The Kieran Shannon interview with Stephen McDonnell: 'I wanted more pressure'

At 15 Stephen McDonnell was suspended from a school where there was little prospect of going to college. But because of the lessons from that episode, he’s now a coach to multinational CEOs

LEADER OF MEN: Stephen McDonnell leads the Cork senior hurling team out ahead of their 2019 All-Ireland SHC qualifier against Westmeath at TEG Cusack Park. Picture: Brendan Moran/Sportsfile

At some point in Cork, in the not-too-distant future, he’ll be known as an Inbetweener, just like Ciáran Whelan was the first to confess he was one in Dublin: a fine player and even better servant, whose career happened to fall in that stretch where such a proud county went so long without winning an All-Ireland.

But while he missed out on that Celtic Cross and while he still misses the buzz of a week such as this, Stephen McDonnell is wise and serene enough to know that he gained a lot more than he lost along that journey, that it will stand to him for as long as he breathes, and that the 15-year-old him could never have envisaged where he now is in life.