ASK JORDAN FLYNN about his memories of the day when Crossmolina Deel Rovers beat the illustrious Nemo Rangers to become Kings of Ireland in 2001, and he cannot, could not, forget it.
An excitable three-year-old, he ran behind the team bus in the height of ecstasy, and was hit by a car. His leg was broken.
“To be fair to Mum, she doesn’t let me forget it,” he says now.
“She had to bring me down to Sligo hospital every Monday for a year, to teach me how to get my walking right again. She won’t let me forget it, because I took away her homecoming too!”
This Sunday, almost 24 years later, he gets his chance to claim an All-Ireland for his club when they face Ballinderry Shamrocks of Derry in the intermediate final at Croke Park (throw-in 4.30pm).
If that line prompts a double-take, you wouldn’t be alone. Crossmolina were the senior champions in 2001. Ballinderry came along the following year and took the Andy Merrigan Cup for themselves.
But here they are, and anyone that feels that it means less because this is an intermediate final, doesn’t know their football.
From the 2001 team, there’s still many floating around the club. Enda Lavelle is now the chairman. Liam Moffatt is the physio. Peader Gardiner has been floating around doing bits and pieces of coaching, while Barry Heffernan is involved in the underage section.
Add in Ciaran McDonald who has never been too far away, then that group have left their legacy and are assisting in the restoration.
Talk of McDonald, Crossmolina’s most reluctant famous son has always been on hand to have an influence on Flynn.
“Ah look, he’s been massive, even with my time in Mayo, I probably wouldn’t have stuck with it if it wasn’t for him,” says Flynn.
“He just loves football. If you ask him if he wanted to go out kicking or do a running session or a skills session, he would make one up in his head in about ten minutes and he will have you gassing out in fifteen minutes. Everything is bang-bang-bang.
“Sometimes he might be asking you to do things and you’d be thinking, ‘Hang on now, that’s what you could do, but I can’t do that.’
“But he’s been massive for me. When things went wrong, he’s always been there for me.”
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Ciaran McDonald with Jordan Flynn. James Crombie / INPHO
James Crombie / INPHO / INPHO
Like McDonald, Flynn is decorated with extensive body art. His arms and hands are speckled with patterns and pictures.
Ask him to explain their significance and he tries to make small of it all.
“A few of them are more mistakes than tattoos, but I have a few meaningful ones. I have 14 on my finger for the year my Grandfather passed away. And I have a St Michael guardian angel on my arm as well. He was Michael,” he says.
“And then I have a few dotted around the place, a few mistakes on my hand, but we will get over that as well.”
Asked about the word ‘Trust’ specifically and a surprising answer emerges.
“I don’t mention it so much as a meaningful tattoo. I kind of messed up on the ‘t’ at the end so it sometimes looks like, ‘Trus’.
“But it was more of a mental thing. I wouldn’t be great at backing myself for a long time. So I took it to another extreme and put ‘Trust’ on my hand, and I look at it every day, surely I can put a small bit of trust in myself.”
James Crombie / INPHO
James Crombie / INPHO / INPHO
The present squad, under the management of Brian Benson with former Mayo manager John Maughan adding his own unique twist to things, aren’t in the business of deluding themselves.
“It probably doesn’t weigh on us in the sense that that team had gone on and done it. And they were a super team,” says Flynn.
“But when we dropped down, we knew we shouldn’t be in intermediate, but we weren’t really doing anything to show why we shouldn’t (be there).
“We were great at saying that we were a senior club and shouldn’t be there. But yet we weren’t doing anything to get back to being senior. We were relying on that whole thing of believing we were a senior club.
“It was more so that the young lads we have coming and who have come in, they deserved to be in a senior dressing room, instead of putting the pressure on them to take us out of intermediate. As the older group, we said it was up to us to do it, as we were the ones put down there.”
