Ulster IFC quarter-final
Lisnaskea Emmetts v Magheracloone Mitchells
SATURDAY, 2pm, Brewster Park
September 2018, and the Earth opened up. In Magheracloone that day you could see right down to hell. Their grounds were partially swallowed and totally destroyed in a sinkhole that was both freakish and devastating.
Locals were shook to the core, if not the county. Any self-respecting GAA club worships the soil beneath them. For Magheracloone, it was beg, borrow or steal just to keep the head above water. Monaghan GAA’s nomads, never by choice.
Gavin Doogan broke through in 2005, just missing out on the club’s last title at senior level in 2004. Clontibret and the county final of 2010 still hurts, with so many memories along the way interlocking fingers and thumbs with Mitchells’ old grounds.
Now it’s all consigned to history, and it’s their duty to keep it alive.
Which is why 2019 was so utterly remarkable as they made their way to the All-Ireland Intermediate final in early 2020, only to be undone by an Oughterard outfit featuring a young Matthew Tierney.
Former Monaghan star Doogan remembers it all only too well:
“The year before, there was the whole devastation with the club going down in the sinkhole, and our grounds being lost. There was a lot of media talk about it, so we probably felt under a bit of pressure, but it just gained momentum.
“We wouldn’t have set out at the start of the year and said we were going to win an Ulster club. It was never about that. We just said we wanted to get back up senior.
“We ended up getting to an All-Ireland final, and look, we didn’t get across the line in that All-Ireland final, but it was a fantastic experience for the club to get to Croke Park.
“That’s sport. That’s GAA. There has to be a winner and there has to be a loser and unfortunately we didn’t get over the line that day.”
Having built new club grounds a little down the road, Doohamlet came to town for the official opening two years ago. Doogan and co were beaten by a point, but in many ways - even in defeat - that day was the end of their suffering.
Séamus McEnaney’s Corduff pipped them in both league and championship finals, meaning no silverware, but promotion nonetheless.
They faced relegation in their first year back in the senior ranks, along with Truagh.
If what goes up must come down then it seems what goes down must come up, for a week and a half ago the two sides met in the Intermediate decider.
Doogan’s role is not quite what it was, but so many when handed his deck of cards would have no role at all:
“Coming towards the end of the game, you knew you were coming in as a sub. So be it. You wanted to do the last hard yards for the guys to get across the line, and that’s how it worked out for us.
“I would’ve always found that it was my club and it was my family that I wanted to put a good name out there for, to make a good example of yourself.
“If you could make the club a percentage or two better, why not do it? Why not come back, help the team out in whatever way possible and try and breed a bit of success?”.
As he says himself, he’s at ‘the other end of the spectrum’ than the likes of his two nephews Jack Doogan and Packie Doogan-Burke, with the latter representing Monaghan’s U-20 side this year.
Picture by Seamus Loughran
Mitchells also won the 2022 Division One title at U-19 level. It’s clearer now than ever that football is a young man’s game:
“One of the young lads came up beside me on our panel and says: ‘Gavin, do you mind if I ask you something? When was your first championship game?’.
“And I says: ‘2005. Do you mind if I ask you something? When were you born?’.
“And he says: ‘2005′!
“We both laughed after that, but the young fellas are great.
“One of the guys was saying he drove by the gym on Sunday at 8:30 (the day after the Monaghan IFC final) and there were three cars outside it.
“Three of the younger lads had headed back in for the gym.”
That unnamed trio likely never tasted that 2019 success. There’s a new generation of hunger and desperation for success in south Monaghan.
Magehracloone’s latest Ulster venture starts with a trip to Brewster Park to face Lisnaskea on Saturday.
You can’t help but feel they’re due a bit of luck.
In September 2018, on the day that the Earth opened up, it could have marked some sort of end. Instead, Magheracloone just kept building in every way imaginable.
Their resilience knows no bounds.
“The golden gate flew open wide when Peter touched the bell,
‘Step in’ says he, ‘and choose your crew’
‘You’ve served your time in hell.”