McGuinness: ‘They're all very, very unique and they're all as special’

Fifteen years ago in July, Jim McGuinness, who was then 37 years of age, was ratified as Donegal senior team manager at Jackson’s Hotel in Ballybofey.

Those of a certain age now will find it hard to believe that it was his third time applying for the job and even after being the only contender in 2010, having taken Donegal to an Ulster U-21 title and an All-Ireland final, he would later joke that he wasn’t certain he’d get it. But get it, he finally did.

“Top of the agenda will be to get the team back playing for the jersey; getting pride in the jersey – hunger, good football and then getting them to enjoy playing the football and working hard for each other,” McGuinness told club delegates that Tuesday night.

There was no talk of trophies. The Gaelic Athletic Association had been founded in 1884 and a year after its 125th birthday, Donegal, by then, had won a sum total of five Ulster titles dotted between 1972 and 1992, the year they had won their one and only All-Ireland. To put that in perspective, Cavan had 39, Armagh 14 and Tyrone 12.

McGuinness had been a panellist when Sam came to the hills, coaxed by Brian McEniff - the only manager ever to have won anything in championship football - in late 1991 to forgo a return to Boston and try his hand with the seniors.

McEniff, the godfather who had masterminded every single one of Donegal’s championship titles, was impressed by the youngster scoring three points and smashing a goal past Gary Walsh in a trial played in wintery conditions in Ballyshannon. It was a goal seen by few and remembered by fewer, although one which would have a significant impact on Gaelic football.

“As I was going out the gate, Brian McEniff, wearing a sheepskin coat, called me back and asked me would I be interested in coming into the panel,” McGuinness would recall some years later. “I was flabbergasted.
“I couldn’t get home quickly enough to tell my parents. Sometimes your life can take twists and turns. I was just fortunate enough that I played very well that particular day. I could’ve gone another day, and it mightn’t have worked out, and I might never have been heard of again.”

McGuinness was part of the Donegal panel from then until 2004, creating some great memories but, as he told his panel the first time he met them collectively one crisp November 2010 morning at the Rosapenna in Downing as he pointed out the window at the slight ripple in the ocean and the cottages and the hills, winning nothing.

He told the players to imagine the crowds coming up the hill in Clones, towards St Tiernach’s Park on Ulster final day, to watch them play and lift provincial crowds.

Although part of the 1992 panel, McGuinness didn’t debut until the following year, when Donegal lost their Ulster and All-Ireland crowns in the days when one slip meant a fall. Derry supporters streamed through the puddles following a 0-8 to 0-6 win in Clones on a day when rain fell in sheets and there wasn’t a clean jersey on a player’s back. Throughout the lost years, McGuinness and Donegal would lose Ulster finals in 1998, 2002 and 2004, as well as National Football League deciders in 1995 and 1996.

The talent was there but with the game steering itself towards professionalism in everything but name, Donegal were still stuck in the mud. Even in 2010, as McGuinness’ U-21s were raising eyebrows with their progression, the seniors followed that unpredictable pattern. They played Armagh in Letterkenny that April, knowing a win would guarantee them a place back in Division 1, only to be hammered 2-10 to 0-6.

In their one and only Ulster, early goals from Conall Dunne and debutant Dermot Molloy made for a dream start against Down, only to go down battling 1-15 to 2-10 after extra-time. Donegal rolled into the qualifiers and were battered 2-14 to 0-11 by Armagh in Crossmaglen, while Down made it to an All-Ireland final, where they would lose by a kick of the ball to Cork.

Two days after the loss in Crossmaglen, Anthony Molloy, Donegal’s All-Ireland winning captain from 1992, exclaimed: “God Almighty would not have success with that current Donegal team.”

But McGuinness saw something, just like he did when he made a 21-year-old Michael Murphy captain just days after his appointment - and moulded a team who would capture the imagination. They went on to win the Ulster SFC titles in 2011, 2012 and 2014, as well as capturing Sam Maguire in the second of those years and losing the All-Ireland final to Kerry in his final season, three weeks after being the only team in eight years to beat Dublin in championship football.

