Down in the hollow

Playing a new game

— Van Morrison

BELFAST — It’s just after noon near the docks in Belfast, a stone’s throw from where the Titanic was constructed and set out on her fateful maiden voyage.

Locals are quietly sipping pints of Guinness.

We are inside a sports bar.

Only to us visitors — and certainly to the regulars — it is no ordinary watering hole.

It is full-fledged Canada — hockey, CFL, even a barkeep who dresses up like a Mountie — in Northern Ireland.

More than 500 game-worn hockey sweaters are proudly displayed inside Rockies Sports Bar, including from all 52 Canadian university teams, every Canadian major junior team, as well as off-the-radar national teams such as Mexico, Iceland, Sweden, and Ireland’s now-defunct squad.

It is, to put it mildly, an impressive salute to the game of hockey, and hardly what you’d expect to find in a bar on this island, which features two hockey rinks in the North and precisely zero in the republic.

How did we wind up here, staring up at game-worn Brampton Battalion, Ryerson Rams and Brandon Wheat Kings sweaters some 5,000-plus kilometres from the self-proclaimed centre of the hockey universe?

A pair of always thirsty Canadian travellers were sent here at the suggestion of a ticket-taker at the Titanic museum. Like good Canucks, we asked her about the Belfast Giants, got to talking about the hockey team when she proclaimed, “Keefer. Of course we know him. We love Keefer here.”

A mention of Adam Keefe, captain of the Elite Ice Hockey League’s Giants, face of the franchise and younger brother to Sheldon, newly named Toronto Marlies head coach, is what led us to this fascinating slice of Canadiana — the only pub of its kind on the Emerald Isle.

In a sports landscape dominated by soccer, hurling and that other version of hockey — played on a field — the place is a black sheep.

Upon entry into Rockies, located by design inside the Odyssey Pavilion, which houses the 11,000-capicity arena of the Elite Ice Hockey League’s Giants, we are greeted by Wayne Baird — a Vancouver native who moved here a decade ago and, as right-hand man to bar owner and fellow Canadian Jim Graves, is the guy who dresses up as a Mountie.

“People love it. You’ve gotta play it up a bit, you know?” said Baird, stationed behind the bar, a few feet from a Mountie mannequin.

If you’re wondering if they serve pints of maple syrup and let moose out on the dance floor, they don’t. In fact, Rockies is far more hockey than it is hokey.

A few feet from the entrance sits a framed photo of The Goal by Bobby Orr, which was autographed and mailed to Graves by Orr himself.

“That, to me, is the Mona Lisa,” said Graves, who is originally from Manitoba. “The man is a legend. The photo is just so iconic.”

Next to it is a massive framed photo of notable ex-NHLer Theo Fleury, who famously closed out his career with the Giants in 2005-06, putting up a hat trick to go along with four assists and two fights in his Belfast debut.

Of course, displayed prominently behind the bar is a large picture of Owen Nolan, the closest the island has come to producing a hockey superstar. Nolan, who was born in Belfast before his family left the United Kingdom shortly after to put down roots in Thorold, Ont., won Olympic gold with Canada in Salt Lake City, appeared in five all-star games, and racked up 885 points in 18 seasons, including a less-than-memorable stint with the Maple Leafs.

At the entrance to the washrooms are a collection of Maple Leafs tickets from the team’s final season at Maple Leaf Gardens, 1999. Hanging near that same entrance is a signed David Clarkson Leafs jersey, brought in with the help of Clarkson’s good buddy, Brampton’s Adam Keefe (David’s brother, Doug, spent last season with the EIHL’s Cardiff Devils.)

Memorabilia is literally crammed into every corner of the bar. In the back room is a frame of Geraldine Heaney, Hockey Hall of Famer, Canadian Olympic gold medallist and a native of Northern Ireland, while team jerseys from Australia, Sweden and everywhere in between line the walls.

The bar’s collection of CFL jerseys recently grew to include a Simoni Lawrence Hamilton Ticats sweater, brought in by The Big Irishman, Pat Quinn’s brother, Barry, who was in Belfast researching his family lineage.

Decent little collection for a former professional goalie who never intended on owning a bar.

“It’s my house — it has never been a bar to me,” said Graves, who originally moved to Belfast to coach hockey and helped the Giants get off the ground in 2000. He also coached the Irish national team, which has since folded due to a lack of facilities.

