Naomh Conaill’s Ulster legacy shouldn’t just be measured in gold 

If this Naomh Conaill don’t happen to get over the line in the Ulster club championship, the provincial legacy they leave behind should still be a very proud one. 

When I say this Naomh Conaill, I mean the one that still has that very special cluster of five - the survivors from 2005 and, in many ways, the club’s ultimate pioneers.

Donegal representation has only ever won the competition twice and before Gaoth Dobhair’s spectacular triumph in 2018, you’d to go the whole way back to 1975 to find our only other success.

And when you do trawl through the archives and get to that point, you land on St Joseph’s, an uneasy Galacticos-type alliance of Bundoran and Ballyshannon (1963-1977) that doesn’t even exist anymore. 

Donegal next raised their head above the provincial parapet in 1991 when Killybegs’ legendary side of that era reached the decider but were just squeezed out by Monaghan’s Castlebalyney. 

From then on - right up until 2010 - Donegal sides’ record in the competition made for dismal reading. But Cathal Corey and those Boys in Blue reignited interest and indeed belief inside the county that Ulster glory was attainable. 

There are some that say Donegal clubs lost interest in the competition or viewed it as a chore-ish interruption to their own county SFC title celebrations. 

And while there might have been some kernel of truth to that sentiment it did, over time, perhaps become too convenient a narrative as the negative results began to pile up. 

But against the grain, 13 seasons ago, Naomh Conaill once again put some respectability beside Donegal’s name when it came to the Seamus McFerran Cup. 

They’d come up short against the mighty Crossmaglen Rangers but, in an indirect sort of way, they’d shaken an inferiority complex that’d paralysed so many others in the years prior. 

With that straightjacket unbuckled, Glenswilly were next to fire the kitchen sink at matters back in 2013. 

They’d only landed their maiden Dr Maguire two seasons prior but having reached the Promised Land once more, a line was quickly drawn as they moved into Ulster. 

But Donegal’s wait would continue as Ballinderry claimed a 1-13 to 2-6 win over the Gary McDaid-led Glen. Still, what that proved was Donegal clubs were at least no longer the competition’s whipping boys. 

A gap of five seasons lapsed before we’d again have final representation but when it arrived, Gaoth Dobhair were the ones that finally tossed the monkey from the back with a glorious 0-13 to 0-12 win over Scotstown. 

The following season, 2019, Naomh Conaill made their second Ulster Club SFC final inside a decade but would once again have their hearts broken - this time by Down kingpins Kilcoo. 

Now, on Saturday, they get the chance, possibly the last opportunity for their famous five, to make another final. 

For Anthony Thompson, Leo McLoone, Eoin Waide, Marty Boyle and Brendan McDyer in particular, there aren’t too many grains of sand left in the chamber at this stage when it comes to their time at this level. 

Standing in their way are the reigning Ulster champions and last term’s defeated All-Ireland finalists, Watty Grahams. 

It’s a massive hurdle and one that looks even more unsurmountable now given the unconvincing manner in which they struggled past Gowna. 

But that thought won’t faze Naomh Conaill ahead of the weekend. Indeed, it’s more likely to be potent as they look to cause an upset. 

The Ulster club championship is a fantastic competition and while it’s taken longer than it should have for Donegal sides to realise that and embrace it, there is no doubt others have always placed it upon a real pedestal. 

And speculating to accumulate, the likes of Kilcoo enticed Karl Lacey the whole way up to county Down as they looked to wrestle dominancy back from Watty Grahams, who again are being steered by Monaghan native Malachy O’Rourke. 

Scotstown tore up the script there, however, as one of the big favourites fell at the quarter-final stage. Naomh Conaill can certainly draw some inspiration from that feat. 

They’ll also relish being completely written off as they’ve been quick to remind their detractors, in the past, whenever they’ve defied the odds. 

They’ll travel in large numbers to Omagh at the weekend, they’ll be seen and heard on the terraces that’s for sure. 

But Naomh Conaill have already created a legacy - one that they could only have dreamed of less than two decades ago. 

It doesn’t need an exclamation mark or cherry on top of it to solidify that fact. Still - a win over Glen would not only push them into a third ever Ulster Club final it would, without a doubt, also be marked down as their greatest ever victory. 

You don’t always get what you deserve in sport and no one would begrudge Naomh Conaill this accolade, at this stage. 

So it’s going to be fascinating to see how they measure up in Healy Park and how they go about attempting to accomplish what many feel is an impossible feat.