Morgan Fuels Down SFC final: Kilcoo v Burren (Sunday, 3pm, Pairc Esler)
“HAVE you ever been to a wake?”
A rueful laugh follows those words as Eoin McCartan casts his mind back 12 months to the aftermath of Burren’s county final defeat to Kilcoo.
The Magpies have been the dominant force in Down for over a decade, having taken the baton from Burren, and their rivalry has continued to bubble just below the surface in the years between.
That’s what made the 2023 decider so unusual - because fireworks are never too far away when this pair collide.
After all, six players saw red following an unsightly brawl in the 2022 league final - the clubs’ last meeting of any real significance. Then there was the Jim McCorry factor; the Lurgan man, now with Burren, who had been a founding father of Kilcoo’s remarkable run of success.
And then, to top it all off, a grenade was tossed into the mix when the Magpies objected to the appointment of Paul Faloon as man in the middle. That sparked days of refereeing hokey-cokey, with Meath whistler David Gough in, then out as a toxic situation descended into farce.
Even while the TG4 cameras were being set up, there was no-one to officiate the game. Under an hour before throw-in, this remained the case. Down officials were sheet white with worry. It was chaos.
Brian Higgins eventually stepped into the breach at the last but, even then, anything that could go wrong, did. The final indignity came when a logistical mix-up saw the pre-match parade start seven minutes ahead of schedule, both sides lining up for Amhrán na bhFiann before sheepishly returning to their warm-ups.
How could any game follow that kind of build-up?
This one certainly didn’t as, once the ball was thrown-in, the drama came to an end; goals from Miceal Rooney and a late Paul Devlin penalty helping Kilcoo ease to another Down crown in a surprisingly one-sided affair.
For Burren, all that remained was a winter of soul-searching. McCorry’s three-year stint had come to an end before the team left Newry, with McCartan and Stevie O’Hare – part of his backroom team – later taking up the mantle.
“Stevie does all the work,” smiles McCartan, “I just sit on his coat tails.
“He does serious work, stuff you wouldn’t see in the background. He’s a great fella, a great clubman for Burren.”
There is no wish to dwell on what has gone before but, a year down the line, has any sense been made of what unfolded that day? Did those outside factors play a part? Or is that too convenient an excuse?
“I’m not dodging the question, but it is hard to know,” says McCartan.
“It probably was a surreal atmosphere and it can get into some people’s heads, potentially, but last year’s referee is not going to be a factor this year.
“You’re not going out to underperform or to lose, nobody sets out for that. You hurt for a while afterwards and then you try and box it off, look at what you can do differently… just try and move on from that because if you don’t you’ll be hurting a long time.
“It probably was a strange lead-in to the final, but the reality is we probably didn’t perform how we wanted to. Now we have to put that right.”
That’s the joint manager talking, the coach, ahead of the latest instalment of the Kilcoo-Burren saga. But what about the player; the man who had so much to give? Now that’s another story.
*************
EOIN McCartan came off the bench when Burren successfully defended the Frank O’Hare Cup in 2011 – the last hurrah before the boys in black took over.
Of the team that runs out on Sunday, McCartan soldiered alongside the likes of Gerard and Conaill McGovern, Donal O’Hare, David McEntee, and has had a hand in coaching most of the rest after O’Hare reached out for his help.
The boots have been hung up for 10 years, though it was a miracle of sorts than he even pushed his playing days out until 30 after a series of injuries cruelly curtailed a career that promised so much – for club and for county.
The surname, that connection to a Down GAA dynasty, was always going to bring a bit of extra attention.
“It might have got you the odd slap,” he smiles.
Dad James sr was the barrel-chested centre-forward on the Down team that made the breakthrough in 1960, followed up with a second All-Ireland title 12 months later. In both years James sr was named Footballer of the Year.
James sr’s brother, Dan, was centre-back in ‘60 and ‘61, then full-back when Sam came across the border again in 1968. Their father, ‘Briney’, also wore the red and black with distinction in the ‘30s and ‘40s when Cavan reigned supreme.
