There’s "ojis" excitement, but it's Donegal for Ulster - Cavan for 99s . . .

When Dublin beat Meath in the Leinster final in 1995 Jason Sherlock captured the joy of it all by planting a kiss on the cheek of referee Pat Casserly during the game.
Pat also refereed the Cavan v Kerry All Ireland semi-final in 1997. I met Pat for a drink at the weekend.
The Longford native, now retired from refereeing and a resident of Mullingar is impressed by his neighbour’s progress but strongly fancies Donegal.
“I think you’ll beat them by 6 or 7 points...and although I fancy the Dubs for the title, Donegal won’t be far away.
“Declan Bonner is doing great work...you’re still strong defensively but now the midfield and attacking options are being very effectively exploited.”

REGULAR VISITORS TO DONEGAL
Pat and his wife Mary are regular visitors to Donegal and their dearest friends up here are Dee and Noreen Byrne, whose daughter Diane passed away so suddenly in 2014, and who is still remembered with huge affection in Dungloe and the Rosses, and by her friends in Westmeath.
Before I leave Pat, he adds: “If you see Brian McEniff and Martin McHugh, tell them I said hello.” Earlier, I stopped in an old haunt, O’Reilly’s filling station in Swanlinbar.
The man with the Kenny Rogers beard was flat out delivering Cavan flags and pennants to the shop. “I’ve a few more stops to do” he tells me. “There’s ojis excitement locally...Gearoid McKiernan comes from here.” Swanlinbar may be Cavan’s smallest club, but at 6’4”, big Gearoid is literally flying the lone flag for this wee border outpost on the Fermanagh border.
He was a vital member of the 2010 Swanlinbar club’s success when they achieved Junior Football Championship success in both Cavan and Ulster but were beaten by Kerry’s Saint Mary’s in the All-Final
When Jim McGuinness won his first Ulster title in 2011, McKiernan was part of the Cavan team defeated by Donegal in the Ulster quarter final that year, but he already had an U-21 Ulster Medal in the bag by beating Tyrone, and the Cavan Minors were also victors in what was a very memorable day in Clones in July 2011.

STRAWBERRY SYRUP
On my return, I stop at Drumacon Filling Station near Belturbet where, as well as filling up, they do the best 99 in the country!
The goson is carefully adding some strawberry syrup around the flake in the cone, and I ask him about the feeling locally. “1997 is a long time ago now...we’re hoping for the best!” 1997 may indeed be a long time but 1947 is fifty years longer, and although a Donegal supporter, I grew up listening with fascination to my father’s stories about the great Cavan teams of yore.
I knew that the first All-Ireland winner from Donegal, Columba McDyer, played on that team and when I was in serious awe in St. Eunan’s College to think that a number of his sons were either classmates or students in other years.

Jim McGuinness called him"an absolute gentleman to the fingertips, very well-educated ... a very gentle, bubbly person" and a huge influence. The great Mick Higgins also played on the 1947 team and was one of Brian McEniff’s right hand men in 1972, when we won our first Ulster title.
A friend who accompanied Mick to the funeral of the great Kerry full back Joe Keohane in 1988 recalls: "Mick was almost more of an icon in Kerry than at home. We nearly didn't get out of Tralee that day."
Mick himself, a member of An Garda Siochana and at his funeral, his son John said that his father would get annoyed if he hadn't solved a crime within between 12 and 24 hours.
Mick’s own words are telling...When asked how he would like to be remembered he replied: "That I never hit anyone, I played the game clean and I never was put off."

Pat Casserly, whose native Longford had their greatest successes under Mick in 1966 and 1968 (National League and Leinster), would strongly approve of that sentiment.
Some years ago, I attended the funeral of John O’Reilly in Arva. John was a first cousin of his namesake, the legendary John Joe O’Reilly who captained Cavan in the Polo Grounds in New York in 1947, when they beat Kerry in the All-Ireland Final.
As a youngster on holidays in Killeshandra, my father ‘ceilidhed’ in the O’Reilly household in The Derries and often took me with him.
I had no idea then of the significance of the legend that was John Joe, but anytime I visit McShane’s Pub in Cornafean, Sean Masterson will sing the famous ballad for ‘the Donegal man’, That my mother hails from Kilcar, home of Martin McHugh, still hugely popular in Cavan, ensures a very warm welcome indeed.

JOHN WILSON
I met my cousins, James, Mary and Donna, and later that afternoon, I had a long chat with Senator Diarmuid Wilson, nephew of another Cavan legend, John Wilson, who won an All-Ireland in 1947, in the company of Columba McDyer. The following year, John came to teach in St. Eunan’s where he stayed until 1960.
He coached the school teams, was a referee, and managed our first ever minor team to an Ulster Final. Charlie Haughey once asked, while canvassing in Donegal: “Is there anybody in Donegal, whom John Wilson did not teach?”
In Paul Fitzpatrick’s fantastic book, “Fairytale of New York”, about the 1947 Final, he writes: “When teaching in St Eunan’s College in Letterkenny for eight years, he single-handedly revived underage football in the county, coaching the school to a first-ever Rannafast Cup title, retaining it and leading them to a first MacRory final in 30 years.
Hugh Daly, father of Tom, who went on to be Ulster Council President, had a conversation with Wilson once. Donegal were bottom of the GAA pile yet Wilson, a renaissance man in every sense of the term, was beginning to enjoy unprecedented success in schools football.
“I wonder”, asked Hugh, “will we ever make it in senior football?” “Oh your time will come,” assured Wilson.
“I don’t know, John,” replied a gloomy Daly, “I think the Queen of England will be in Croke Park before Donegal win an All-Ireland in it.”
We won our first in 1992...Elizabeth didn’t make it until 2011! Not Croker, mind you...a bit early for that, methinks. It’s at times like this I wish dad was around...he would have enjoyed the spectacle of Termon v Four Masters last Sunday, with two of his grandsons on each side, and guess who he’d be supporting on Sunday? Ah well, he loved being in the minority...far more craic!
As I departed Swanlinbar (or Swad, as it’s known) last week, a client emerged from O’Reilly’s shop bearing a Cavan flag and clambered above a 93 DL Massey Ferguson. Man dear... I’d love to know his story!