Conlan: We did it for Noogie

The backdrop is often very different to the landscape you see.

The Healy Park pitch was awash with blue as the final whistle signalled Ballinderry’s return to the summit of Ulster football. There were tears, and plenty of them. Tears of joy, yes. But also tears of sadness.

It was a tough three weeks in the quiet loughshore village. The week of the Ulster semi-final win over Kilcoo, Sean McIvor, a club stalwart and brother of backroom man Eugene, passed away unexpectedly.

Then, on Wednesday past, they woke to the news that former club chairman Eugene McGeehan, a man in his early 50s, an uncle to a handful of the squad and a friend to them all, had died suddenly. ‘Noogie’, as they knew him, was buried on Saturday and 24 hours later, his beloved Shamrocks, every one of them wearing a black armband with Noogie written on them, won an Ulster title in his memory.

“Talk about a roller coaster week,” McGeehan’s nephew and Ballinderry goalkeeper Michael Conlan said. “Dealing with unexpected things and then the highs of this, it’s hard to put into words how I feel or how we all feel at the minute.

“We just knew today was going to be a special day and we just wanted to go out and make it special. My uncle Noogie was a massive club man, he passed away very suddenly and just to see his family here today is unbelievable.

“The motivation it gave us before the match — because we wanted to win it for him — was unreal. I don’t even know what to say because one minute you’re down in the dumps and the next minute you see the highs of life, it’s just crazy stuff.”

Of course, Conlan was beaten after a matter of seconds on Sunday for the first time in Ballinderry’s provincial campaign. A Michael Murphy pointed effort dropped fortuitously into the top left corner and both Conlan and the team had to regroup.

“We got off to a bad start with the goal but I’ll put it down to a fluke, I knew nothing about it,” the keeper explained. “I was just trying to get through the match though because it’s been a real, real tough week. We’ve come through the other side and it’s an unbelievable tribute to Noogie.”