HE was around four years-old when Diarmaid Marsden and Joe Lavery put a ball in his hands and gave him and his mates the freedom of Davitt Park to kick and shout and run.
Callum O’Neill was part of the first batch of ‘Kindergarten Clans’ and, from that moment to this, the love of Gaelic Football and Lurgan’s Clan na Gael has burned bright in his heart.
Now established in the senior team as a lightening quick, scoring half-forward, O’Neill will run out at the Athletic Grounds on Sunday for his second consecutive Armagh senior football final.
Off the field, the biomedical engineering student at Ulster University sees his future career in making prosthetic heart valves. He’s a busy man.
“It (the degree) is a lot of work but I’m enjoying it and I’m trying hard,” he explains.
“It takes my focus off the football too, which is good – especially during the big weeks.”
If ever there was a ‘big week’, this is it.
Yes, he has already played in a county final but this one hits different, as the young ones say. A Lurgan ‘Auld Firm’ derby against Clann Eireann, the bitter rivals and neighbours from the other side of the GAA-mad town.
If you talk to Clan na Gael (Clans) clubmen, they’ll tell you that it was Clann Eireann who began their youth policy first. The Clans followed suit and put structures in place to do what their neighbours doing. Fifteen years’ later, the hard work of the club’s coaches has borne fruit and O’Neill and a host of team-mates including Jack Lavery, James Austin, Shea McCann, Conor Lennon, Tom Lavery, Caomhin Toland, Sean Reid, Callum McCrory, Shea Murphy and Oisin Moore have progressed from the nursery stage to senior level.
“I suppose we’ve come from a team where we were winning things every single year at youth level into a senior team that was coming of age again,” says O’Neill.
“We’ve come through at the right time and the right blend of players – youth and experience – is there. We’re back in our second senior final and hopefully we can get over the line this time.”
Success followed O’Neill throughout his underage career with the club and at school level with St Colman’s College. In his second year at senior this is his second final but the disappointment of losing last year’s decider to Crossmaglen was an early reminder that nothing is given at this level.
“Being here now, the start of the season seems like a long time ago,” he says.
“We set our sights on winning the championship at the start of the year but after last year we knew how many games we had to come through and how many struggles and extra-times you have to overcome to get to the county final.
“We’ve got back to this point and now it’s all about finishing the job off.”
To get to the last season’s decider the Clans had to come back from the dead against Clann Eireann at the semi-final stage. The ‘fat lady’ was clearing her throat when they fell six points down midway through the second half but a Stefan Campbell-inspired comeback saw them win by two points after extra-time.
O’Neill’s face was a picture of joy at the final whistle as he celebrated with his teammates. Anything seemed possible then but the final turned out to be a disappointment. The Clans led by a point at the break but Crossmaglen took control in the second half and cantered home.
The long whistle came as relief to the Lurgan men.
“Last year, when we beat Clann Eireann in the semi-final is was just… emotion,” he says.
“Seeing older men cry! Seeing what it meant to the older generation for the Clans to be back in the county final… It was a surreal moment and the fact that we beat the local rivals as well made it more special.
“So it was a great evening and something I’ll remember but maybe it took a wee bit too much out of us and we fell short.
“I do think we truly believed we could win that final but it was a mixture of the hype around the club and then the parades and the crowds at the ground. We were a bit naïve going into the final, none of us had experienced the big day before and it was a hard one to take.
“Hopefully we’ll have learned from those mistakes and we can use that experience.”
They were determined not to be a flash-in-the-pan and there is too much quality in the squad for that to be the case. This year – despite having Stefan Campbell and Shane McPartlan away with Armagh – the Clans were runners-up in Division 1B (Clann Eireann won Division 1A).
When the championship began they laid down an emphatic marker against Crossmaglen at Davitt Park in round one. That victory meant a lot to the Clans who continued with two more group stage victories.
Killeavy threw the kitchen sink at them at the quarter-final stage but O’Neill scored four points as they came through the test. They had to show their character once again in their semi-final as Madden battled back from trailing 0-7 to no score in the first half to make a fight of it.
However, the Ronan McMahon-managed Clans dug in and marched on to Sunday’s decider.
“We were really determined to go again,” says O’Neill.
“People always doubt us – they thought we’d be beat in the quarter-final and semi-finals but I think we play well with the underdog tag. Being doubted is motivation for us but that’s not enough when it comes to a final – you have to put in the performance and playing against Clann Eireann is going to require a serious performance to get over the line.”
CLAN na Gael have their credentials and Clann Eireann have theirs. The Clans field Sam Maguire-winners in Campbell and McPartlan while Clann Eireann can counter that with Conor Turbitt, Barry McCambridge and Tiernan Kelly. Clann Eireann also have promising youngsters and club stalwarts in their ranks and they have the experience of winning the Gerry Fagan Cup in 2021.
“We met last year and we know this is going to be a tough battle,” says O’Neill.
“They have a lot of firepower and a lot of county men including the potential Player of the Year (Barry McCambridge) so it is going to be a massive challenge for us.
“At underage level it’s always been quite tight between us. We played them in numerous finals and big games down here (at Davitt Park) and up at their ground and they’re always games we look forward to and relish. It’ll be no different on Sunday.
“Yeah, it can get hot and heavy but that’s the nature of the game and the nature of a local rivalry. You never want to lose to Clann Eireann, never mind lose a county final to them. The local element brings another factor to it but, at the end of the day you have to remember, it’s just another game and we have to get over the line.”
The team that plays like it’s ‘just another game’ will probably come out on top on Sunday because it would be so easy for players to get buried under the many peripheral factors that surround this fixture.
It’s 30 years since the Clans last won an Armagh title (their 14th) and ending that wait will require calm heads, says O’Neill.
“It’s about trying to remain composed,” he adds.
“We have to keep preparation the same and keep things normal because, as much as it is a big occasion, we don’t want to let that creep in and affect us in any way.
“I won everything there is to win at underage with the Clans but once you get out of underage you’re chasing the bigger ones.
“My dream from a long time ago was to play senior football for Clan na Gael. I’ve no family connections to the club – I’m the first person from my family to play here – but I’ve always wanted to play for the Clans.
“We’ve got ‘Soupy’ and Shane and I always wanted to get into the team with those lads – they were great role models for us all since the start. I’ve always been eager to get involved and see what it’s all about because I still enjoy the game as much as I ever did, I still get the thrill from it all.
“You can get a wee bit greedy with success and the Clans haven’t won a senior championship in so long and everyone in this group is really hungry for it now. If we can replicate what that 1994 team did it would be amazing.
“Yes, we’re optimistic - you have to be going into the final. It’ll probably be a cagey-enough affair. We have belief in what we can do but we know what Clann Eireann can do with their firepower.
“It’s a great occasion for Lurgan and it shows you where Lurgan football is and North Armagh in general. It’s probably at an all-time high, so hopefully this will be a great spectacle for the people to watch.”
