The final four: Talking points ahead of the All-Ireland Club football semi-finals
THE HARD ROAD: Errigal Ciaran and their manager Enda McGinley have travelled a tough road to Sunday's All-Ireland club SFC semi final against Kerry's Dr Crokes. Pic: Stephen Marken/Sportsfile
In additional time of last year’s All-Ireland semi-final, when Castlehaven were two points behind and every possession was priceless, the Haven were inside the St Brigid’s half when Thomas O’Mahony overcooked a handpass to Cathal Maguire and the ball went out over the sideline.
O’Mahony immediately put his hands on his head. Maguire’s frustration was even more evident as he motioned his hands downwards on three occasions in exasperation. They both knew. Everyone in Castlehaven knew. Their chance was gone. Again.
That late passage of play encapsulated so much of their frustration. Decades of frustration. Regrets are inevitable when losing an All-Ireland semi-final, but even more so when a club are so desperate to cross the one frontier that they have consistently failed to negotiate.
Maguire’s frustration was almost a metaphor for the decades of pent up hurt and longing from three previous semi-final defeats, than any outward annoyance at a wayward pass from a team-mate.
That defeat echoed loud into the past in how it mirrored much of that old baggage. Similar to how Niall Crossan’s late shot for Erin’s Isle hit both posts in the Killinan End goal in the 1998 All-Ireland semi-final, before the umpire raised the green flag to give Erin’s Isle the win, there was almost a haunting re-enaction of that trauma in last year’s semi-final with how Castlehaven hit the crossbar on two occasions when the goalkeeper was beaten.
Last year’s defeat also gave Castlehaven a record that they certainly didn’t want – no club has lost more All-Ireland football semi-finals now than Castlehaven.
Across the past five decades, 27 clubs in the four provinces have won three or more provincial championships. Only two of those 27 – the Haven and St Mary’s Sligo - never reached an All-Ireland final. And now that Errigal Ciarán have secured a third Ulster title, they certainly don’t want to join Castlehaven and St Mary’s in that torture chamber of losing another All-Ireland semi-final.
St Mary’s lost three semi-finals in 1978, 1981 and 1984 to Thomond College, Walterstown and Nemo Rangers respectively. In two of those years, the sides that narrowly defeated Mary’s went on to win the All-Ireland final comfortably.
The Haven’s pain has been even more excruciating, having lost All-Ireland semi-finals in 1990, 1995, 1998 and 2024 to Baltinglass, Kilmacud Crokes, Erin’s Isle and St Brigid’s. In two of those seasons, the teams that beat Castlehaven went on to win the All-Ireland. St Brigid’s should have won last year’s final but were beaten on the line by Glen.
The 1995 defeat to Crokes is the only game that the Haven don’t have regrets from. However, the other three defeats were stacked with such an overbearing and cumulative weight of regrets that some in the club are still carrying that load.
Many in Errigal Ciarán know that pain too well. Their 1994 defeat to Nemo Rangers left a deep scar because Errigal held the initiative with the aid of a strong wind in the fourth quarter. Ahead by two points late on, Nemo reined them in before taking over in extra-time, going on to win by five points. That defeat was all the more traumatic again for Errigal when they watched Nemo go on to hammer Castlebar Mitchels in the final.
When Errigal reached their second All-Ireland semi-final in 2003, they ran into Nemo again, which ended up with the same disappointing outcome. Unlike the game nine years earlier, it was an uninspiring challenge from Errigal. Nemo led by six points at the outset of the fourth quarter and, while the Tyrone side eventually got their game together, Nemo had enough in reserve to qualify for their third consecutive All-Ireland final.
“We were abysmal,” wrote Mickey Harte in his first book, ‘Kicking Down Heaven’s Door’, which focussed on that 2003 season. “Nemo were good but we were abysmal. We didn’t’ deserve to win. The dressingroom afterwards was like a morgue. Nobody could lift their heads. Nobody could say anything. Nobody could even stand up. The dream was over.”
So was Harte’s term as Errigal manager, as he had also taken over as Tyrone manager the previous autumn. In that book, there’s a picture taken afterwards of an ashen-faced Harte with his son, Mattie, who was in tears. It summed up the mood. When the Errigal squad went across to the Portlaoise clubhouse afterwards for a buffet meal, there was nobody there to greet them.
