How saying no to Mickey Harte worked out for Niall McGinn
The 28-year-old, who scored Northern Ireland’s second goal against Ukraine last Thursday, was playing for Dungannon Swifts and Donaghmore GAA Club when he was faced with the choice between the two sports.
“I had just come into the senior Tyrone squad and I was playing trials. There came an opportunity where Mickey Harte just said ‘look, you have an opportunity to be a part of my team, not just for the National League but for the championship’.
“It was actually the year that Tyrone played Dublin under the lights at Croke Park (2008) and he said ‘you have a chance to play in front of 80,000 people here’. I went the professional football route instead.”
His abilities had long been noted in Tyrone, but McGinn came to wider attention in 2005 when almost turning around an Ulster minor championship tie against a standout Down side spearheaded by Martin Clarke which would go on to win the All-Ireland.
The GAA links remain strong and many.
He is still close friends with Tyrone midfielder Colm Cavanagh and played alongside others in the current Tyrone senior squad, Ronan McNabb and Cathal McCarron among them, and yet soccer won him over.
McGinn was 20 and still with Swifts when his mind was made up. Training was four or five nights a week at the time and he double-jobbed at weekends, though there was at least one Saturday he lined out for both Dungannon and Donaghmore.
Then came the move to Derry City.
“I was actually playing for Dungannon Swifts one night and Stephen Kenny was just there watching the game and I happened to play well. My phone rang the next day and it was him. He had just come back from Scotland when I got the phone call. I had to go speak to Dungannon and my family and friends, but it was an exciting time. I was actually studying sport and leisure management in Belfast at the time as well so I had a lot of decisions to make. Looking back now I made the right one.”
Still, it took time to adapt.
He was a full-time footballer at Derry but adapt he did after two or three months, so much so that Celtic came calling within a year. Three years there, including a loan spell at Brentford, have since been followed by four at Aberdeen.
Scotland has been good to him.
“It’s been great for me. Scotland has stood me in good stead. This last four years is probably the most I have played in my career.
“We qualified for Europe the last couple of years and you are playing against good players. That stands you in good stead. Even the experience of playing international games and scoring a few goals means I’ve played a lot of football.”
McGinn was still at Celtic when he, Neil Lennon and Paddy McCourt were sent bullets in the post from back home and he brought some ire on himself when he spoke about being a Republic of Ireland fan after featuring for the North in a 5-0 defeat in Dublin.
Yet he has done well for Northern Ireland.
He was still at Derry when he made his international debut in Lisbon and scored in a 1-1 draw to mar Ronaldo’s 100th cap.
And it was McGinn who kickstarted this qualifying campaign with an equaliser when Hungary were beaten in Budapest.
Nigel Worthington was still manager when he broke into the side and he lauded McGinn’s creativity.
“I was still a young lad, but I had nothing to fear. I was just going for it and any time I got on the ball I just tried to create. The manager was pleased with me after the first game and it went from strength to strength after that.”
The goal against Ukraine has been the pinnacle so far.
McGinn sat on the bench, unused, in Nice as Northern Ireland limped meekly to a 1-0 defeat to Poland and he only made the pitch as a late substitute against Ukraine.
Still, his contribution was significant for more than the three points given the role that goal difference is likely to play in determining which four from the six third-placed teams qualify for the last 16 stage.
There is a wider significance, too. Northern Ireland’s anthem remains ‘God Save The Queen’, and their support is drawn overwhelmingly from one side of the community, so it remains noteworthy when they acclaim a former Gaelic footballer from Tyrone as they did in Lyon.
Whatever way you look at it, McGinn made the right call eight years ago.
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