AFTER DR CROKES had been put away in extra-time, Errigal Ciaran plans had to be put in motion instantly with under eight days to prepare for an All-Ireland final.
Manager Enda McGinley was ahead of the curve. The Carrickdale Hotel in south Armagh was the stop-off point on the road home from Kildare, where the players gingerly eased themselves into ice baths to start their recovery.
At 9pm, his older brother and club chairman Emmett, alongside whom he won the Ulster championship in 2002, put a message into the club committee WhatsApp group, calling a meeting for the following morning at their clubrooms.
By 10am Sunday, 17 people were in the room. They drew up plans and activities, with other events popping up throughout the following days.
On Monday afternoon, they had a machine on the main street of Ballygawley town, putting more blue and gold bunting from lamppost to lamppost.
Up at the club grounds in Dunmoyle, they hosted a press event.
A schedule of events was sent out on social media. McGarvey’s shop trades normally in Calor gas, barbecues and lawn mowers, but the main stock flying out this week was flags, horns and woven bracelets.
On Friday night, the Parish Priest, Fr O’Dwyer will be saying a club mass in the Church of Immaculate Conception.
Straight after that, the local media outfit ‘TeamTalk Mag’ will be hosting an ‘Up For The Match’ event at Canavan’s Bar and motel, where you might catch proprietor, Peter.
A chance to soak up any potential hangovers is happily supplied by Quinn’s Corner on Saturday morning as he hosts a ‘Big Breakfast’, and again, hosted by Paudge who scored Tyrone’s first-ever goal in an All-Ireland final.
The local secondary school, St Ciaran’s Ballygawley, will be closed on Friday and Monday, while Thursday was an ‘Errigal Day,’ with pupils encouraged to wear club colours.
The hype is off the charts, but it doesn’t get in on either McGinley brother, who both have their own way of damping down the excitement.
For Enda, he is aware that when others took on the role of Errigal Ciaran manager, they became allergic to appearing in public spaces. Evenings out in Ballygawley were to be avoided.
Advertisement
That’s not an issue for him.
“In terms of not going into the town, I’m not the most sociable of creatures anyway!” McGinley says.
“I wouldn’t be massively sociable anyway and certainly I would know the pressure after a defeat or when maybe the team are not going well, issues with some players, team selection and all that.
What I was acutely aware of is how personal it is to the players and the people in the club. We do take our football seriously. Probably too seriously.
“And so, there’s a really clear sense of responsibility in taking on a group that was going really well and was already punching at a high level, with an ambition to push on even more.”
He was armed with the knowledge that in management you can do everything to the very best of your ability. And that the rewards do not necessarily follow.
“From my own experience as a player, being managed by brilliant managers, including the likes of Peter (Canavan). I mean that was some of my best years of club management that I ever had in my time as a player,” he says.
“We didn’t have any luck in getting over the line under Peter, but I use it for my own perspective. I still use stuff that Peter gave us, and yet in the end it was Ronan McGuckin came in the year after Peter (2012) and we won a championship.
“I know how defeats are taken around home so you were going to give it absolutely everything with zero guarantees and a huge risk of hurt; to yourself, to the players and to the club.
“So that’s the prospects of the job!”
The 2002 Ulster winning Errigal Ciaran team with three McGinley brothers. INPHO
INPHO
That some success has arrived is welcome, but McGinley has an exceptionally busy home life. He and wife Gerardine, a former Antrim footballer, have five children and she works in Belfast.
The evenings are a race towards creche, childminders and two different schools, before dinners and homework. Getting into the car to go to Dunmoyle, with at least two children along with him, is something he has done over 150 times this season since they started back properly in March.
Fitting things in must be a family trait.
Three years ago, Peter Canavan sat down with Emmett McGinley in the Glenavon Hotel in Cookstown and they explored the possibility of Emmett becoming the club chairman.
Most men in his position wouldn’t have dared think such a thing was possible. As a director of McAleer and Rushe, one of the UK’s largest design and build construction companies with projects all over England and Scotland, he works two, sometimes three days a week in their office in London.
