Different times and a different game: Seamus McGonigle on 30 years of refereeing

The words of Peter McKelvey still ring true in the mind of Seamus McGonigle.

It is approaching 30 years now since McGonigle first shrilled the whistle as an official referee and the mind wanders back to a different time. And a different game.

The Aodh Ruadh, Ballyshannon clubman is one of Donegal’s most experienced and respected referees. 

He has refereed four Donegal senior football championship finals and been a linesman in another eight and this year marks 25 years since he took charge of his first: the 2000 final when Jonathan Boyle’s goal powered Ardara to a shock 1-9 to 0-7 win over the defending champions St Eunan’s.

McGonigle had taken charge of junior, intermediate and under-21 finals until that appointment and he was also in the middle for the Ulster Minor League final between Derry and Tyrone at Sean MacCumhaill Park.

“I’ve been verbally abused in every parish in the county, but I’ve made friends and acquaintances everywhere,” he tells Donegal Live. “You get a unique perspective of football; not any better than any coach or spectator, but certainly a unique one. You hear things and see things that no-one else is privy to.”

On March 24, 1996 he took charge of his first adult game in Glenties. In a Division 1 Reserve fixture, Anton Mannering netted 1-3 and Pat Ward clipped four points in a 1-10 to 2-1 win for Naomh Conaill over St Naul’s.

McGonigle got a special mention for having given, according to a report in the Democrat, “a very competent display and allowed the game to flow”.

Before the game, McKelvey, a Fintown native who was also a referee - offered the new whistler some words of wisdom: ‘The best of luck to you. I’ve really enjoyed it. There are one or two games every year where you’ll say ‘what am I doing here?’, but overall you’ll have a great time refereeing’.

“They were as true words as I ever heard,” McGonigle reflects. “There are times driving back through the Gap or over Meenaroy and you’re cursing the hard work, but overall it has been such a positive experience.

Seamus McGonigle referees a challenge game in Castlefin with Jim McGuinness the Donegal captain

“I had no plan to be a referee at the outset. There were some great people involved in refereeing: Thomas McBrearty was a very dedicated man for referees at that stage and he personally encouraged me and an awful lot of other referees too; Frankie Doherty was the administrator for a long number of years, a great mentor and a great man for encouraging referees to progress. 

“Frankie had a great influence on a lot of referees. The administrator is probably one of the most thankless jobs in the GAA. They are getting pulled in every direction 52 weeks of the year.”

He mentioned Frank Dooley, a long-time tutor of new referees in Donegal, as another of his mentors and someone who had a “massive influence on the development of refereeing”.

A member of An Garda Síochána, McGonigle was dispatched to a busy border station in Lifford in the early 1990s, not long after the Naomh Padraig club reformed.

It was, he says, “inevitable” that he would be involved in the GAA. He played for Naomh Padraig for a while and was instrumental in getting an under-12 team off the ground in 1993.

“We’d go to some games and there wouldn’t be a referee turn up,” he says. “I remember refereeing with a pair of leather shoes on me. It was a game against Glenswilly out in McFadden’s Field in Breenagh. It’s a testament to the hard work when you look at how things have changed and improved.”

In 1995, the Donegal County Board decided to fine clubs the princely sum of €200 if they had no appointed referee to officiate in adult games.

Naomh Padraig turned to McGonigle - “they might have thought I would be a better referee than footballer!” - and he was soon off to Heeney’s U-Drop Inn in Ballybofey to undertake the course, led out by McBrearty.

“At that stage, the age profile was somewhat higher,” McGonigle says. “People didn’t generally start until well after they finished playing. ‘Young’ referees as such were very few.”

How the Donegal Democrat recorded Seamus McGonigle's first adult game

Around the turn of the millennium, McGonigle joined the national referees panel. He was the fourth official for the All-Ireland senior final in 2001 when Galway defeated Meath and he refereed a 2002 All-Ireland minor semi-final between Meath and Kerry in 2002.

He says: “For those years I was on the national panel - I was there for 10 years - I was familiar with the senior referees.” 

He has high praise for a fellow Donegal referee, Killybegs man Jimmy White.

“Jimmy was as good, if not better, than anyone else on that senior panel,” McGonigle says. “Jimmy White is to Donegal referees what Michael Murphy is to footballers. He was head and shoulders above anyone else in Donegal and was most unfortunate not to referee an All-Ireland senior final.” 

In 1999, the GAA introduced yellow and red cards for the first time. McGonigle remembers a particularly fraught meeting in Heeney’s where some opined that the GAA “shouldn’t be copying other codes”.

Eleven years ago, the black card was added to the GAA referee’s pocket.

McGonigle says: “It stopped the third-man tackle, which was an absolute scourge. It was happening in nearly every play of the ball. The black card cut that out. Something had to be done about it because it was destroying the game.”

He has a loyal team of umpires in Henry McGarvey, Oisin McGarvey, Gary Bogle and Eunan Walsh who do what he believes is “one of the most thankless jobs in the GAA. You have to have absolute trust in them. 

“They are your eyes and ears for so much of what is happening. At times, you don’t want an umpire to see too much, the same as you don’t want an umpire who sees too much.”

McGonigle admits that the new playing rules were “hard work” initially, but has no doubt on their effect: “It even changed the positioning for a referee, whereas my head was conditioned in terms of where I needed to be at a given time in a game. 

“There have been very little controversies in the county and the rules have been such a positive influence on the game. The game was falling away before our eyes. It is absolutely a more enjoyable game to referee now.” 

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He feels privileged to be still actively refereeing, particularly when he thinks of sadly departed colleagues like Don Langan, Connie O’Gara, Paddy McBride and Liam Browne. 

He talks with a real zest when he thinks of the great players he has refereed. Murphy is top of the list, although he points out Michael Hegarty ‘carrying’ Kilcar at times and Christy Toye ‘dominating’ for St Michae’s.

The average age of referees is getting younger now and one local official told recently of having ran 9k in a club game.

He muses over the hundreds of games and thousands of players, he has refereed since first picking up his whistle and comes to a simple conclusion: Peter McKelvey was spot on.