By the time they returned to Kelly’s in Ballygawley later that evening, the squad were greeted by a quiet trickle of applause. When they had won the county and Ulster titles, the place had been heaving. “The difference between celebration and devastation was unreal,” wrote Harte.
Enda McGinley, who played that day, and who is the Errigal manager now, doesn’t want to experience that torture again. Nobody does. Errigal certainly don’t want to know Castlehaven and St Mary’s pain of losing another All-Ireland semi-final.
Last June, Francie Banks, one of Coolera-Strandhill and Sligo’s greatest supporters sadly passed away. A hugely popular figure, the affection for Francie and his family in the community has been neatly reflected in how members of the Coolera-Strandhill side have assisted Francie’s son, Kevin, on the family farm on the weekend of big club games.
Peter Laffey and Niall Murphy help out milking the cows on a Friday evening while Barry Doyle and the manager John McPartland go over every Sunday morning of a game, rolling up their sleeves too in the milking parlour. All of Coolera-Strandhill’s games to date, including the Connacht semi-final and final, were on in Sligo so Sunday, with a throw-in time of 1.30pm against Cuala in Cavan, will require an earlier start again on the farm.
Banks, McPartland and Doyle won’t mind because it has been part of their routine. They won’t want to change it now, especially when that spirit, brotherhood and togetherness has brought Coolera-Strandhill to a place nobody expected them to reach.
The area was always more noted for its surfing and golfing but the club have put the place on the map since defying all the odds to beat Ballina Stephenites and Pádraig Pearses to win Connacht.
Prior to 2023, Coolera-Strandhill had only won two county senior titles, 1907 and 2005, but winning back-to-back titles in 2023 and 2024 underlined the potential in this group, which they fully showed in Connacht.
Was it a shock to win a maiden provincial title? Not to them. The players were embarrassed coming off the pitch against St Brigid’s after the 2023 Connacht semi-final, when they failed to score for 40 minutes. They only managed four scores in total but they knew that their performance wasn’t an accurate reflection of their talent and potential.
Having lost two Sligo finals in the previous four years, they celebrated that 2023 county title win hard. The weekend before that St Brigid’s match, most of the group were in Liverpool on Niall Murphy’s stag. Two players were gone on holidays for the Brigid’s match, while one of their best young players, Mark McDaniel, got injured in the warm-up.
Coolera-Strandhill still let themselves down but they also realised during the game that they weren’t as far away from Brigid’s as the scoreline suggested. When they saw the Roscommon side go on and almost win an All-Ireland afterwards, Coolera-Strandhill knew there was an opportunity there if they could win Sligo again. As soon as they did, they immediately trained their eyes on Connacht. Two day after the county final replay win against North Molaise Gaels, they were all back in the gym.
They are outsiders again now against Cuala but, with the bond and belief now in this group, Coolera-Strandhill will believe once more that the impossible is possible. And that they can become the first Sligo club to reach an All-Ireland senior final.
In an era when former All-Ireland club champions have fallen from grace at a faster pace than ever, Ballinderry Shamrocks escaped the kind of attention attached to James Stephen’s, Glen Rovers and Austin Stacks when they slipped down a grade in 2023.
Maybe that was because Ballinderry have continued to play senior league football in Derry but there was no disguising the magnitude of the fall; ten years after winning the 2013 Ulster title, the club’s third, the Shamrocks were relegated to Intermediate for the first time.
In some ways, it was coming because they had been too reliant on the older crew but this team has bounced back with a whole new wave of exciting young talent; four of the side, Niall O'Donnell, Ruairi Forbes, Shea McCann and Tiarnan Rocks, are under 20.
It was no surprise that they went on to win Ulster but they face a whole new test again in the shape of an Austin Stacks side that contested a Munster senior final only three years ago.
It's rare for two former All-Ireland senior champions to meet in an All-Ireland Intermediate semi-final but this championship has been even more unique again with another former All-Ireland winning club – Crossmolina Deel Rovers – in the other semi-final against Caragh from Kildare.
Unique. Absolutely unique.
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