When St Eunan’s black and amber came like a bolt from the blue to win the 1983 SFC

At the time, the Dr Maguire only infrequently made its way through Barnesmore.

After St Eunan’s won the double of senior hurling and football championships in 1972, only MacCumhaill’s six years later had taken the trophy north. The southern sides had almost a monopoly on the successes of the ‘black-and-white to colour’ era.

St Eunan’s though, are one of those clubs that might never be too far away, always popping their head back in every decade and one such year was 1983.

Forty-one years have passed since that extraordinary championship victory for St Eunan’s, but the tremors of that win can still very much be felt around the Letterkenny area.

Their victorious season, in general, may be overshadowed by Donegal winning their third Anglo Celt cup that summer, followed by one of the narrowest All-Ireland semi-final defeats in history when Galway pipped Brian McEniff’s side at Croke Park, with a scuffed Val Daly goal to win 1-12 to 1-11.

In the height of that chaotic year, one man’s situation stands out amongst many. Through the highs and the lows, St Eunan’s man Paul McGettigan was as comfortable in chaos as a firefly in a summer storm. Nothing ever came easy for him. Opportunity never just landed in his lap, despite his extraordinary talents.

The towering midfielder, living in Galway since the early 1970s when he went there to attend university, was the backbone for both Donegal and St Eunan’s that year. But to tell the story of their one-time-only championship win in the 1980s, he takes us back to the last time the club reached the pinnacle 11 years earlier.

“If you go back to 1972, it looked like St Eunan’s could’ve dominated Donegal football for years, because that year the seniors won the championship, while the minors and the U-16s also won the championship,” McGettigan told DonegalLive.

“The minors in the club went on again to win the championship in ’73 and ’74. So, the building blocks to be successful were in place in the club.”

But success at senior level never followed, with St Joseph’s dominating the county scene throughout the 1970s before Ardara, Kilcar and Four Masters would take the reins in the early 1980s as the Dr Maguire Cup ventured through the clubs of south Donegal. McGettigan was a hero of his time, already establishing himself among the elites after making his debut at 16 for Donegal.

He is also numbered among the few who have played minor and senior championship on the same day. Like most of his Donegal and St Eunan’s counterparts though, the growing demand for a third-level education took the midfielder to Galway during a struggling time for club and county.

“There was an extraordinary amount of talent around from those underage teams, but the issue was, like it is with most teams, it’s about holding on to players and that didn’t happen because a lot of the boys, including myself, went off to university,” says McGettigan.

“I was in Galway at university at the time with a few of the lads, and at that stage, if you had to travel from Galway to Letterkenny, it was six hours on a CIE bus. It’s hard to believe, but anytime I travelled back to Donegal to play with my club or county, I would’ve hitched home.

“I remember one time I played a university match in Cork, and as soon as the team bus brought me back to Galway, I started hitching to try and get back to Donegal for training the next day.

“That was the stuff you were dealing with. I can understand the lack of help from the clubs, because they didn’t have the resources to help you, but the county had the resources and didn’t bother, which was a joke.

“They didn’t care about the players or their circumstances. In all my time with Donegal, I never once got a phone call from the county saying, ‘Paul we’ve arranged a lift for you’. They just expected you to do it.

“The county scene at that time before Brian McEniff came back in the 80s was an absolute shamble. The secret to success in any team sport is the people who are in charge. It was obvious when Brian came back, we were going to have structure.”

As the dreary ennui grew for the Letterkenny man, his interest in giving his time to the county and club grew to be an impossible task. He left St Eunan’s and Donegal in the late 1970s before landing a position in the health board in Ballinasloe where he ended up playing football for the next three years.

As the 1980s grew closer, so too did McGettigan’s feeling that unfinished business remained back in the county of his birth.

“By 1980, I could see things in Donegal were changing. Brian McEniff was back in charge of the county, and Declan O’Carroll from the great St Joseph’s team had taken over St Eunan’s,” McGettigan adds. “Both Brian and Declan were very decent people. They understood football and they knew how to manage players.

“Even though Declan wasn’t in charge of the team in 1983, he was responsible for putting that championship-winning team together. He introduced a bit of discipline, he knew the players he had, and he got us playing a good style of football.

“I took the notion that there was no point in me travelling home to Donegal to play and train if the players in the club weren’t willing to put in the effort, but once I heard and saw what the club team were doing, I knew something special was going to happen.”

McGettigan returned to play club football in Letterkenny in 1982 before joining up with the county squad again the following year, while still living in Galway.

