John Haran: 'If Galway beat Donegal, we will cheer for them in the final and vice-versa'

Former Donegal John Haran midfielder has been keeping close tabs on his old Jarlath's pals Joyce, Concannon and Divilly

FRIENDLY RIVALS: Donegal's John Haran in action against Galway's Richie Fahey in the 2003 All-Ireland quarter-final. Pic: Ray McManus / SPORTSFILE 

This week, John Haran has mostly been fishing. Fishing in his St Jarlath’s Old Boys WhatsApp group. Hoping that the three Galway management members in it snag the line he casts.

Aside from the former Donegal midfielder and John Cafferkey from Achill, the group comprises Pádraic Joyce, John 'Scan' Concannon, John Divilly and Tommie Joyce. “Divilly and Concannon are biting a bit but Joyce hasn’t this week,” he reports. “The other two can’t resist it.” Haran’s hopped balls are varied. One minute, he could be telling them they should consider putting Bernard Power back in goal. The next, he might be warning Joyce that his old Tralee IT buddy Jim McGuinness is coming for him.

“You wouldn’t go too far but you’d be slagging. Tomo Culhane had been lined up to play over in Chicago after the Dublin game and Galway go and win, and I was asking them if Tomo was going to turn up at training, joking that he had the flight booked.” 

So much time and football spent together allows for such liberties. In September 1989, Haran followed his brother Eamon and became a boarder at Galway’s great football academy in Tuam. “My father (Seamus) was very friendly with James McGettigan and he sent Leslie down and he won two Hogan Cups in ’82 and ‘84.

“Our house was right beside St Eunan’s College in Letterkenny and we grew up running around it and playing on the pitches but I never spent a day in it. There was always a few Donegal boys in Jarlath’s, lads from Arranmore Islands and Killybegs. There were a couple of McFaddens from Kilcar as well.” 

Life as a boarder was difficult. “You toughened up quite quickly because you had to. The priests were very good but you were 13, away from home for the first time and there was nothing fancy about it. You grew up fast, that’s for sure.

“The teachers were very kind and they looked to develop the boy into a man and it wasn’t just football, it was an education. There was no-one nasty or bullying or hardship but they were strict at the same time and you had to obey the boundaries. It toughened you up. The homesickness. If you could survive that, you could survive most things.” 

Football made things easier. In Haran’s friend Concannon, St Jarlath’s had a prodigy. A scorer of a backheeled goal in a Connacht college final, he was a senior footballer with Milltown at the age of 14.

He had been good enough to have played in two Hogan Cup finals, his first as a 15-year-old in 1992, before glory came against St Patrick’s, Maghera 30 years ago when he scored 1-4. “He had played as a young fella against St Brendan’s in Thurles in ’92 and he was brilliant,” recalls Haran.

Concannon was expected to captain St Jarlath’s in 1994 but Joyce was chosen instead. “All the money would have been on Scan to captain the team in ’94 because he was on the team the longest and he was the star player. The fact he was boarding too was a big thing because nine times out of 10 the captain was a border but Joe Long picked Joyce and that came as a shock to everyone but Joe obviously saw something in Pádraic and Scan might have been more of a wild child.

“But everyone was always up for the craic. Scan, Pádraic and myself were big United men and back then we’d be sneaking the Walkman into the study hall listening to Five Live on a Wednesday night and listening to the great games in Europe and Cantona. Scan used to take me out on a Sunday and his mother was very good to me making me dinners. She was a lovely lady.

“I would have done a lot of my formative drinking with Scan in Milltown. I always think back and I haven’t really said it to him but Scan’s father died young and Scan had no father figure to look after him. He was this great young player and everyone wanted to be with him and buying him drink and he didn’t have somebody put their arm around him.” 

Being a fellow boarder, Divilly and Haran gravitated to one another. “Donegal played Derry in the 1995 Division 1 final and myself and Divilly got the bus up to Dublin and the first thing we were wondering about was where to get a pint. The Auld Triangle on Dorset Street was the place. The priests in Tuam mightn’t have liked it but by the time we came back there was no smell of drink off us.

“Scan and Joyce were day boys. Then Scan boarded for his Leaving Cert and again when he repeated – we all repeated because there wasn’t much study done in ’94 when we won the Hogan Cup.” 

Long’s team was a glittering one. Four years later, six of them would claim All-Ireland senior medals including the Meehan brothers Declan and Tomás and Michael Donnellan – “Donnellan had a reputation as a footballer in first year,” says Haran.

“I was a sub on the team. I was on for the league and then I got dropped after Christmas. Like, I was in midfield for the Donegal minors for ’94 and a couple of months earlier I couldn’t get onto the Jarlath’s school team. That’s how high the standard was.

“I don’t think any Hogan Cup team has produced so many All-Ireland winners, so quickly since then. Meehan was a footballer of the year (in 2001), Donnellan and Joyce were sort of the players of the year too (Texaco awards). I don’t think that will be repeated again.” 

At the start of his fourth year in St Jarlath’s, Haran and his Donegal brethren had been cocks of the walk as Brian McEniff brought the senior county team to the promised land. Haran was collected by his parents the day before the game but there was no homecoming for him as he had to be back on the school’s premises on Sunday evening as per the terms set out by principal Fr Maloney.

There were celebrations but Haran was never let forget Donegal’s standing. 

“The Galway boys would have always been cocky and wouldn’t have always rated the Donegal boys as footballers or as a football county. They just would have that bit of arrogance about them and that’s fair enough. They would have won a lot more than us.

“We beat them in an All-Ireland quarter-final replay in Castlebar in 2003. We faced them in a challenge four or five weeks before and they fucking hammered us in Sligo and were laughing at us. I’d say they were caught on the hop because they didn’t rate us. I remember swapping jerseys afterwards with Declan Meehan and they were gracious but you could also see they were shocked.” 

The banter Haran enjoys with his Galway school buddies chimes with the bonhomie between the counties this week. 

“There’s no great rivalry there or contempt or hatred between the fans. If Galway beat Donegal on Sunday, Donegal fans will cheer for them in the final and vice-versa. You just hope it’s an open game but I’m not sure because McGuinness might want to go very defensive.” 

As guarded as Joyce has been on WhatsApp all week.