Emmett McGinley in action for Errigal against Castleblayney in 2000. Tom Honan / INPHO
Tom Honan / INPHO / INPHO
“My work has always been in England. I travel to England every week for the last 15 years and that was not going to change, it couldn’t change. If I was going to take on this role, I had to have the right people around me to take on work,” he says.
“In a funny way, it’s amazing how much stuff is done on your phone. Virtual meetings, it’s amazing how much you can get done on a quiet evening in your hotel. Just keeping stuff pushed along, chatting different people.
“You are not annoying your family at home when you are stuck on your phone. They know I am in England, I’ll be back Thursday and I can get plenty of work done over there.”
In relative terms, Errigal Ciaran are a big club when compared to the ones that surround it, but dwarfed nonetheless by a club like Cuala.
Errigal’s club adult membership in 2024 was 535 members. Five years ago, Cuala’s membership was around 3,000, and projected to climb to 4,500 within a decade with the changing demographics and expected growth.
In the bluntest terms, Errigal Ciaran jersey are sponsored by the local butchers; Traynor Meats, while Cuala’s jerseys are emblazoned with the American multinational biotech company, Amgen. The club hurlers have previously had Huawei, the Chinese technology giant, on their jerseys with launches held in Croke Park.
“It’s a rural club. Yes, we have the town and that, but Dunmoyle is very much a rural part of the world,” says Emmett.
“People wonder where they are coming when they are coming up here. Six miles out of Ballygawley and you reach Dunmoyle.
“We spent a bit of money sorting out the car park and getting signs up, and our crest, just to have a bit more identity. We are very proud of this place and a bit more identity around the place helps.”
Though it remains true that the greatest tool in recruitment is success. In that, his brother Enda knows that after all the slices of fortune are handed out, he might just be a lucky general.
“I always felt I had something to offer, and that management team had something to offer. And rather than the club going outside to replace Adrian (O’Donnell) and Mark (Harte), you wanted to take on the responsibility, to do my duty so to speak. Do my bit for the club and give something back,” he says.
“And hope, beyond hope, that stuff would fall our way. And it did.”
To embed this post, copy the code below on your site
Close
Comments
This is YOUR comments community. Stay civil, stay constructive, stay on topic.
Please familiarise yourself with our comments policy
here
before taking part.
'I know how defeats are taken around home' - Errigal Ciaran is a family affair for McGinleys
AFTER DR CROKES had been put away in extra-time, Errigal Ciaran plans had to be put in motion instantly with under eight days to prepare for an All-Ireland final.
Manager Enda McGinley was ahead of the curve. The Carrickdale Hotel in south Armagh was the stop-off point on the road home from Kildare, where the players gingerly eased themselves into ice baths to start their recovery.
At 9pm, his older brother and club chairman Emmett, alongside whom he won the Ulster championship in 2002, put a message into the club committee WhatsApp group, calling a meeting for the following morning at their clubrooms.
By 10am Sunday, 17 people were in the room. They drew up plans and activities, with other events popping up throughout the following days.
On Monday afternoon, they had a machine on the main street of Ballygawley town, putting more blue and gold bunting from lamppost to lamppost.
Up at the club grounds in Dunmoyle, they hosted a press event.
A schedule of events was sent out on social media. McGarvey’s shop trades normally in Calor gas, barbecues and lawn mowers, but the main stock flying out this week was flags, horns and woven bracelets.
On Friday night, the Parish Priest, Fr O’Dwyer will be saying a club mass in the Church of Immaculate Conception.
Straight after that, the local media outfit ‘TeamTalk Mag’ will be hosting an ‘Up For The Match’ event at Canavan’s Bar and motel, where you might catch proprietor, Peter.
A chance to soak up any potential hangovers is happily supplied by Quinn’s Corner on Saturday morning as he hosts a ‘Big Breakfast’, and again, hosted by Paudge who scored Tyrone’s first-ever goal in an All-Ireland final.
The local secondary school, St Ciaran’s Ballygawley, will be closed on Friday and Monday, while Thursday was an ‘Errigal Day,’ with pupils encouraged to wear club colours.
The hype is off the charts, but it doesn’t get in on either McGinley brother, who both have their own way of damping down the excitement.
