BLESSED are the fixture-makers.
At least that is what Hugh Pat McGeary was saying around the midpoint of this week. You see, Pomeroy’s all-or-nothing clash with Errigal Ciaran was already set in stone for 5.30pm in Loughmacrory on Saturday.
Whether or not he would be there to watch them lay in the hands of others until word finally filtered through that, having negotiated the challenge of Teconnaught last weekend, Rostrevor’s reward would be an intermediate championship showdown with Annaclone in Burren on Friday night (7.30pm).
Of course, the St Bronagh’s have been no stranger to All-Ireland winners through the decades.
The great Pete McGrath led Down to the promised land in 1991 and ‘94, with clubmates Liam and Jarlath Austin on the ‘91 panel before Aidan Farrell made his mark three years later.
John Haughian, a sub in the history-making side of 1960, finished his playing days in Rostrevor. So too did Leo Murphy, full-back in ‘60 and ‘61, with John McAuley part of the extended panel when the famous trophy was first brought across the border.
Completing Rostrevor’s role in each of the Mourne County’s five All-Irelands, Mickey Cole was the impish young forward on the 1968 side, with Hilary McGrath, older brother of Pete, and Mickey Daly also on the squad.
McGeary, though, becomes the first to have lifted Sam Maguire in the colours of a different county, having been involved in Tyrone’s unexpected 2021 triumph – a particularly special year for the family as younger brother Kieran was named Player of the Year.
The Rostrevor hook-up has been on the cards for a while, having laid down roots in the village and married wife Danielle, who is expecting the couple’s first child early next year.
But there was no shortage of sleepless nights about seeing out his playing days with a club that wasn’t Pomeroy.
“I didn’t join Rostrevor until January or February - it took right through the whole pre-season for me to make up my mind,” says the 32-year-old.
“But Pomeroy and Rostrevor were both very good to me. If I couldn’t get up the road to training with Pomeroy, Rostrevor let me train with their senior team. It was a massive help because it’s an hour and 20, hour and a half back, and I was doing that two or three times a week.
“Kieran tried to talk me out of it, God aye. Obviously he took my point on board, and then I had meetings with the club managers at the minute – JJ [Cavanagh], Deccy [McCallan] and John [McElholm] – and I can understand their point, they were trying to keep me.
“It just wasn’t easy and it took a long time.”
A battle with osteitis pubis had hindered his playing time in recent years too, though he was at least able to play some part in last year’s Tyrone intermediate championship win. But the body was having its say now.
And, despite bringing the curtain down on his Tyrone career after that All-Ireland win, McGeary still found himself a slave to the road. One particular day sticks in the memory - travelling from Rostrevor to Belfast for work in the morning, then Belfast to Pomeroy, Pomeroy to Leckpatrick up the other end of the county for a league game against Owen Roe’s, before making the two-hour trip back to Rostrevor.
“I’ll never forget that,” he smiles, “it was like ‘Jesus, I don’t know if I can do this any more’.
“I’d been doing it for two years… God forbid anything every happened you coming down the road as 12 o’clock at night.
“To be honest, a lot of that had started near the end with Tyrone too – Brian [Dooher] and Feargal [Logan] were very accommodating, they did try and talk me out of it, but it was just the commitment; at that level there is literally is no point being there if you can’t give 100 per cent to it.
“The five or six years before, I give 100 per cent and every minute I could spare to it. But I had started to build a house, I was planning to get married that summer, it all just adds on stress.
“I had been a fringe player, I was always guaranteed nearly to come on but when you’re up against the like of Paudie Hampsey, Michael McKernan and Ronan McNamee, three Allstars in the full-back line… obviously I’d love to have been starting, but I was willing to give everything I could in training and on the game day, even if I only got five minutes, I’d have given everything to get myself onto that field.
“The boys knew that.”
Tyrone cemented an already tight bond between the McGeary boys.
They used to rock up at training in the early days and marvel at the sheer size of men like Sean Cavanagh and the McMahon brothers, Joe and Justy.
Of course, the life cycle of any group rumbles on. Now, Seanie O’Donnell, Ciaran Daly and other members of the younger crew look to Kieran McGeary, Mattie Donnelly, Padraig Hampsey, Niall Morgan, Peter Harte et al to show the way.
But it is with the club that the heart truly lies, far from the bright lights and big crowds of summer. Hugh Pat was captain when Pomeroy landed the Tyrone and Ulster intermediate crowns in 2016, only just missing out on an All-Ireland final appearance when a last-gasp goal sent Meath champions St Colmcille’s into the decider.
“Now that would’ve been something special,” he said, “getting your club to Croke Park.”
That’s why it could only ever be farewell, rather than goodbye, to Plunkett Park; too many memories, too many connections and emotions bound up in the place that will always be home.
“You miss all the boys. I know if I went up to Pomeroy today and was out on the field kicking about, there wouldn’t be a word said, they’d probably be asking when you’re coming back and that there.
“Probably the biggest part was the relationship with a lot of the lads, leaving them, and then me and Kieran… we would have a close relationship with Tyrone, going up and down the road every night to Garvaghey, Pomeroy, always going to training and matches together. That was tough.
“Even something like the new pavilion being built in Pomeroy - I’d been waiting for it from I was 13, 14, heard talk of it being built, then the year I left it finally opened up, and it was great to see that, and great for the club.
“They cemented themselves in Division One too and I’d love to see them get a good crack at senior football in the championship.”
But a new chapter is being written too.
Firmly embedded in the community, and with family ties expected to strengthen through the years, McGeary is determined to do his bit with Rostrevor.
Some things, though, have taken a bit of getting used to.
“The league is interesting,” he says, “even in Division One in Down, the big teams would be nowhere near full out in their first few league games, and I’m just like ‘my God, if that was the Tyrone league, sure they’re taking the head off each other’.
“That’s the God’s honest truth. In Tyrone, from the minute that first ball is thrown in, every team in Division One and Two is desperate for points…”
Injuries have stifled Rostrevor’s progress somewhat coming up to championship time, with McGeary – a Pomeroy stalwart at number three for over a decade – lining out “in every position bar the full-back line” so far as boss DJ Morgan searches for the winning formula.
It is all still very new, part of it is still strange, but it’s exciting too.
“Everything’s been going well so far, the club’s been brilliant - we’re hampered a lot with injuries but we’re into the next round of the championship now, which is where we wanted to be.
“Like, I’m here a long time, been going to their games, then next thing you get involved, get chatting to lads. then ‘Budgie’ [Jarlath Farrell] gave me a code for the gym, told me to use away at it because I was struggling to find places to train.
“They were more than happy to help, and so I knew a lot of the lads before I came onboard. They’ve made me feel at home.”
