Paul McGettigan - the Donegal man who excelled in Galway

Galway come to O’Donnell Park, Letterkenny on Sunday and there is one man who knows all about both counties, having won club championship medals in both and Ulster titles with Donegal.

Former St Eunan’s man, Paul McGettigan is numbered among the elite few who have played minor and senior championship on same the day, and it turned out to be a good year - 1974. Patrick McBrearty is the only other player to do so and end up with a provincial medal as a minor.

McGettigan was something of a freak, being fully grown at 17 and he had already played National League for Donegal at the age of 16 against Leitrim. The difference between himself and McBrearty was that McGettigan played in the Ulster senior semi-final against Antrim first and then played in the minor championship game against Tyrone afterwards.

And he made his mark in those games, scoring a goal with his first touch in his first game and a point in the Ulster final and replay.

“I remember I blistered myself in the senior game. I had new boots. I went out in the minor game afterwards and after about 20 minutes my feet were raw. I was in agony and I ended up taking them off and playing most of the second half in my socks,” said McGettigan.

“I was still in college in Gormanston at that time and during 1974 Kieran McCready and Seamus Bonar would pick me up and I would go down and play with the county and they would drop me off back afterwards.

“I suppose I was pretty grown when I was about 17. I probably wasn’t filled out. I was blessed always with good pace, but I wouldn’t have had the overall strength, which I would have paid for a few times.

“It was a different mindset at that time, they didn’t mind taking a fella out. And you wouldn’t want a young lad running around you because you would slow him down.”

McGettigan remembers being in Croke Park for Donegal’s first All-Ireland semi-final in 1992. “I never thought I would be playing there two years later. I remember going on the players’ mini bus around Gaoth Dobhair after they won the Ulster. They went on a bit of a tour. It is hard to believe that was Donegal’s first Ulster title.

“And in 1974 I remember hearing about Micheal O Muircheartaigh being on the radio saying Down were cruising and well in control. He was off air then and when he came back on he was excited: ‘Great things are happening here in Clones. Donegal have pulled it back’.”

Donegal had gone nine points down in the replay but two Seamus Bonar penalties helped them to get back in the game before a Kieran Keeney goal sealed a second Ulster title.

“It was incredible that day; you could see the Donegal crowd on the hill in Clones drifting off. Then it was an ‘oul penalty we got and it was down to six and we were still in trouble. It was an extraordinary day because Sean O’Neill was flying and Colm McAlarney was flying.

“But we had Bonar, the most modest guy you would ever meet. He had natural talent and on the big occasion he would just light up. He was a guy I had massive time for,” said McGettigan, who added that he had great time for him coming into the squad. McGettigan also mentioned Andy Curran, Hugh McClafferty and Anthony Gallagher, who were so helpful.

McGettigan was one of a number of talented young players coming on stream around the mid-’70s including Michael Lafferty, Michael Carr, Martin Griffin, Kieran Keeney, PJ McGowan, Brendan Dunleavy and Finian Ward.

“Martin Carney was still very young and Pauric McShea was in his prime with a lot of experience having marked many of the best players of the time.”

He has regrets that the team of 1974 didn’t go on and win more Ulsters. “They broke up that team way too soon. It was just down to mis-management. If they had left McEniff there and left him alone and given him the support, there were a few more Ulsters there and possibly an All-Ireland.

“It was appalling but they had the same problem in Galway and it cost them All-Irelands here too,” said McGettigan. “I remember when Liam O’Neill came in you could see straight away the standards increasing massively. He wanted his own selectors but they wouldn’t allow him and eventually they got rid of him,” said McGettigan.

Donegal pictured before the 1983 All-Ireland semi-final. Paul McGettigan is third from left back row

HOGAN CUP
McGettigan’s football journey took a twist in unusual circumstances when in boarding school. “The strange thing is I was only two years in Gormanston. I started off in Castlemartyr in Cork. I did three years there. My other brother Jimmy was coming on stream and they wanted to get him to boarding school. And the only school he would go to was Gormanston because a few of his buddies were there. The only way he would go was if I went with him.

“They asked me to leave Castlemartyr and go to Gormanston and I didn’t like doing it because I was starting all over again.
“But it worked out well as we won the Hogan Cup in my first year. They had been close enough on a few occasions. It was their first win and they haven’t won it since. Denis ‘Ogie’ Moran was there and I was midfield with him.”

The side were coached by former Down All-Ireland winner, Joe Lennon. “Joe had finished up with Down. He was warming down. He was a brilliant tactician, very knowledgeable about football

“I remember him taking me out one day along with Ogie Moran. He was showing us how to take ‘50s’. He put down the ball and with his right foot, straight between posts and the same with his left. He was a super guy

“We had a Fr James who was over the team but Lennon was always hovering around. It was 13-a-side and it was brilliant, plenty of space. There were a lot of goals and it really tested out backs.”

Asked what players he came up against in college, he remembers a few who went on to make names for themselves.
“We came across Kevin Moran at one stage playing from Drimnagh and Eugene McKenna with Omagh CBS. You would have the likes of Henry Gavin and Stephen Sweeney, who went on to play Mayo senior and Morgan Hughes played against us in the 1973 final for St Jarlath’s and he played with Galway later on that year.