‘Wee’ James, Eoin’s older brother, carved out his own place in Down history as further All-Ireland titles were plundered in 1991 and ‘94, before going on to manage his county, twice, leading the Mournemen to the 2010 decider against all odds.
Eoin was just seven in ‘91, but has fond memories of the party that followed that second success three years later.
“The team came to our bar [in Donaghcloney] a couple of weeks after and sure the half of them ended up staying at our house… you’re waking up and they were sleeping in the bath or wherever.
“These were your heroes, and James was in the middle of it. The next morning at breakfast it was just surreal. They were good times.”
That history could have weighed heavily upon his shoulders, but McCartan never really looked at it that way. Never got caught up in the talk, or the expectation - he just wanted to play.
“Ach, it’s just something you got on with.
“Obviously you were proud of what they done… everyone probably has an opinion of you before they meet you, to a certain extent. Or an expectation. But I’m a different person to James, to Daniel, to Brian, Charlie Pat, to dad.
“Certain people would’ve seen you certain ways… it’s always there in the background but it’s not something you’d have been worrying about.”
Strong, quick and with an eye for the posts, he instantly stood out at underage, irrespective of his surname. He made his Down senior debut in 2004, in the Championship clash with Cavan at Casement Park. Hopes were understandably high.
But, after suffering a first cruciate ligament injury in his second year at Queen’s University, football would never quite feel the same. Even at that early stage, one doctor recommended McCartan take up cycling instead.
That advice, though, met with short shrift.
“I was told not to play football again before we won the Sigerson [in 2007], then I won the Sigerson and two club championships.
“And then I was told I should consider cycling… I was probably fairly abrupt when I heard that. That young bravado, it’s like ‘who are you to tell me what I can and can’t do?’”
Still, it was a long road back, one littered with potholes.
He could only watch from the wings as Down went all the way to the 2005 All-Ireland final, losing out to a Micheal Meehan-inspired Galway in a madcap 6-5 to 4-6 defeat.
A young Conor Laverty, still featuring for Kilcoo almost two decades down the line, played that day. So too did the likes of Ambrose Rogers, Mark Poland and Aidan Carr, while an 18-year-old Marty Clarke came off the bench.
All would play their part in Down’s run to an All-Ireland final five years, under the stewardship of ‘Wee’ James. But injury robbed Eoin of that too.
“Say what you want but, whenever you’re injured, your head’s all over the place with that stuff.
“You just want to be part of it.”
He forced his way back into the fray, but it was tough.
McCartan doesn’t want to “over-egg the pudding” about those struggles, but brother Daniel – a Down regular at that time – shed some light on what his younger sibling went through to try and get back on the field.
“I make no bones about it - Eoin is 10 times the footballer that I will ever be. It’s terrible that because of his injury problems he can’t play a full match,” he said in 2010.
“To be honest, Eoin leads a lonely life. We have a gym at the house and he spends most of his spare time in there trying to build up his stamina.”
“Honestly,” sighs McCartan, “everyone would do it; you just want to try and be at your best.
“When you grow up it’s all you want to do, and then it’s sort of half taken away from you. When you see a glimmer of hope that you can maybe give something, it’s hard to ignore, so you keep pushing the boundaries of where you can get back to.”
And so, even when he couldn’t train the way the rest could, even though his body sometimes begged him to stop, he battled on, and still he contributed for both Burren and Down until the pain became too much.
But there is no bitterness. Not really. That was just the hand he was dealt; you either play it, or you don’t. Being involved with a group again, especially one stacked with so much talent, has given McCartan something back.
Around his work as a pharmacist, it has been a release - and a relief – to be part of days like these once more.
“You’re told to stop, maybe quit for a while, but you’re enjoying it too much, you miss the banter with the lads. I suppose you wish you’d maybe achieved more and played more.
“When you’re consumed with work and other things, it can have an effect, so it’s good to get back. It’s hard to beat being in the changing room, the slagging and a bit of banter. I mean, you can’t walk into a pharmacy and speak the same way you speak in a changing room and not end up in court!
“So you miss all of that buzz, miss being part of that environment… that’s probably what brought me back into it.”