Following that 2-9 to 0-12 loss to the Kingdom, some 6,000 packed the Diamond on a bleak Monday night. It showed that the pride he wanted to build from his appointment in 2010 was there. There was no trophy nor sing-songs, plenty of sombre faces and tears in some eyes. McGuinness hadn’t said it by then, but there was a look of finality as he urged the public: “Don’t turn your back on this team.” A couple of weeks later, he was gone.

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By 2023, Donegal had had a few moments, but their slide had gathered momentum. Declan Bonner added two Ulster titles in 2018 and a year later, although the 3-14 to 0-17 success over Dublin in 2014 under McGuinness was Donegal’s last All-Ireland semi-final appearance. In the nine years that followed, it had nostalgically almost racked up as many YouTube views as Kilcar sing-songwriters Jimmy’s Winning Matches from the beach in Lanzarote.

When Donegal beat Antrim in his first championship outing as senior team manager in 2011, it was their first win of any sort in Ulster in four years. In many ways, 2023 was even worse. Off the field was a shambles and on it, Donegal had been relegated from Division 1 after Paddy Carr’s only six competitive matches in charge and he parted ways before Aidan O’Rourke stopped in but couldn’t stop Donegal losing limply in Down in the Ulster opener.

Although there were elements of a certain restoration of pride in wins over Monaghan and Clare in the newly-introduced round-robin, Donegal were soundly beaten by Tyrone in the last 12.

On Saturday week, Tyrone will be back at MacCumhaill Park, with the occasion expected to be as feisty as ever. McGuinness, now 52 and much greyer with the same eye of intent, will be on the touchline for Donegal.

Reappointed in September 2023, his first season back last year bore similarities to his first in 2011 - an Allianz League Division 2 title, winning the Anglo-Celt Cup and losing an All-Ireland semi-final by two points.

Donegal’s drive was to be seen again during Saturday’s epic 2-23 to 0-28 Ulster final win over All-Ireland champions Armagh. From the day in Downings when McGuinness told his panel to imagine the green and gold-clad fans walking up the hill in Clones, Donegal have appeared in 12 of the last 15 provincial finals, winning seven.

The 28,778 in attendance in Clones will, for differing reasons, never forget the drama, with Daire Ó Baoill’s launching of the ball as the hooter sounded the last act of an incredible contest. The explosion of noise that followed was still ringing in the ears come Monday morning.

In his interview with BBC’s Mark Sidebottom, Jimmy was keen to stress it was more than him winning matches, it was the players who, with their bodies almost at the point of breakdown, who had seen it out. Coaching, by the end of extra-time, had gone out the window.

“There was a lot more than me around there,” he would share afterwards when asked how the heart was in those closing stages. “I'd say both sets of fans were put through the ringer. Armagh, unbelievable team, you know, unbelievable spirit, mentality and ask so many questions of you. But again, our lads were able to respond in key moments.

“We just dug deep. We were half-time and extra-time, and I said to the boys: ‘Listen, there's going to be three or four possessions here and maybe one turnover.’ That's what it was reduced down to, and it's just making good decisions when those moments come.

“The Ulster Championship and the Munster Hurling Championship are just on a par. They bring so much. They ignite so much within people. It's crazy. Armagh are All-Ireland champions. That's the bottom line. And it was All-Ireland champions against Ulster champions. We didn't want to give that crown up. We did not want to give that crown up. But we had to go to the same level as we went last year to retain it.”

It meant that McGuinness is now level with the man in the sheepskin coat, McEniff, with an All-Ireland and five Ulsters. You’d suspect the great Bundoran hotelier, like the rest of us, wouldn’t give a hoot to see that record move hands.

“They're all very unique,” McGuinness added when asked to compare his five Ulsters, where he has lost just once in 21 outings, with Donegal now having 12 in all. “They're all very, very unique and they're all as special, you know, as the next one, to be honest with you. And you know, you're a packed house out there and the sun's shining.

“And, you know, we all travelled to Ulster finals as children. The house is full and the sun is shining. And somebody's going to win and somebody, unfortunately, is not going to win. And we had a lot of days against Armagh, in many respects, where we were on the wrong side of it.

“A lot of days I played in Ulster finals. So they're very, very special. And we will enjoy it with our families and everything else. And refocus then as quickly as we can because another competition is going to start now.”