After dropping down, they found intermediate wasn’t simple. Most years, they couldn’t get beyond the quarter-final. In 2023 they didn’t even make it out of their group stage.
Last year felt different. Maughan was brought in and the dynamic altered.
“Ah John is great craic,” says Flynn.
“He is the sort of character that was missing. John has no fear of telling you he doesn’t like something, straight up.
“And maybe that has shone through this year. There’s a lot of lads have had great seasons. Maybe they are afraid to get on John’s bad side!”
They beat Moy Davitts in the county final. In Connacht, they were better than Galway’s St Michael’s by nine points before squeaking past Elphin of Roscommon in the final by a single point.
In the All-Ireland semi-final they were far more comfortable than they had any right to expect in beating Kildare’s Caragh by nine points. It left just eight days before this final.
In the meantime, the community have embraced the madness.
“Ah, they are on an all-time high. I have a little sister there in fifth class and to be fair, I think every one of them in fifth class have given us a hand-written card now,” Flynn says.
“They are wearing their jerseys into school, wearing face masks with players’ faces on. It’s just great excitement for them to be making songs about us.”
Being involved in the later stages of an All-Ireland series means a certain stoicism is required over the festive period.
Working for Michael Carr Foods doing deliveries around Christmas means Flynn is run off his feet and has little time to socialise during that period anyway, but he wasn’t complaining about being summoned to the ground for St Stephen’s Day training.
“To be honest, I enjoyed it.
“I remember Darren McHale from Knockmore saying that when they went through the Connacht championship, they were playing in January.
“And he was saying they were training on Stephen’s Day and it was actually the best craic ever.
“To be fair, he wasn’t lying. When we trained Stephen’s Day it was absolutely shocking out. The pitch was like a mudbath and we had just great craic.
“There was a feeling of togetherness that was nice to feel.”
One more step.
*****
Jordan Flynn was speaking ahead of the AIB GAA All-Ireland Football Intermediate Club Championship Final, which takes place this Sunday, January 12th at Croke Park at 4.30pm, between Ballinderry Shamrocks (Derry) and Crossmolina Deel Rovers (Mayo).
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'It’s just great excitement' - All-Ireland club win memories and McDonald influence
ASK JORDAN FLYNN about his memories of the day when Crossmolina Deel Rovers beat the illustrious Nemo Rangers to become Kings of Ireland in 2001, and he cannot, could not, forget it.
An excitable three-year-old, he ran behind the team bus in the height of ecstasy, and was hit by a car. His leg was broken.
“To be fair to Mum, she doesn’t let me forget it,” he says now.
“She had to bring me down to Sligo hospital every Monday for a year, to teach me how to get my walking right again. She won’t let me forget it, because I took away her homecoming too!”
This Sunday, almost 24 years later, he gets his chance to claim an All-Ireland for his club when they face Ballinderry Shamrocks of Derry in the intermediate final at Croke Park (throw-in 4.30pm).
If that line prompts a double-take, you wouldn’t be alone. Crossmolina were the senior champions in 2001. Ballinderry came along the following year and took the Andy Merrigan Cup for themselves.
But here they are, and anyone that feels that it means less because this is an intermediate final, doesn’t know their football.
From the 2001 team, there’s still many floating around the club. Enda Lavelle is now the chairman. Liam Moffatt is the physio. Peader Gardiner has been floating around doing bits and pieces of coaching, while Barry Heffernan is involved in the underage section.
Add in Ciaran McDonald who has never been too far away, then that group have left their legacy and are assisting in the restoration.
Talk of McDonald, Crossmolina’s most reluctant famous son has always been on hand to have an influence on Flynn.
“Ah look, he’s been massive, even with my time in Mayo, I probably wouldn’t have stuck with it if it wasn’t for him,” says Flynn.
“He just loves football. If you ask him if he wanted to go out kicking or do a running session or a skills session, he would make one up in his head in about ten minutes and he will have you gassing out in fifteen minutes. Everything is bang-bang-bang.
