A zest for life and a love for Leitrim

A look out the front-room window explains a lot.

Crane your head a little and you can see the house where the legendary Packie McGarty grew up. “He was supposed to have been a good one,” comes a response laden with the sort of understatement only people from these parts can carry so effortlessly. In the other direction, there’s the circle chalked on the wall where the three McGuinness brothers honed their skills as kids.

“There wasn’t much else to do,” notes John, who, at 32, is the eldest. “Kick a ball, it’d get dark and that’d be that.” Then, up near enough to their mother’s house, is their father’s grave. Michael senior, who passed away in 1997 aged 50, was full-forward on the Leitrim Team of the Millennium. “He was good too,” laughs John. “At least that’s what he told us.”