Bonner starts its football season in Ireland. For one team captain, it’ll be a reunion game his ‘Nana’ gets to see

A few weeks ago, Kieran Farren was wiping the sweat from his forehead after a Bonner-Prendergast practice in Drexel Hill. The undersized all-Catholic League center was laughing about how the sweat and sun manifests his Irish side in the reddish tint of his hair. He’s a prototypical Bonner-Prendie football player, large on heart and hand-in-the-mud grit, though generously listed at 5-foot-8, 200 pounds.

Farren spoke excitedly about making travel arrangements with his family for the Friars’ big trip to Dublin, Ireland, where Bonner-Prendie will start its season Friday against the NFL Academy UK at Energia Park. The game is part of an American football weekend that also features Notre Dame playing Navy on Saturday at Aviva Stadium (2:30 p.m. Philadelphia time, NBC10).

The trip means a little more to Farren. It’s a chance to reconnect with his paternal grandmother, Eileen Farren, his 92-year-old “Nana,” who lives in an assisted-care facility on the outskirts of Dublin and who Kieran has not seen in about seven years.

Before packing for the trip, there was much to unpack. He openly pondered whether she would remember him, whether he would be able to understand her thick Irish brogue, and whether this would be the last time he sees her.

“The idea of the trip began two years ago, so we had to raise a lot of money for this to happen,” said Farren, Bonner-Prendie’s senior class president who departed for Dublin with his family on Aug. 17, before the Bonner-Prendie contingent left Tuesday. “When I heard we were going, the first thing I thought about was seeing my grandma. This is like a family reunion. It’s my first time in Ireland, and I get to play football in front of my extended family. I’m looking to get life-savoring memories from this.

“My parents were more nervous about this than me because they were the ones who had to make the travel arrangements. Everyone is excited, though. That is all we have talked about the last few weeks. My grandma knows we are coming. This will be the only time she’ll see me play, and that weighs on me a good amount. She may not know what I am doing, but I know I will be doing it for her. I was 10 the last time I saw my Nana, when she lived in Upper Darby before moving to Dublin in 2016.

“I definitely think I’ll be a different person when I get back. It will give me a different perspective on larger things.”

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Farren also figures this will be the beginning of the end on the field for him. He does not see himself playing football beyond this fall and hopes to major in business at Delaware, St. Joseph’s, Penn State, or Villanova, where his older brother goes. Over the next four months, his sub-major will be football. He is captain of what could be a stellar team. The Friars already return a star on defense in 6-5, 215-pound edge rusher Mylachi Williams, a Penn State commit, along with sophomore defensive back Dylan Abram (offers from Penn State, Boston College, Virginia Tech, and Temple), and Catholic League Blue Division MVP senior safety Isaiah Session, in addition to talented freshman quarterback Kenjai Gatling.

Farren is the only returning starter on the offensive line. The Friars finished 11-2 in 2022, their best season since 1994, when Bonner last won the Catholic League championship. The 2022 Friars won the District 12 Class 4A city championship and broke the single-season school record for points, losing only to Inter-Academic League power Haverford School and to District 2 champion Crestwood in the PIAA Class 4A state quarterfinals.

“I’m ready for that,” Farren said about being one of the team leaders. “I still think people are sleeping on us. I love that. It motivates me. I have a lot invested in this year. If anything, I tend to be a planner who looks ahead. I have to be more in the moment this year. I’m more someone who leads by example, but I’ll open my mouth when I have to. It’s going to be hard leaving it behind. Football has been part of my life since I was 7 years old playing youth football. It’s been everything to me. It kind of made me. Then to have this trip start [of] my senior year, and to have this team, we take a leap with the talent and the coaches we have, the timing was perfect.

“This will be a year I won’t forget, and it starts with the Dublin trip.”

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Jack Muldoon is entering his seventh season as head coach of the Friars and 11 years total with the program. In the last year, because of the trip, he found his role extending to team concierge. He organized everything from travel plans, schedules, fundraising, practice times in Dublin, hotel availability, to, most of all, being a logistical juggler for all the times families and players have changed plans throughout this process.

No worries, however, about Farren.

“Kieran is smart, he’s tough, certainly not a big kid, but he’s a very good athlete and plays center with very good leverage,” Muldoon said. “Kieran is a great leader. He has all of the tools, with the exception of not being very large.

“It took us two years to make this trip happen, and we had to raise over $200,000, with much of that coming from ads and fundraising. We got a lot of big help for this trip. I have to give a big shout out to [Bonner-Prendie president John Cooke]. There were meetings every week for a year to make this happen. I was warned that this would be the trip of a lifetime, but also warned that it would be a logistical nightmare. We finalized everything in March.”

One of the first people Muldoon told was Farren’s mother, Liz, the Bonner-Prendie math department chair, who let him know about Kieran’s grandmother living in Dublin.

There were 63 players, coaches, and administration who left Tuesday. With extended family and friends, the Bonner-Prendie traveling party was close to 300.

The Friars will be staying in the University of Dublin dorms. Kieran and his family have the luxury of staying with Kieran’s paternal aunt.

When contacted Tuesday morning in Dublin, Kieran’s greatest concerns were allayed. Nana needed some prodding with a picture of baby Kieran to recognize him, and he understood what she was saying.

“Her accent wasn’t too bad. She still needs to be reminded a little who we are, but it definitely was emotional,” Kieran said. “This whole trip is turning into something that I will always remember. It’s something that I’m really glad my family decided to do. I would say this whole thing has turned out better than expected. Now we have to win on Friday.”

He figures he will have plenty of sweat and sun on the emerald Irish grass this Friday to accent his heritage.

“If not,” Kieran said, laughing, “I won’t have to look far to find it.”