Advertisement League of Ireland Horse Racing TV Listings GAA Fixtures The Video Review Sport meets news, current affairs, society & pop culture Rugby Weekly Extra Dive into all the news and analysis 3 times a week The Football Family Weekly insights from the week’s big talking points Advertisement More Stories Jimmy (left) and Francis Genockey. Brotherly love and lifelong challenges for wheelchair users in League of Ireland The 42 spent some time with Francis and Jimmy Genockey, and other Shamrock Rovers fans earlier this week. 6.16am, 9 May 2025 Share options David Sneyd THERE WAS NO smoked cod and chips for Francis and Jimmy Genockey on Monday evening. The slightly earlier 7pm kick off between Shamrock Rovers and Sligo Rovers would have thrown a lot of supporters’ usual pre-match routines out of kilter. It was no different for the two brothers. Francis left his house in Julianstown, Co Meath and drove to pick up his older sibling at home in Malahide, north county Dublin. Usually, Francis would time it to avoid a busy M50 and get to the chipper a short drive from Tallaght Stadium. “I’m not telling you the name of it, it’s the best smoked cod and chips in Dublin,” Francis says. Fair enough. Jimmy isn’t complaining. “I’m keeping my money for my holidays anyway,” he says. Jimmy is off to Tenerife with his daughter. “Your money? Sure his daughter pays me to get him out of the house,” Francis says, sharply. At 77 he is the younger of the two brothers by eight years. They’re two of 12 children, who began life in in Dublin city centre before moving out for fresh air in Artane because of their mother’s Tuberculosis. Five of the children have passed away. “Three girls and three boys left,” Jimmy says. “No, four boys, sure the eldest brother is out in Australia,” Francis says. Somehow, Francis is still around to put Jimmy right. Spend enough time with Francis and he will put you right. In 1962 he was 15 years old and Shamrock Rovers mad. Unlike Jimmy and his father, he did not join them in the newsstand business on Westmorland Street. Advertisement Instead, he left school and began work in a wood factory cutting veneers a few doors down from the old Stardust nightclub near their home. Until an accident led to him almost losing both of his legs. “The machined hadn’t been working properly, nowadays the place would have been closed but back then… I was standing in the middle and was sliced through,” Francis says. The surgeon was able to save one leg, and so began an intensive three-year-period of recovery and rehabilitation at the old Jervis Street Hospital. “You know he never even got a penny out of the place,” Jimmy says. “You’re joking,” The 42 replies, Jimmy’s eyes lighting up as he delivers a line he’s no doubt hit “No, they told him he didn’t have a leg to stand on.” “It’s apartments now,” Francis says. “The Timbermills.” Sam Bailey with his father Paul. In theory, Jimmy is Francis’ designated companion in one of two wheelchair accessible areas at ground level on either side of the South Stand. The most vocal Rovers fans are in between the wheelchair bays standing up. “That’s the only thing, it would be great if we had a raised platform for a better view and be closer to the atmosphere,” Francis says. Graham Merrigan was recently appointed as Rovers’ Disability Access Officer (DAO), a position now required as per Licensing through the FAI. He agrees with Francis’ take on a more suitable viewing area being higher up, like in the away ends at St Patrick’s Athletic and Cork City. “They’re the best I’ve been to in the country, that’s where you feel part of it in the away end which is exactly what you want,” Merrigan says. Nobody is complaining here, just making valid observations from their lived experience as football supporters in the League of Ireland stretching back decades. Jimmy isn’t quite as hardcore as Francis, and has only started coming to games since 2023 after a rough few years. His wife, Veronica, passed away three years ago and for months afterwards he didn’t want to leave the house. His own health deteriorated and now he uses a walker to aide his mobility. “I know when I have to ask for help but he’s still stubborn,” Francis says. “Well I’m here with you,” Jimmy replies. One year into his younger brother’s recovery, Jimmy took Francis out of Jervis Street Hospital and made the short trip with him to Dalymount Park for the Republic of Ireland’s European Championship qualifier against Austria. It was 13 October, 1963 and a team boasting Noel Cantwell, Tony Dunne, Charlie Hurley and a 23-year-old Johnny Giles won 3-2. But Frank O’Neill was his hero. “He came to see me in hospital to cheer me up but he didn’t know what to say and was so shy, I think I did most of the talking,” Francis says. The 90 minutes of action is no time for idle chat, a routine 2-0 win improving the mood, although both goals were scored at the opposite end where it’s not easy to make out the play from pitch level. When two Rovers volunteers take the usual order during the first half for complimentary refreshment at half-time, the gesture is received enthusiastically as always. Sam Bailey is 15 years old, 16 next March, and asks for a Fruit and Nut bar and a bottle of Fanta. His father, Paul, helps his son where necessary. He was born with type 2 spinal muscular atrophy (SMA), which causes progressive muscle weakness and loss of movement. But right now there is more pressing matters. “I’m still getting over the Bohs game,” Sam says of the 3-2 comeback win for Rovers’ great rivals last month. “I can’t believe that happened.” Thirty minutes into the game a few of Sam’s friends from school in Rathcoole come down from the South Stand to say hello before going back up to their seats. He is hoping to attend his first away game against Waterford next week, a challenge in more ways than as there is no designated option to purchase wheelchair accessible tickets online despite the RSC having wheelchair access with a raised platform that’s part of the away section. Another teenager, Sean Scully, is 17 and on his own for this match after building enough confidence since Covid to make the trip on the Luas whenever his father or cousin can’t make it. He’s from a St Pat’s heartland in Ballyfermot and, like, Sam, has yet to go to an away game other than the one held at Aviva Stadium for the league opener with Bohs. He admits to a hesitancy but knows what he wants. “There is nothing better than being here on a Friday night.” Rovers has been Francis’ release for decades, both before and after his life-changing accident. He met his own wife, a nurse, at one of the dances arranged by the Irish Wheelchair Association and they built a family together while he also spent years fundraising. His life away from Rovers continued to enthral, too, representing Ireland at Paralympic Games in Stoke Mandeville & New York in 1984, Seoul in 1988 and Barcelona in 1992, winning bronze in the shot put. And when full time comes against Sligo, the countdown already begins to tonight’s visit of Drogheda United. And the usual smoked cod and chips. On the back of some of the issues raised by supporters during the course of the article, The Beat submitted the same five questions relating to accessibility issues to all 20 League of Ireland clubs. You can read the responses here. David Sneyd Viewcomments Send Tip or Correction Embed this post To embed this post, copy the code below on your site Email “Brotherly love and lifelong challenges for wheelchair users in League of Ireland”. 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