“My pride and joy is obviously the university wall,” Graves added. “It ties in every Canadian. All Canadians, no matter where you are, have some kind of connection to one of those universities. It unites all Canadians.”

Some items, Graves said, are more difficult to acquire than others, while a Soo Greyhounds jersey he went looking for was hanging inside his bar three days later.

“Everything is donated. That’s what I’m most proud of,” said Graves, who makes a point to personally phone and thank each donor.

“There’s a story behind every item in here, there really is.”

It’s not all hockey in the place. Graves spent an entire year rounding up items in honour of Canada’s involvement in the First World War. His grandfather, originally from Scotland, joined the Canadian Expeditionary Force in 1915 at Halifax and served in France during the Great War.

“The items came from all over the world,” Graves said of a section of his establishment that pays homage to Canadian soldiers.

While Rockies has witnessed ebbs and flows over the years, the opening of the Titanic visitor attraction in 2012 has given the business a boost during the tourist season. The Giants, who attract some of the biggest crowds in the league, continue to be help ensure Rockies’ doors remain open.

“If I had located the bar anywhere else, it wouldn’t have worked,” Graves said.

While Rockies considers itself to be a “Canadian consulate” of sorts — with two rows of Canadian flags greeting visitors — there is one thing missing.

“We’re working on it,” Graves said of the noted absence of Molson Canadian on tap.

IRISH NHLers

Ireland and Northern Ireland haven’t exactly been NHL pipelines, with just a handful of Irish players making their way into the league:

Bobby Kirk, Doagh, Northern Ireland, New York Rangers, 39 GP.

Sid Finney, Banbridge, Northern Ireland, Chicago Blackhawks, 59 GP.

Jack Riley Berckenla, Ireland, Detroit Red Wings, Montreal Canadiens, Boston Bruins, 104 GP.

Jim McFadden, Belfast, Northern Ireland, Detroit Red Wings, Chicago Blackhawks, 412 GP.

Sammy McManus, Belfast, Northern Ireland, Montreal Maroons, Boston Bruins, 26 GP.

Owen Nolan, Belfast, Northern Ireland, Quebec Nordiques, Colorado Avalanche, San Jose Sharks, Toronto Maple Leafs, Phoenix Coyotes, Calgary Flames, Minnesota Wild, 1,200 GP.

TORONTO O’LEAFS

There is no shortage of lineage between the Maple Leafs and the Emerald Isle, not to mention the team was once known as the St. Pats, named in the hopes of attracting Toronto’s growing Irish population to the rink.

Leafs president Brendan Shanahan’s parents are Irish — mom from Belfast, dad from the republic — and so, too, was ill-fated Leafs acquisition Owen Nolan, born in Belfast before moving to Canada and rising to NHL stardom.

Nobody will forget The Big Irishman himself, late Leafs coach Pat Quinn, who carried the recognizable qualities of his heritage with pride.

There are many examples of the ties between Toronto and Ireland, including some strong connections between the Leafs and the Belfast Giants of the Elite Ice Hockey League. New Marlies coach Sheldon Keefe’s younger brother, Adam, serves as Giants captain, while Leafs’ assistant equipment manager Tom Blatchford honed his craft with the Belfast franchise for a few years.

The Giants, which have made North American headlines over the years by adding the likes of Theo Fleury and, most recently, pugilist Kevin Westgarth to the lineup, play out of the same complex that houses Rockies Sports Bar, a Canadian-owned, hockey-themed establishment with its own Leafs enthusiasms.

Leafs jerseys featuring the names of Mats Sundin, David Clarkson and the late Wade Belak are displayed proudly inside the bar, and owner Jim Graves would love nothing more than to help the iconic NHL team celebrate its coming 100th anniversary on that side of the pond.

“That would be unbelievable. I’ve followed the Leafs every season since I was a kid,” said Graves, a former professional goaltender in Europe who hails from Manitoba. “No words could describe it. I’d be extremely proud.”

Graves has reached out to the Leafs in the hopes of associating his U.K. establishment with the NHL team through various activities and promotions in 2017, but so far has not been successful.

“We’ve just got to bide our time,” Graves said, noting “we’ve seen a lot of ex-pats coming in over the years ... quite a few Leafs fans amongst them.”

ian.shantz@sunmedia.ca