Hot streak: St Eunan’s, Letterkenny can't stop winning

The Donegal powerhouses claim five adult county championship titles across three codes last year - and have a rearranged final to come this weekend.

Tue, 25 Jan, 2022 - 18:40

Alan Foley

GAA historical records are, it’s fair to say, a little haphazard, so it’s difficult to know for certain whether St Eunan’s of Letterkenny’s achievements of 2021 are unique.

This Sunday in Burt, St Eunan’s contest the rearranged 2021 Donegal U21 hurling final against Setanta. St Eunan’s are in search of a sixth adult championship of, technically, 2021.

There have already been black and amber cavalcades for their IFC-winning Ladies, while the men’s senior and senior reserve footballers, the senior hurlers, and the U21 footballers have taken trophies home. Kevin Blake, owner of the club’s unofficial watering hole Blakes’ Bar, which doubles as a club museum, has been ordering prints and frames.

Dual player Cormac Finn is the only player to be part of all of the men’s senior panels — the NUI Maynooth student could win a fifth adult championship of 2021 on Sunday.

Letterkenny is the biggest of Donegal’s towns, with its urban population in the 2016 Census put at 19,274, three times that of second-placed Buncrana. Before 2021, St Eunan’s standout year at adult level was 1972 — the double of senior football and hurling.

By the late 1970s, hurling in Letterkenny was extinct. In football, the powerholders were all south of Barnesmore. From 1973 to 1998, there are only two northern winners on the roll of honour: MacCumhaill’s in 1977 and St Eunan’s six years later.

Even now, 1997 is divisive. St Eunan’s were deemed to have fielded an illegal player — Leslie McGettigan from Letterkenny, who had lined out in New York — in their 1-14 to 2-9 victory over Aodh Ruadh. They were subsequently stripped of the title.

The silver jubilee this year should give the Donegal GAA hierarchy with a headache.

But 1997 marks the sea change, the fruition of the mid-1980s street leagues in Letterkenny. St Eunan’s were county champions seven times since, also losing five finals. Their academy is booming.

St Eunan’s will always be there or thereabouts, especially in football — but hurling? Ahead of the October final against Setanta, one local sportswriter was asked would “5/1 or 6/1 be fair odds?” The reply: “It doesn’t really matter.”

A Russell Forde goal provided a start and St Eunan’s, managed by Clare native Eugene Organ. grabbed a second from Kevin Kealy for 2-8 to 0-8. Setanta, who had beaten St Eunan’s in three of the previous four finals with a bit to spare, came back to 2-9 to 0-14. In a nail-biting finish, St Eunan’s clung on for a famous, almost incomprehensible victory.

Two weeks later, with Kealy and county hurler Sean McVeigh also named for the footballers, they too were final underdogs. Naomh Conaill were unbeaten in 26 matches since losing the 2019 Ulster Club SFC to Kilcoo.

Naomh Conaill had blown away protagonists Kilcar and Gaoth Dobhair, while Rory Kavangh’s St Eunan’s stumbled through. There, though, St Eunan’s were comprehensive winners, their possession-based style minimising contact, sealing a 1-11 to 0-4 triumph.

“What an effort by so many people in the club over so many years to get so many teams to this level and it is just fantastic,” McVeigh beamed.

Now, St Eunan’s can look to the future, with a three-in-a-row U21 success in football, the ladies on the up, and hurlers in towards trophies.

“There’s a lot of work put in and a lot of work being put in,” said club chairman John Haran. “The town has really embraced the club and the numbers at the academy on a Sunday morning are huge... We hope to add to that on Sunday.”