in, and now ply their trades with Brighton and Hove Albion and Portsmouth in addition to the Republic of Ireland Under-21s.
At Cork City, Healy departed a year later and Holland was put into the hotseat during a campaign that ended with relegation through the play-offs.
Holland later joined Cobh Ramblers, to work under former Iran and Qatar coach Mick McDermott. They proved to be a winning combination as the club won the Munster Senior Cup and pushed for the First Division title, only to fall short in the final few weeks of the season.
Holland is now at Galway United, and he is back coaching in the Premier Division with an FAI Cup tie to come in July.
“It’s a different part of the country and there’s great people up here,” Holland talked about life at Eamonn Deacy Park.
“Galway is pretty similar to Cork in terms of they’ve got their own club in the city. The games at Eamonn Deacy Park have great atmosphere.
“The Premier Division is going from strength to strength every year with the quality of the players and stuff like that. We’re taking it game by game but there are no illusions where we are compared to other teams in the division, budget wise and resource wise.
“We’re competitive in every game and hopefully we’ll push for the second half of the season.”
Galway United were in midtable at the midseason break, but a strong finish could propel the club up the table and into the European spaces. The club have also been drawn against amateur side Crumlin United, a winnable tie on paper that could set up a trip to the Aviva Stadium in the winter.
The sky is the limit for Galway United and the club, just three years on from winning promotion to the Premier Division. Holland is a large part of the club’s revival and current position in the Irish football pyramid.
His work now serves Galway United, and as an inspiration for any coach starting out in West Cork and Cork city.
