Wednesday night in Donnycarney, floodlights and flashbulbs. This then is where the history makers go. Back down the mine, endlessly digging for gold.
James McCarthy is not listed to play for Ballymun. Word among the faithful in the stand is that for two weeks now shards of pain have been darting through his ribcage at the slightest movement, while his ankles are as supple as the rigid legs on a walnut coffee table. And him cut from granite.
But they find some extra sticky tape and three-in-one oil to patch him together for the night, because McCarthy starts at midfield, wearing number 26.
Ten days after their latest All-Ireland SFC triumph, several of Dublin’s heroes were back in action on Wednesday as the club championship in the capital got under way. In the opening game at Parnell Park, Ciarán Kilkenny helped Castleknock beat Skerries Harps.
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As the Ballymun and Ballyboden players took to the field for the second match, Kilkenny was still on the pitch signing autographs and posing for photographs.
John Small was centre back for Ballymun and his brother, Paddy, centre forward. Dean Rock started among the subs while Evan Comerford, Dublin’s replacement goalkeeper in the All-Ireland final, was between the posts. Collie and Ryan Basquel spearheaded Ballyboden’s attack.
Naturally, it turned out to be a mixed bag.
Ballyboden ran out 1-16 to 1-11 winners with Collie Basquel scoring 0-3 and Ryan clipping over 0-2.
Paddy Small pulled his hamstring inside 20 minutes and was replaced by Rock, who finished the game with 0-4. John Small also tagged over a point but Ballymun were largely outplayed by a more cohesive Ballyboden outfit.
McCarthy’s most significant play of the evening came in the second half when he flung himself in the air with the abandon of a stuntman hellbent on taking an oncoming bullet. It was Warren Egan’s ball every night of the week. Except Wednesday night. On Wednesday night it was McCarthy’s ball, as he glided across to somehow knock it loose and Ballymun broke for a goal.
The Dublin captain could have skipped the game and nobody would have questioned his commitment to the club cause. They all could have. But down the mine they went again.
“I’ve a few bangs from last week but you just have to grin and bear it, grind it out,” said McCarthy afterwards.
“We owe the club so much, to be honest, the club has probably got a raw deal over the years with so many of us in with Dublin, because a lot of the time we’d be coming back at the season’s end and you are battered and bruised and normally carrying injuries.
“I always feel a lot of obligation to give your best for the club, so we’re disappointed to lose tonight.”
He hasn’t watched the All-Ireland final back yet, but over the last few days he has flicked through certain clips. It looks on the screen to him now as it felt in the moment, tense and tight, every score earned, every hit felt.
As for the outpouring at the end, you can’t fake that. During Dublin’s six-in-a-row success, the celebrations weren’t exactly joyless but they were certainly subdued. This one felt like a throwback to the 2011 breakthrough.
“There probably was real raw emotion there,” continued McCarthy. “It had been a long road together to come back again, so it was special. The hardship of the two defeats the two years before, they were difficult. It looked like the boat had gone and our chance had passed, a lot of people maybe thought that. Look, thankfully we managed to put a season together.”
Collie Basquel was one of the key players in helping Dublin put that season together. Late in Wednesday’s game, he made an interception that led to a Ballyboden goal, continuing with the club where he left off with the county.
“I’m really enjoying football at the minute,” said Basquel. “I’m injury free, that’s all you can ask for really. We cherished every minute of winning the All-Ireland because it’s such a long season, celebrating with your team-mates was brilliant. And it’s great to be back now with the club.”
Some of the protagonists will swap jerseys for wedding suits on Friday as Rock marries Niamh McEvoy, herself a decorated footballer. The stag took place in Marbella last week, as the Sam Maguire celebrations rolled over to the Spanish sunshine.
“It’s been fairly hectic,” smiled McCarthy. “We enjoyed ourselves, it was a heavy week so it was good to get back and play with the club.”
McCarthy is the best man. Public speaking, he maintains, is not his forte, but two weeks after speaking from the top steps of the Hogan Stand, on Friday he will speak from the top table of his friend’s wedding.
“Yeah, I’m on duty,” he added. “More speeches, I’ll never say I’m getting used to them but I suppose you have to do it.”
You don’t have to, but he will. Just like lining out for his club 10 days after becoming the most decorated player in the history of the game. Because it’s the right thing to do. You feel James McCarthy knows no other way.
