Naomh Colmcille CLG – Donegal

18/10/2010
DAYS like this always get the memories flooding back.

Since covering Naomh Colmcille’s first round, first leg win over Downings at Pairc Colmcille – a game that kick-started the, admitedly unexpected, run to today’s final – there has been plenty of reminiscing about the previous glory years for Naomh Colmcille, and its former guise, Naomh Baithin.

Memories for this writer have been dug from the depths of the mind, too indeed.

The Saturday mornings outside St Baithin’s School in St Johnston awaiting the arrival of no less a man than William Toye to cart a bus load of us over to Newtown and the thoroughly enjoyable subsequent training under the guidance of ‘The Diddler’ were an integral part of growing up for the kids of the former parish of All Saints, Killea and Taughboyne.

My first memories of Pairc Colmcille go back to the glory days of the Donegal senior team in the early 1990s. It was around September 1993 and Donegal were, technically anyway, still All Ireland Champions despite having been beaten in the Ulster final earlier that summer. Brian McEniff’s star-studded team took on Tyrone and in the curtain-raiser a Donegal Ladies team – included Naomh Colmcille clubwoman Bridget Clarke – took on Mayo. I recall little about the game itself, except coming back over ‘The Long Lane’ to St Johnston a frozen solid and soaking wet little six-year old!

During my years in the underage ranks, there were many memorable jousts with the likes of Red Hughs, Convoy, Robert Emmets and of course we had a few ‘interesting’ encounters with our neighbours from Naomh Padraig, Lifford if I recall correctly.

I mentioned earlier the work of ‘The Diddler’ (Paul Dillon). Many of the players you’ll see in the Naomh Colmcille colours today would have passed through his hands – Richard Clarke, Ciaran Devine, Paul McGill, Alex Devenney, Thomas McKinley and the Currans among them.

Naomh Colmcille, or the former Naomh Baithin before it, has always produced a top class player or two over the years. Paul ‘Darky’ Callaghan was an under 21 county player, while Mark Callaghan (‘Ruction’ – who’ll be on today’s panel) got the call from county managers too and of course there was Brendan Devenney, who needs no introduction.

Earlier this year, Thomas McKinley brought great pride to the club as a member of the Donegal U21 team that contested the All Ireland final and won Ulster. What a year it would be for Thomas were he to add silverware with the club today.

Behind every good club there’s a good team off the field, too, of course, and when one looks at the barren years of the last decade where positive results were few and far betweem it’s a testament to those involved that the club came out the other side of the tunnel. It’s always dangerous to start naming names, but the likes of James Dowds, Paddy Devenney and James McGrath have been among the instrumental figures and of course Declan McFarland, William Toye, Robert Wilson and Sean McDaid are among the countless others who’ve kept the Naomh Colmcille flame alight over the years.

New manager Stephen Friel has instilled a renewed sense of pride, passion and work ethic within the squad – and it’s reflected that the club now fields two teams and today’s final is further evidence of the difference Friel has brought. It’s certainly a marked change and it rekindles the memories of the junior county finals of 1997 and ’98 – the most vivid of the four 1990s finals in my mind.

While my own playing days in the red and white were, shall we say undistinguished, and albeit brief, one Barry McDaid tried to coax me back during last winter over a pint in the Fisherman’s Inn. Alas a couple of serious injuries sustained last year have ended my competitive career – and perhaps deprived Naomh Colmcille of a secret weapon they could have unleashed today!

Well, okay, maybe not. Barry, your place in the squad isn’t under threat from this writer!

– Chris McNulty, who hails from St Johnston, is GAA Correspondent with the Donegal News.