McGuinness learned it all in Tralee
No Donegal team has ever taken to a field as well readied as McGuinness’s contemporaries and, even now, admits much of that thoroughness was picked up from when he was a student in IT Tralee. By the time of the 1998 Sigerson Cup on St Valentine’s weekend, as well as being hosts and defending champions, the fact Tralee were the Kerryrepresentative team in a national competition also brought with it its own pressures from a county whose people were brought up on a staple diet of silverware. TG4 were to screen the competition live for the first time.
“When I was studying in Kerry and playing with the Sigerson team, I remember in 1998 we hosted the competition in Tralee,” McGuinness said. “There was big excitement in the town and a lot of expectation on the team.”
Val Andrews from Ballymun Kickams was in charge and in an era of rapid development as the Celtic Tiger purred in Ireland, developments in sport were similarly lavish.
“We actually went to Killarney to stay in a four-or-five-star hotel in the build-up and for the competition because there was too much activity going on in Tralee.” !
The third-level colleges were probably more advanced than the bulk of the county teams who had won Gaelic football’s top prize at Croke Park. Students learned more at college than merely academics. As sportsmen they were living the life of professionals. It intrigued McGuinness.