TRANSFER TO GALWAY
McGettigan transferred his allegiance to Galway after 1977 after being disciplined and dropped by Donegal. “I came to university down here and I played Sigerson. It was a time when there was change in Donegal. Brian McEniff was player manager in ‘74. Brian was a super man manager and he was good with players and he would see that players were looked after.|

“After that it left a lot to be desired. It was a different scene then. It was left to yourself to get to matches. I often played in Cork and Dublin on Saturdayone night stopping in Bundoran one night at about 12 o’clock in the morning after hitching. I think I came from the Mardyke in Cork after playing UCC. I was dropped off in Galway and went out on the Tuam Road and started to hitch. I got to Bundoran and was stuck. I checked out Brian and he put me up in the hotel and took me to the match the next day. And then you had no idea how you were going to get back.

“That was the way it was. There was no interest. You were on the team and it was published in the paper and you got there and got back. What happened then I was doing my final exams and we were playing a McKenna Cup final, I think it was against Fermanagh up in Enniskillen or Irvinestown. I was late for the match because I asked a guy to run me up and he took a wrong turn. By the time we arrived there the team was going out on the pitch, so I was asked to stay on the line. Naturally enough, there was no problem with that.

“But they left it to about 10 minutes to go, Pauric McShea was the full-back at the time and he came over to the line and told them to put me on. I was put on. It ended up we were beaten by a point.

“We were to play Derry two weeks later in the championship. I was told leaving that I would be playing and I was expecting I would be playing as I was playing the football of my life at the time. And I wasn’t on the team or the panel. I was disciplined. Nobody rang me or told me why.

“So I went off then to play with Galway,” said McGettigan. There was a happy Donegal ending as McGettigan was asked back by Brian McEniff in 1983 and Donegal ended up winning their third Ulster championship. And who were waiting in the All-Ireland semi-final only Galway.

“And I ended up playing against what were some very good friends of mine. I had been in college with a lot of them; we had won a National League in 1980 and I was very good friends with them. But then your county is ingrained in you and you can’t get away from it. The fact that it was Brian (McEniff who was asking), I went back and we ended up in an All-Ireland semi-final playing against them (Galway).

“I don’t think ever, in all my time, I ever had as much pressure on me as that day. There was an extraordinary build up here and all the talk in Galway, you couldn’t get away from it. I was actually working side by side with Brian O’Donnell and Brian was on the Galway team.

“And by the way we should have won that game,” said McGettigan, who said that he got a knock just before half-time in that game which resulted in a few cracked ribs and he felt it curtailed his contribution.

“Even at that stage, I wasn’t surprised at all when we eventually won the All-Ireland. With that group of players that we had that year, we weren’t after Ulster medals.

“You had the young guys Molloy, McHugh, Tommy McDermott, Matt Gallagher; Reid was there and Joyce. Those lads were super players and really cocky. They didn’t travel to Croke Park to put in a performance; they went up to win. We should have beaten that Galway team but I think all round we were a better side. And I think we would have beaten Dublin (in the final).

“Galway could have won the All-Ireland but they didn’t have the intelligence on the line.”

CLUB
After throwing his lot in with Galway after 1977, McGettigan also played his club football there, initially with St Grellan’s in Ballinasloe, where he went to work after finishing college in St Brigid’s Hospital.

“The first day I arrived there was a delegation there from the club. When I went up they were all young lads and they were really a lively bunch. That was a seamless transition for me. I was living in Ballinasloe and I was socialising with them. It was an easy decision.

“We had wonderful years. We went to an All-Ireland club final and St Finbarr’s of Cork beat us with Jimmy Barry Murphy inspiring them. We beat a very good Walsh Island side from Offaly in the semi-final with Matt Connor and all the Connor brothers. We beat a very good St Mary’s, Sligo side in the Connacht final and yet we were a very young side. We got two county titles and should have got a third. I went back then and played with St Eunan’s and won a county title in Donegal in 1983.”

After that because of the travel involved, he returned to Galway and joined Corofin, where his wife, Geraldine, had family ties.
He would go on to win a senior championship with Corofin in 1991 and then took over as minor manager when nobody was interested. “The team never lost a game, winning league and championship and it was the start of something as Corofin won nine minor championships in-a-row.

“It set the foundation at the time for All-Ireland clubs. I went up to work with the seniors in 1997 and won the first All-Ireland club for Galway and Connacht.

“From then the club was focused on All-Irelands and invested in pitches and strength and conditioning. Players were looked after. They were streets ahead in Galway for years. They were blessed with great players too,” said McGettigan, who says it was not an overnight success.

“For a number of years we were going to All-Ireland semi-finals but we couldn’t get over the line because we didn’t have top class forwards. Then in more recent years we did have the forwards. Forwards win All-Irelands. At the end of the day, just look at last year’s All-Ireland final; it was two class forwards (David Clifford and Shane Walsh) that set the stage alight. That’s what has stopped Mayo from winning All-Irelands; their forwards are just not at the level.”

Paul McGettigan is now a practising barrister in Galway and is still a busy man. He gets back to Letterkenny as often as he can to visit his mother. “I love to get out in summer time and go to Dunfanaghy and Rathmullan for walks; they are my two favourite places.”

He doesn’t get to as many games now but continues to watch all the matches. His younger brother, Leslie, has one over him as regards Hogan Cup medals, having won two and played in three finals.

But Paul can point to two Ulster senior medals, three senior club medals in Galway and one with St Eunan’s to go alongside his Hogan Cup medal from 1973.