“Sometimes he might be asking you to do things and you’d be thinking, ‘Hang on now, that’s what you could do, but I can’t do that.’
“But he’s been massive for me. When things went wrong, he’s always been there for me.”
Like McDonald, Flynn is decorated with extensive body art. His arms and hands are speckled with patterns and pictures.
Ask him to explain their significance and he tries to make small of it all.
“And then I have a few dotted around the place, a few mistakes on my hand, but we will get over that as well.”
Asked about the word ‘Trust’ specifically and a surprising answer emerges.
“I don’t mention it so much as a meaningful tattoo. I kind of messed up on the ‘t’ at the end so it sometimes looks like, ‘Trus’.
“But it was more of a mental thing. I wouldn’t be great at backing myself for a long time. So I took it to another extreme and put ‘Trust’ on my hand, and I look at it every day, surely I can put a small bit of trust in myself.”
The present squad, under the management of Brian Benson with former Mayo manager John Maughan adding his own unique twist to things, aren’t in the business of deluding themselves.
“It probably doesn’t weigh on us in the sense that that team had gone on and done it. And they were a super team,” says Flynn.
“But when we dropped down, we knew we shouldn’t be in intermediate, but we weren’t really doing anything to show why we shouldn’t (be there).
“We were great at saying that we were a senior club and shouldn’t be there. But yet we weren’t doing anything to get back to being senior. We were relying on that whole thing of believing we were a senior club.
“It was more so that the young lads we have coming and who have come in, they deserved to be in a senior dressing room, instead of putting the pressure on them to take us out of intermediate. As the older group, we said it was up to us to do it, as we were the ones put down there.”
After dropping down, they found intermediate wasn’t simple. Most years, they couldn’t get beyond the quarter-final. In 2023 they didn’t even make it out of their group stage.
Last year felt different. Maughan was brought in and the dynamic altered.
“Ah John is great craic,” says Flynn.
“He is the sort of character that was missing. John has no fear of telling you he doesn’t like something, straight up.
“And maybe that has shone through this year. There’s a lot of lads have had great seasons. Maybe they are afraid to get on John’s bad side!”
They beat Moy Davitts in the county final. In Connacht, they were better than Galway’s St Michael’s by nine points before squeaking past Elphin of Roscommon in the final by a single point.
In the All-Ireland semi-final they were far more comfortable than they had any right to expect in beating Kildare’s Caragh by nine points. It left just eight days before this final.
In the meantime, the community have embraced the madness.
“Ah, they are on an all-time high. I have a little sister there in fifth class and to be fair, I think every one of them in fifth class have given us a hand-written card now,” Flynn says.
“They are wearing their jerseys into school, wearing face masks with players’ faces on. It’s just great excitement for them to be making songs about us.”
Being involved in the later stages of an All-Ireland series means a certain stoicism is required over the festive period.
Working for Michael Carr Foods doing deliveries around Christmas means Flynn is run off his feet and has little time to socialise during that period anyway, but he wasn’t complaining about being summoned to the ground for St Stephen’s Day training.
“To be honest, I enjoyed it.
“I remember Darren McHale from Knockmore saying that when they went through the Connacht championship, they were playing in January.
“And he was saying they were training on Stephen’s Day and it was actually the best craic ever.
“To be fair, he wasn’t lying. When we trained Stephen’s Day it was absolutely shocking out. The pitch was like a mudbath and we had just great craic.
“There was a feeling of togetherness that was nice to feel.”
One more step.
*****
Jordan Flynn was speaking ahead of the AIB GAA All-Ireland Football Intermediate Club Championship Final, which takes place this Sunday, January 12th at Croke Park at 4.30pm, between Ballinderry Shamrocks (Derry) and Crossmolina Deel Rovers (Mayo).
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body art Crossmolina GAA Gaelic Football Jordan Flynn Mayo