Sean MacCumhaill’s Seamus McGinty toasts Senior C success - at 52

It was third time lucky for Sean MacCumhaill’s and their ageless corner-back Seamus McGinty with last Saturday’s Senior C Championship final win over Naomh Conaill.

Sean MacCumhaills won 0-7 to 0-6 at Glenswilly’s Pairc Naomh Columba to avenge last year’s final defeat by the same team in nearby O’Donnell Park.

Darren O’Leary scored the winner with a brilliant point in the closing minutes to clinch the victory. The men from the Twin Towns also lost a final to St Eunan’s.

O’Leary cut in from the right to drill over from a tight angle minutes after veteran MacCumhaill’s McGinty, who was up in the attack, was just wide from close range minutes earlier.
McGinty, who is 52 and has been playing adult football for 36 years, was also fouled before that for the free that set up the equalising score after MacCumhaill's came from two down late on.

“Naomh Conaill always pushes us every year,” he said. “We just wanted to get one over them. They beat us twice this year both in the league and the championship. They also beat us last year in the final as well.

“In fairness, our manager, Dougie McDaid has got the lads working hard this year. We left it late but we don’t mind that because we finally got over the line at the end.

“The winning point from Darren O’Leary was a brilliant score. Darren was always sharp in front of the goals and it was great to have him this year.”

McGinty insisted that he is enjoying playing as much as ever though he did admit the soreness and stiffness lasts longer into the week with the passing of each season.

“I enjoy the bit of banter and slagging at training and after games and sure a few points eases the stiffness and soreness,” he said.

“I started playing senior with the club around 1986/87 and I was in the county senior panel for two seasons in the middle of the 1990s, around 1995 and ‘96.

In close on over five decades of playing for his beloved MacCumhaill’s at all levels, Saturday’s C championship final win was only his third championship success.

“It is only my second senior,” McGinty added. “We won the intermediate championship in 2007. The other winner's medal was from U-16 level, back in 1986.”

In all his playing years Sean McCumhaill’s have only reached one senior championship final, back in 2004 when they lost to Ardara on a 1-9 to 0-4 scoreline.

“I didn’t play in the 2004 final at all,” he said. “I was togged out alright for the final but I missed most of the season and the entire championship with a knee injury. The knee still bothers me and it blows up from time to time. I had it cleaned out a few times but no major surgery on it so far.

“ I know it was a C final that we have won out there today but it means the world to me. It is not often you get the chance to play in a county final.

“County finals don’t come around too often in our club so you enjoy one when you get to it and especially when you win it.”
In winning the intermediate championship in 2008, MacCumhaill’s beat Na Rossa in the final. That, and being the couple of seasons in the county senior panel during fellow clubman P J McGowan’s term managing, McGinty cites among the highlights of his playing days.

“The intermediate championship win and being on the county squad were I suppose the highlights,” he said. “I was in the county squad for a couple of years, 1995 and 1996 and it was a brilliant experience.

“I played a few games in the Dr McKenna Cup and the National League but it was only a short time after 1992 and the All-Ireland success and most of the lads that won the All-Ireland were still playing in ‘94 and ‘95.

“I was only 25/26 at the time and to be playing and training with the likes of Gary Walsh, Matt Gallagher, John Joe Doherty, Noel Hegarty, Barry McGowan, John Cunnningham, Manus Boyle, Martin Gavigan, Martin Shovlin, Tommy Ryan, James McHugh, Tony Boyle and Declan Bonner - it was unreal for me coming into the squad.

“They were all household names all over the country and were superstars too in my eyes and to be rubbing shoulders with them and to be playing and training with them was a real treat and an experience I will never forget.”

McGinty will be 53 next year and he has not ruled out lining out again in 2023. He certainly is in no mood for retirement talk after his latest success, so he won’t be making hasty decisions about whether or not he will play again next year.
“I still enjoy playing,” he said. “And I’ll see if I can get the knee sorted again and we’ll see after that, who knows after that.”