Around the turn of the century there was a very different conversation happening around Fermanagh football.
Enniskillen Gaels had won six consecutive county titles from 1998 and there were some dissenting voices asking if the time had come to split the county town and establish another club in the catchment area.
There was some validity to the idea. When Fermanagh reached the 2003 All-Ireland quarter-final, nine Gaels players were on the training panel.
The county population was 60,000 and Enniskillen accounted for around a quarter of it.
They made good use of that talent, but ultimately fell agonisingly short in two Ulster club finals against Crossmaglen in 1999 and Errigal Ciarán in 2002.
Along the way, they claimed scalps. Crossmaglen, St Gall’s, Burren, Bellaghy, illustrious names all fell on richly entertaining winter days. The fumes of that team captured a county title in 2006, but they soon went into freefall.
A few years later, Crossmaglen were getting ready for an Ulster final. Tony McEntee was in charge and was asked why he took over. He answered that he wanted to avoid the fate of Enniskillen Gaels, who by that stage were at intermediate level.
This Sunday, Richie O’Callaghan gets to lead them out once again on championship final day when they face Derrygonnelly Harps who were knocked off their perch last season in going for their own six-in-a-row.
A month ago Gaels faced Tempo Maguires in the county quarter-final and scraped through. Now here’s a statistic; it was the first time that any of the Enniskillen panel – including O’Callaghan who at 30 has put down plenty of seasons – had won a senior championship game. That’s how brutal their fall from grace had been.
“During that time, you would have had us and Cross, Errigal, Bellaghy, all those clubs up there for the six years. We would have been great rivals,” says O’Callaghan of memories formed in childhood, with his brother Michael – now a member of the backroom team – as sub goalkeeper for four of those years.
“Cross have managed to stay there. But the boys in the club would tell you now that they forgot about the youth. They rested on the laurels of what was going on at senior level and it was a real focus shift away from the youth at that time.”
They looked to their past to inspire the future. In the 60s and 70s they ran a thriving urban street league where areas of the town would compete against each other.
Terraced houses
It paid off in 1976, when they won their first championship in 46 years. They had no fewer than seven players from one stretch of terraced houses in Derrin Road, including man of the match in the replayed county final, Jimmy Cleary, who would go on to feature in Northern Ireland’s World Cup squad in 1982.
They are bringing through talent every year, but still some areas have become resistant to the lure of Gaelic football. In any event as an historic ‘garrison town’, Enniskillen has no fewer than six soccer clubs alone.
“You can only do so much,” says O’Callaghan.
“You cannot rock up to the door and collect people either. You want to instil a culture whereby they want to come playing. You don’t want to be pandering. If a boy wants to go round to his mates’ house and play Fifa five doors down, y’know . . .”
Inside the clubhouse hangs a picture of the 1987 winning team. John Rehill was the elegant midfielder. Simon Bradley was a thrusting young forward. Both are the team management now.
Contrary to the approach of some clubs heading into county finals, they have not put the clampers on media duties. Instead, they are using it as a recruiting drive with over 100 children showing up for a recent ‘open night’ to be coached by senior players.
On Friday night, they will host an Up For The Match chat night with the likes of Ryan McMenamin and Paul Brewster reclining and adding on tails to old stories buffed up nicely by the passing years.
“You have to make hay. We had training on Sunday and we were asking ourselves, ‘when are we going to be here again? When are we going to have this chance again? Who will be here next year and the year after?’” asks O’Callaghan, a teacher in St Aidan’s where he has been getting the superstitious asking if they were bringing some sort of bad karma upon themselves for appearing like – gulp – they were actually enjoying being in a county final?
“I have people here in the school saying it was a bit much, ‘who do you think you are?’ But those are the same who would say we should be dominating every year and why aren’t we?
“If we were doing it again, we would. You want to make as many memories as you can.”
Starting on Sunday.
