Paul Kelly was a Dr McKenna trailblazer for Donegal in the 1960s

The Donegal 1963 Dr McKenna Cup team. Back row from left, Mick Griffin, Paul Kelly, Frankie McFeely, Fionn Gallagher, Bernard Brady, Brendan McFeely, PJ Flood, John Hannigan. Front, from left, Donal Breslin, Sean Ferriter, Cormac Breslin, Sean O'Donnell, Seamus Hoare, Des Houlihan, Declan O'Carroll

While the Dr McKenna Cup dates back to 1927, it was 1963 before Sean Ferriter became the first Donegal captain to get his hands on the trophy.

Donegal defeated Cavan in the final, which was played on Cavan's home pitch of Breffni Park. It was some reward for the team who had been defeated in the Ulster final by Down earlier that summer at the same venue.

In what was a great era for Donegal GAA,  the Dr McKenna Cup would return to the county twice more in the 1960s, in 1965 and 1967. Six players, Seamus Hoare, John Hannigan, Bernard Brady, PJ Flood, Mick Griffin and Paul Kelly were on all three winning teams. (There was no final in 1965 as Cavan didn’t field for the final).

Of those six players, Hoare, Brady and Hannigan are no longer with us. PJ Flood lives in London while Griffin and Kelly live in Dublin.

Kelly, from Cloughaneely, was part of the 1956 Donegal minor team that made the breakthrough, winning a first ever Ulster minor championship. Sean Ferriter and John Hannigan were also part of that team and PJ Flood could easily have been on the Donegal team also but for being away at college in Gormanston.

But while Ferriter, Hannigan and Flood were playing senior championship for Donegal within two years of the ‘56 minor success, Paul Kelly did not make his senior championship bow until 1962, which is surprising.

By then he had won two Sigerson Cup medals with UCD as well as winning Dublin senior league and championship also with the University.

Kelly has great memories of the time and some not so good, including getting a 12 month suspension when reported for playing in London during one summer, even though the paperwork was correct.

“I think Cloughaneely didn’t have a team at that time. So I would go to London and play football for the fun of it. I was in UCD at the time.

“Dr Stuart  was in charge of the Uni team and he was President of the GAA at the same time. He said ‘I can’t push it now but I’ll get you ready for the Sigerson in October’. And he did, he got me back in,” said Kelly,  who went on to play every year for Donegal from 1962 until 1969.

“We were going well at that time. There was a right group there back then.”

Asked about the minor success in 1956, he agreed it was an historic achievement.

“Yeah, it probably was the breakthrough team. It was the St Eunan’s (College) team and a lot of minors followed on to the county team.

“It was a good time to be playing.

“I remember the first time I played for the seniors, I think it was the following year 1957. It was the Traders Cup game, for the seniors. At that time I reckon we weren’t able to field teams at all. We played in Ballyshannon and I think we only had 14 men or something. I was only a nipper.

“They went out and found somebody on the street to come in and fill a spot. I know who it was, it was Jackie McDermott. The Dodger (John McDermott) would have been involved with the team at the time.”

But despite that, he says there are great memories from the time.

“We had plenty of fun. But I suppose at the time we weren’t as well ahead with managerial stuff as other counties. I’m not blaming anybody in particular. I was playing at the time with UCD and the difference between the preparation was well ahead in UCD than it was in Donegal.

“I won a couple of Sigersons with UCD and a couple of (Dublin) championships and a couple of leagues. 

“At the time you had only four Universities and you had a lot of intercounty footballers coming into it. There were only four for all the players. Whereas now I don’t know how many you have in it.

“I would have been very happy with my football at that time.”

Paul Kelly, a Donegal legend from the 1960s

Such was Kelly’s form for Donegal that he won two Railway Cup medals in 1965 and 1966, playing alongside the greats of Ulster football from Down, Derry and Cavan.

“At that time I was teaching in Dublin and I was near enough to the Phoenix Park and I used to go in there every day after school, especially when selected for the Railway Cup. That was the big thing for us in Donegal at that time. We weren’t winning anything as such.

