Cavan’s terrace folk hero is relishing his second coming

Cian Mackey might never have got to play in an Ulster final if he’d stayed in London two years ago and listened to the voice in his head telling him there was more to life than football. A three-year stint running the ‘Cheers’ bar in Ballyjamesduff, which he remembers as “good craic but late nights and not a lifestyle for me all” had left him restless.

He was 30, with 13 unfulfilled seasons in Breffni blue behind him, and went back to the plumbing trade where work took him to London in 2017, thinking his inter-county career was probably over. Then Mattie McGleenan, then Cavan manager and ex-Tyrone footballer, came calling.