For Enda, he is aware that when others took on the role of Errigal Ciaran manager, they became allergic to appearing in public spaces. Evenings out in Ballygawley were to be avoided.
That’s not an issue for him.
“In terms of not going into the town, I’m not the most sociable of creatures anyway!” McGinley says.
“I wouldn’t be massively sociable anyway and certainly I would know the pressure after a defeat or when maybe the team are not going well, issues with some players, team selection and all that.
“And so, there’s a really clear sense of responsibility in taking on a group that was going really well and was already punching at a high level, with an ambition to push on even more.”
He was armed with the knowledge that in management you can do everything to the very best of your ability. And that the rewards do not necessarily follow.
“From my own experience as a player, being managed by brilliant managers, including the likes of Peter (Canavan). I mean that was some of my best years of club management that I ever had in my time as a player,” he says.
“We didn’t have any luck in getting over the line under Peter, but I use it for my own perspective. I still use stuff that Peter gave us, and yet in the end it was Ronan McGuckin came in the year after Peter (2012) and we won a championship.
“I know how defeats are taken around home so you were going to give it absolutely everything with zero guarantees and a huge risk of hurt; to yourself, to the players and to the club.
“So that’s the prospects of the job!”
That some success has arrived is welcome, but McGinley has an exceptionally busy home life. He and wife Gerardine, a former Antrim footballer, have five children and she works in Belfast.
The evenings are a race towards creche, childminders and two different schools, before dinners and homework. Getting into the car to go to Dunmoyle, with at least two children along with him, is something he has done over 150 times this season since they started back properly in March.
Fitting things in must be a family trait.
Three years ago, Peter Canavan sat down with Emmett McGinley in the Glenavon Hotel in Cookstown and they explored the possibility of Emmett becoming the club chairman.
Most men in his position wouldn’t have dared think such a thing was possible. As a director of McAleer and Rushe, one of the UK’s largest design and build construction companies with projects all over England and Scotland, he works two, sometimes three days a week in their office in London.
“My work has always been in England. I travel to England every week for the last 15 years and that was not going to change, it couldn’t change. If I was going to take on this role, I had to have the right people around me to take on work,” he says.
“In a funny way, it’s amazing how much stuff is done on your phone. Virtual meetings, it’s amazing how much you can get done on a quiet evening in your hotel. Just keeping stuff pushed along, chatting different people.
“You are not annoying your family at home when you are stuck on your phone. They know I am in England, I’ll be back Thursday and I can get plenty of work done over there.”
In relative terms, Errigal Ciaran are a big club when compared to the ones that surround it, but dwarfed nonetheless by a club like Cuala.
Errigal’s club adult membership in 2024 was 535 members. Five years ago, Cuala’s membership was around 3,000, and projected to climb to 4,500 within a decade with the changing demographics and expected growth.
In the bluntest terms, Errigal Ciaran jersey are sponsored by the local butchers; Traynor Meats, while Cuala’s jerseys are emblazoned with the American multinational biotech company, Amgen. The club hurlers have previously had Huawei, the Chinese technology giant, on their jerseys with launches held in Croke Park.
“It’s a rural club. Yes, we have the town and that, but Dunmoyle is very much a rural part of the world,” says Emmett.
“People wonder where they are coming when they are coming up here. Six miles out of Ballygawley and you reach Dunmoyle.
“We spent a bit of money sorting out the car park and getting signs up, and our crest, just to have a bit more identity. We are very proud of this place and a bit more identity around the place helps.”
Though it remains true that the greatest tool in recruitment is success. In that, his brother Enda knows that after all the slices of fortune are handed out, he might just be a lucky general.
“I always felt I had something to offer, and that management team had something to offer. And rather than the club going outside to replace Adrian (O’Donnell) and Mark (Harte), you wanted to take on the responsibility, to do my duty so to speak. Do my bit for the club and give something back,” he says.
“And hope, beyond hope, that stuff would fall our way. And it did.”
To embed this post, copy the code below on your site
All-Ireland Final Errigal Ciaran GAA Gaelic Football McGinleys