‘These wee fellas have given people a wee bit of break’

Thirty-two of them - players and management - stood, sombrely and silently.

Three weeks after the Creeslough explosion, the N56 is still closed. The ‘Creeslough barrier’ remains and a journey via a labyrinth of local back roads is needed to get through a village still haunted and still grieving.

On Sunday evening, the Garda manning the barrier, close to the site of the explosion at the Applegreen complex, bowed his head in silent reflection. In front of him stood the St Michael’s Under-13s and their management for a minute’s silence in memory of the victims.

Welcome sunshine and smiles for St Michael's as Under-13s win thrilling final

With Jim McGuinness on the backroom team and a younger McGuinness cutting a familiar figure on the field, St Michael's could cheer again as they overcame Naomh Conaill in the Under-13 Division 2 Cup final

St Michael’s defeated Naomh Conaill 3-7 to 2-7 at the Donegal GAA Centre in the Under-13 Division 2 Cup final. Rarely, has a victory meant as much.

“This is a great lift to the club after the few weeks we’ve had,” St Michael’s Chairperson Liam McElhinney said.

“This will bring a great lift to the whole parish. The way they played was just unreal and it’s testament to the good work that’s being put in by Paul Sweeney and his backroom team of Jim McGuinness, Neil Toye, Denis Sheridan and Bernie McGinley.

“It has been a very tough few weeks. The community has shown what it can do. The community has rallied, with the whole country behind us. We had to get a focus, too, to get the children back out playing again. It was very important to get back out again. To be back out into games has been brilliant for everybody.”

St Michael's players and management hold a minute's silence in Creeslough.

Jim McGuinness, living now in Creeslough, the home place of his wife, Yvonne McFadden, is on Sweeney’s backroom team. The former Donegal manager saw clear the devastation of October 7, the day time stood still in Creeslough.

Ten people lost their lives in a horrific blast that sent shockwaves rippling through the very heart of the community. The young St Michael’s players would have been aware of many of those killed.

Shauna Flanagan-Garwe had just started the local primary school, Scoil Mhuire. Her father, Robert Garwe, was often seen traveling around Creeslough on his electric scooter.

Teenagers James Monaghan and Leona Harper were of their own vintage, Martina Martin was known as their bubbly shopkeeper. James O’Flaherty helped out at Cranford Athletics Club, where his son Hamish competes.

The lives of Jessica Gallagher, Catherine O’Donnell - the mother of James Monaghan - and Hugh Kelly were also taken; people who they might’ve crossed paths with on any given day.

Martin McGill, a Celtic fan who is related to Yvonne McGuinness, was in the shop to use the ATM when the explosion occurred and was also killed.

McGuinness said: “Everybody is going through a lot. The wee ones are no different. Sometimes you think they’re going a bomb and nothing is affecting them, but deep down there is a lot going on. People that they knew. People they lost.

“It has been a very, very tough period and it is only starting in many respects.”

St Michael's celebrate winning the Donegal Under-13 Division 2 Cup.

Naomh Conaill agreed to call off a group stage game between the clubs on the weekend of the blast.

On they went and two weeks ago St Michael’s defeated Naomh Muire in a home semi-final. It was a day when a parish took a small step that felt like a giant leap.

Starting again hasn’t been easy.

“Coming up to the game, it was very difficult,” McGuinness said. “It was hard to do anything over the last couple of weeks.

“These wee fellas have given people a bit of a break. It was just lovely to get over the line for them. For the community, it’s a huge positive and we’ve got to be happy with that.

“They have worked very hard for this. They’re a dedicated wee bunch.

“Thankfully we had a great game. There was so much football played in the first 20 minutes, it felt like it was much later in the game.”

That Naomh Conaill, provided the opposition was just another of the game’s quirks. It was  McGuinness’s first time to face his home club in a competitive game.

“It was very, very strange,” he said. “Naomh Conaill are a brilliant side. They’re very well coached, they have great heart and are great footballers on the ball. We knew it would be a massive test, but they kept at it. We just nudged away from them in the second half.

“It’s not something I’d like to be doing every day of the week, playing against them. It was strange walking past the warm-up. It’s not something I ever thought I’d be doing, but life can throw these things up and you just have to roll with it. It’s a lot easier to do it when your own children are involved.”

Mark Anthony McGuinness receives the cup from Jim Quinn.

Sons Mark Anthony and Jimmy are on the panel. Mark Anthony scored 2-2 in a captain’s display with Shay Sweeney - Paul’s son - helping himself to 1-4.

“Everybody did a great job and they worked tremendously hard,” McGuinness said.

“There was a fair bit of mistakes on both sides, but that was down to the nature of the game and the intensity of the game and the quality of the game. There was a pattern to it and a flow to it. It was fairly expansive and both teams kicked a lot. You had all these wee subplots going on around the game.”

Sunday’s was a first underage title for St Michael’s since the Under-16 Division 2 title was won in 2016.

McElhinney said: “This is a brilliant day for St Michael’s. For the last ten years, our underage hasn’t functioned the way we’d have liked. Jim has come in to this group and you can see his mark all over the group.”

Ten years after leading Donegal to All-Ireland glory, McGuinness - although firmly focussed now on forging a career as a football manager - patrolled the Gaelic football sidelines on Sunday with as much enthusiasm as ever.

“It is very, very different,” he said. “You have to think differently about what you say and how you say it. Things have to be really broken down when you’re working with boys of this age.

“You assume that everyone knows everything, but they don’t. You’re trying to break all the skills down and make them manageable in their own mind.

“You’re doing that on one side and then on the other you’re trying to get a team together that can play together. Most of the work is actually individual work. They’re only starting their journey now, both teams are, and I’m sure they’ll meet again at some point.”

On Wednesday night, St Michael’s held an information night with trained HSE counsellors at The Bridge.

“We’re getting back into normality,” McElhinney said.  “It’s great to be going back home to Creeslough, into the town beset by the tragedy, to bring a smile back to the people again.”

In the immediate aftermath of the explosion, ten red candles flickered on the altar at St Michael’s Church.

At the weekend, the glow from the red and white shirts of St Michael’s burned a beacon every bit as bright. Every bit as hopeful. And every bit as important.

As Mark Anthony McGuinness put it in his acceptance speech, this one really was ‘for the community’.