My assistant coach, a terrorist.
I needed an idea, not a new defense. A convicted man had a brilliant one.
You hear the word Ireland, and you picture golf, pubs serving Guinness and rolling green hills. But 100 miles northeast of Dublin is Belfast, which played host to a war forgotten by most.
I lived in Belfast from 2005 to 2007. I played for a semi-pro basketball team (heavy emphasis on “semi”) and galavanted around the city during my days off. That is, until I got involved in coaching basketball at a Catholics-only high school.
In my new book, I explain this radical phenomena: Belfast’s school system and its surrounding county is segregated by Catholic and Protestant lines. Yes, today, in 2022.
I coached at a Protestants-only school, too, but without telling the Catholic kids. Then I tried to unite the groups to form one team. That failed at first, so I asked for help. You know, from terrorist group members.
I sat down with men who committed horrible atrocities during the war. They blew up bars, shot people, lined their enemies’ cars with explosives and held the city hostage with a war many thought would never end.
One of those men, Plum Smith, saved my project and helped me unite the boys. A Protestant, Plum went to prison for attempted murder of a Catholic. The boys never knew Plum was helping me. We met three times and I listened to his ideas. One of them was brilliant: get the boys out of Belfast. Bring them to the States.
I followed his advice and it worked. The boys probably credit me with it, but it was Plum’s forward thinking that coalesced that team.
This is my thank-you to Plum, unsung hero of the ongoing Belfast War.
