THE TranzAlpine Express cuts right across the southern island of New Zealand.
It was from where it departs in the small west coast railway town of Greymouth that Shea Heffron awakened in a campervan on October 7 last year and pulled out his laptop.
Heffron was up sitting at 7am, dawn breaking, glued to Armagh TV.
“I was watching on my iPad and I was f***ing gutted, excuse the French, to not be here.”
It did not go to plan.
In that moment, watching Clann Eireann lose to their town rivals in a championship semi-final, the pangs are at their strongest.
But if you follow the breadcrumbs of his football career, you find that Shea Heffron has long been aware that there are other things in life.
In 2017, having played a fair chunk of the league, he broke his wrist just before Armagh lost to Down in the Ulster Championship.
At 22, it could have been his breakthrough year. But by December, he had decided to opt out of inter-county football to focus on his final year exams in Queen’s.
“Football isn’t going to pay the bills,” he said at the time.
Captain of the Sigerson team, winner of the Cormac McAnallen medal that year, Heffron was continuing a theme of high achievement that had started from a young age.
He was head boy in St Michael’s Grammar school in the town, and was the top achieving male at both GSCE and A-Level. He won back-to-back Ulster Colleges Allstars and was athlete of the year in the school both years.
In 2013, they won the MacLarnon Cup.
Heffron climbed the steps as joint-captain that afternoon and, having been named man of the match as well, put his right hand on the trophy.
The left hand on the other side belonged to Diarmuid O’Hagan, who will captain Clan na Gael in Sunday’s final.
Three years ago, Heffron was the Clann Eireann captain as they ended a 58-year wait for a county title.
That role has been surrendered now to Caolan McConville, who took over when Heffron departed for what turned into a 16-month sojourn around the world.
He took in 20 different countries and he saw things.
Pearl Harbour. Hiroshima. Auschwitz. The demilitarized zone between North and South Korea.
And on the lighter side, he found himself at the Superclasico, Boca Juniors v River Plate, Argentina’s answer to the north-south Lurgan derby.
It took him away for a year and a half and he missed football. But he lived.
“I spent five months in Asia, eight months in Australia, New Zealand, then South America,” he says.
For now it’s home again, working remotely for a London-based firm.
At 29, what’s next? Sunday is next.
Clan na Gael are next.
Heffron’s patch in Lurgan is around Belvedere.
“Round the Back of the Wall direction, I live right beside TK [Tiernan Kelly],” he says.
The Back of the Wall refers to the area backing on to the Brownlow Demesne, home of the Orange Order.
Clann Éireann’s territory is in the north of the town, which they share with St Peter’s.
But naturally, it morphs into one in parts.
“We were leaving Lurgan [before the semi-final win over Cross] and the neighbour to the club pitch is a Clan na Gael man, so he has his Clans flag up.”
His father Seamus was a talented soccer player who played semi-professionally in France at a stage. He was a native of Maghera, a former player with Glen – with whom Clann Eireann are on a collision course for the first round of Ulster if both win their respective finals.
It’s already been a big year for Lurgan and the two clubs, with three Clann Eireann men and two from Clan na Gael on Armagh’s All-Ireland winning squad, four of them playing in the final.
“For years we maybe underachieved as a town in terms of the output from Lurgan players.
“But you look at St Paul’s in the [intermediate] final, two Lurgan teams in the senior final, it’s a fantastic reflection of the work that’s been done over the years.
“You look at the Clans team and they’ve had fantastic success coming through so it’s no surprise that they’re here two years in a row.
“We were well aware of the talent in this group and we want to maximise the potential and the success of it. Let’s be real, we’ve won two league titles in a row but success is determined by championships. We are just delighted to be back in a final.”
After they’d beaten Crossmaglen in the semi-final, Clann Eireann manager Ruairi Lavery admitted that they’d learned a few harsh lessons since getting over the line three years ago.
Losing to Mullaghbawn in 2022 was sore. Last year, it wasn’t just losing to Clan na Gael, but being beaten out the gate.
“Any defeat in a semi-final hurts because you’re that close to tasting the lead-up to a semi-final, so the lads were devastated. I found it very hard to take from afar.
“It was that wee bit more bitter the fact that it was our close neighbours.
“We’ve come back again and that’s the beauty of football, you get another crack at it. We put the shoulder to the wheel over the winter, we’ve come back and thankfully we’re back in the final.”