“I used to go in there and spend hours in it. I had nothing else to do, of course, staying in a flat.”

Playing alongside the likes of Paddy Doherty and Sean O’Neill was a daunting task.

“It was a great experience but it was a difficult one. Because Doherty and O’Neill and the McCartans, they were difficult to match. Sean O’Connell of Derry was there that time too, God Rest him.

“They would keep you on your toes. You would have to be at your best. I would always be at my best as regards fitness, but there were other things I wouldn’t have been as handy at, but the fitness helps a lot.

“Like high fielding, and all that, because I wasn’t tall. But even with Donegal, I was playing alongside PJ Flood and all those. PJ to me was a super footballer. He was a centre half-back and I thought he was brilliant.

“Sean O’Donnell was in the line also, a very fine footballer,” said Kelly.

After his Donegal days were over, Kelly became immersed in his local club in Dublin, Lucan Sarsfields.

“I was involved with the kids here (in Lucan) when my own lad was about seven. We went up through the different age groups to U-21. Then the chairman rang me one night and said, ‘look, will you take the job to coach or manage the (senior) team’. I said no, but I’ll help anyone who wants to do it.

“He came back the following Friday and said, ‘okay Paul, that’s all right, you’re appointed!’ He didn’t give me an option.

“I spent a good few years with them and got them up from Intermediate to Senior. I was with them for a year at senior before I left it. I was tired at that stage and had been in football for many years.”

Then when his football days were over he took up the game of golf.

“I have been playing golf for 30 years now, but I’m nearly finished with golf now. I go up there but if anyone asks me if I’m still playing golf, I just say I go up there,” said Kelly, who played off a handicap of 8 at one stage, which wasn’t bad for someone taking up the game so late.

“That’s about the height of it. Mick  McGinley and Sean Ferriter would have been playing in Dunfanaghy as youngsters; they were good golfers for most of his adult life, his love of Donegal GAA has not waned.

“I certainly have not lost interest. I would have travelled up to all their matches once I retired. I haven’t been up at many lately and last year was a poor year for Donegal.

“But I’m delighted to see (Jim) McGuinness back and the results look brilliant. I know you don’t know what it is (McKenna Cup), but he has moulded a team together.

“I haven’t seen any of the three matches, but he has put good scores up. There was a big crowd in Ballybofey for the first game. 

“You would trust  him. I was listening to him the other day on the radio and he gave a lovely interview. He has his own way of doing things and he will see it out.

“I used to see him as a player and he has certainly blossomed. But he has a great deal of experience. He’s been at soccer and rugby and taken something from  all of them. He is putting a lot of work into it. 

“A lot of people don’t like him. I was talking to a brother of an ex-Meath footballer the other day and he asked me what did I think of McGuinness, and I said I was delighted to see him back.

“Your man, I think it is something about Meath people and northern teams, he says he didn’t like him at all.

“And I said back to him, his style of football won an All-Ireland and any county, if they knew a way of winning one, they would use it,” said Kelly, who added that Donegal’s football had gotten stale over the last number of years.

“Someone who was at one of the games this year said they were playing a running game. We weren’t scoring in games and we were dying away at the end. It is good news to see this new style coming.

“Whether we win the final (on Saturday) or not, it’s not the be-all of it anyway. Derry will be without the Glen players on Saturday. It should be a good match. It will be competitive anyway, no matter what team McGuinness sends out.

“It is great to see that the young fellas are mad to play for him.

“Then that’s a great thing as well. Then he has a good backroom team in Neil McGee and Colm McFadden, who have won things, one up front and one at the back.

“I enjoy watching the football,” says Kelly.

Back in 1963 the red-haired Kelly was at centre half-forward on the Donegal team that won the first Dr McKenna Cup; he was left half-back on the 1965 team and left full-back on the 1967 team. He was the type of player who would have fitted well into the modern game.