For fans of Donegal, football, and quirky stories that had almost slipped away, Secret Superstars: The Hidden History of the Kennedy Cup is a real treat. A summer tournament that was played in Moville, Co Donegal featured teams that combined junior (non-professional) players and big-name players from clubs in Scotland, England, Northern Ireland, and the Republic. The catch was that the professionals were not supposed to play during the summer months but they found various ways to play incognito. The Cup was played from the mid-1950s up to the start of “The Troubles” in 1970.

A labor of love produced and directed by Tom O’Flaherty, the film explores how some of the best professional footballers of the 1950s and 1960s came to the picturesque little shoreside pitch in Moville to play in the Kennedy Cup. The prize money of two thousand pounds sterling was the big draw but the camaraderie and hospitality of the town were equally attractive. This was long before professional soccer players were paid daft sums of money for signing or transferring from club to club. The local volunteers fund-raised year round to get that prize money, almost 60,000 pounds in today’s money.

O’Flaherty found some fine eye-witnesses to interview. Paddy Crerand, of Scotland and Manchester United, was more of an ear-witness (he never played in that Cup) but he heard the unlikely stories and fills in some of his own footballing history. Johnny “Jobby” Crossan from Derry was someone who did feature in the Cup throughout his extensive professional career with clubs in England, Northern Ireland, Holland, and Belgium.

The archival football footage is remarkable and three of the men who filmed get mentioned in the credits. And there are classic scenes from the famous European Cup finals of 1967 and 1968 won by Glasgow Celtic and Manchester United. Celtic’s wing wizard, Jimmy Johnstone, did play in the Kennedy Cup but watch him dancing by defenders in the European highlights. Donegal produced two legendary Irish football goalkeepers, Packie Bonner, and Shay Given, but this film includes a surprising revelation about the great Irish actor, Ray McAnally, who grew up in Moville.

I can testify that Moville is and was passionate about football and Glasgow Celtic in particular. I stayed one night in Moville during a driving holiday in the late 1990s through Antrim, Derry, and Donegal with my son, sister, and brother-in-law. We went to a small pub for dinner and were ushered into a side room with a cosy fire. Over the fire, where many houses would have had a Sacred Heart picture, there was a large painting of Henrik Larsson, the Swedish international star who was then playing and scoring goals for fun at Celtic. The picture of him with his glorious dreadlocks dominated the room. The film was screened at the San Francisco Irish Doc Fest on Saturday, March 4, along with some other intriguing films: Violet Gibson: The Irish Woman Who Shot Mussolini; North Circular; and, The Man With The Moving House, Brendan Begley’s saga about getting permission to build on his ancestral land near Dingle.