By 1983, it was nine years since he last lifted the Anglo Celt Cup with Donegal and 11 years since he won the championship with St Eunan’s. In his head, the clock kept ticking a deafening tumult that time was running out to make his successful stamp in Donegal.

“In the end, I went back to my home county. There was a nagging feeling inside of me that said I had unfinished business with both St Eunan’s and Donegal. It was a perfect time because there were great people involved,” McGettigan says.

“Peadar McGeehin took over the club side in 1983 when Declan stood down and Peadar brought in this tactical nuance to the team. He was an extremely intelligent man.

“He brought a few very clever changes to the team. He shifted me out of midfield and decided I was best at using my power at full-forward, which worked well.”

A defeat to Kilcar in the opening round of the championship in 1982 after three games was just the motivation the side needed to rebuild the following season. The archives to this day show that all fingers were pointing to one club to take home the 1983 title as Eunan’s cruised through the rounds, taking out all in sight as Killybegs over two games 2-9 to 1-3 and 0-13 to 1-4; Kilcar on a 2-6 to 0-10 scoreline and Downings, 1-12 to 1-6, all fell to the Letterkenny men, setting up a finale with Ardara.

“We were very unfortunate not to win it in 1982, we were narrowly beaten by Kilcar, but the following year the team was taking shape. In 1983 I did not doubt in my mind that before a ball was even kicked, I knew we were going to win the championship.

“That team, in particular, was an incredible group to play with, they had a lovely balance between young and old, with some great skilful players. The likes of Damien Judge, Mickey Houston, Brendan Roache, Eugene Sharkey, and Noel McCole, all were lads you wanted in your dressing room.

“And then you balance that out with the likes of Charlie Mulgrew and Eunan MacIntyre who were successful county men at the time.

“I think a big thing that year was that the team captain Anthony Gallagher was coming to the twilight of his career, and he wanted to give that season with Eunan’s one giant push. He was so well respected and had to travel from Northern Ireland, and once he was committed to the cause, the rest soon followed.

“The key game that year was always going to be against Kilcar because we were looking for revenge from the previous year. There was a lot of pressure that day for us to perform and break that hold to try and win a championship.

“So, when it came to the quarter-final against them we got out of the traps with early scores and thankfully we ended up beating them. Once that game was over, we knew we were going to win it that year.”

With the accelerating giddiness that surrounded the county with Donegal’s Ulster-winning success, the championship season was pushed back from its usual final date in August, to late September, with games played week-on-week.

“I don’t think I was able to enjoy it as much as I could’ve, because by the time the final came around, I was absolutely wrecked from playing with Donegal. It was a long year with the county and when that was over, they fired out the championship relatively quickly, so there was no chance of a break.

“We were always in control of the final. It wasn’t a classic game or in any way exciting against Ardara, but it meant so much to the club and particularly to the people who gave so much to see that day happen.”

St Eunan’s would ease their way to victory on a scoreline of 0-8 to 0-3, with McGettigan top scoring with 0-4. The Donegal Democrat said: “St Eunan’s take the senior crown in disappointing game” - but their dominant season looked like a sign of greater events to come, but it was not to be.

McGettigan would dance his last waltz with both Donegal and his native club that year, with the travel from Galway taking its toll, while also having not trained with either team throughout the entirety of the football year.

“I ended up leaving the county that year due to the fact it was taking up so much of my life by coming from Galway,” McGettigan admits. It was just impossible. I didn’t train once with the club or the county that year and amazingly enough, ended up with a club championship and inter-county Ulster medal.

“The fact that I never trained with those teams is a little bit upsetting because you’re not with the squad as much as you’d like, and you can’t train properly on your own if you’re a part of a team game. I did my best but, in the end, it became an impossible task.”

Despite that mere blip, McGettigan walked away with memories and a task completed.

“I look back on that year, particularly with St Eunan’s with great fondness,” he adds. “I won a championship in 1972 with the club, but it was only a minor role. I felt I had an obligation to give something to the club. I needed to make a stamp in the club and I’m very happy I did that.

“The main thing in my sporting career was to win a senior championship medal with lads I grew up with and who were a massive part of my life. There was unfinished business in Donegal. I’m just glad I made that contribution to the town I love.”

The debate that stems from that particular squad is; why did they not win more championships?

“It’s hard to put your finger on the fact why the team never achieved more,” McGettigan says. “Firstly, we have to say that these titles aren’t easily won. I think there was such an effort and relief to win that championship in 1983 that it almost felt like this was the business done.”

This Saturday, the St Eunan’s panel of 1983 will be the guests of the club at their annual presentation night at O’Donnell Park