OF all the near misses, let-downs and disappointments Armagh have suffered over the years, Galway 2001 was, for my money, the most sickening.
It wasn’t, as they’d say on RTE: “One for the purists” but what a battle! Both teams absolutely milled into each other.
Armagh were in Croke Park regularly back then but, like today’s team, they couldn’t make that breakthrough. Meath beat them in 1999, Kerry wriggled off the hook in 2000 and both counties went on to win the Sam Maguire.
In 2001 Armagh’s form had dipped but the quality and self-belief came surging back into their legs in the second half against Galway who were running away with it with 15 minutes to go. Armagh reeled them in and reeled them in. They scored seven points on-the-trot to level it but they’d left themselves just too much to do. Paul Clancy scored the winner in the dying seconds and like Meath and Kerry before them, the Tribesmen went on to lift the Sam Maguire.
It was too much for some and there were tears as Armagh fans left Croke Park that day and a few arguments too.
But those were the days when you didn’t need a mortgage to spend a night in Dublin. With a few friends I headed for a pub not far up the road from Croker and the promise of a night out gradually cheered us up.
An hour or two later, the door opened and in came a very familiar-looking fella wearing Armagh gear.
“Is that Geezer?” we asked each other, doing a double-take.
“That is Geezer!”
He was on his own and we went over to talk to the man we all regarded, and regard, as a county legend.
No luck today Geezer…
He was bitterly disappointed with the loss and had gone for a walk and called in for a beer to try and clear his head. The Armagh skipper had broken his finger early in the second half but playing through the pain barrier still wasn’t quite enough.
It seemed then that Armagh would never make the breakthrough but you know what they say about the darkest hour.
Just 12 months’ later McGeeney walked in the footsteps of GAA giants up the Hogan steps and lifted the Sam Maguire.
My good friend John Cloughley, who was there that night in 2001 and in Croke Park when Geezer lifted Sam in ‘02, has passed away since and we’ll remember him on Sunday as many others from many clubs will be remembered.
Some things have changed but the last few seasons have been so similar to the hard years before Armagh finally won that All-Ireland 22 years ago.
There has been another sequence of near-misses and disappointments and after last season’s quarter-final loss to Monaghan, McGeeney might understandably have sought the refuge of a quiet spot in that Dublin pub to collect his thoughts once again.
There was a lot of speculation about his future after that penalty shootout defeat but this year his team has come back brilliantly with critics silenced and doubters turned into backers.
I watched McGeeney’s team beat Kerry in the semi-final in the Sunset Beach Hotel in sunny Spain. Outside the beaches were packed in the 35-degree heat but inside was as cool as an Irish summer and the lounge erupted when Armagh won.
There was nobody more delighted than Gordy Hamill, the man behind the ever-popular Lurgan Grapevine Facebook page.
A few years ago, Gordy set out on a charity swim across the Irish Sea to Scotland. Before he left these shores, Kieran McGeeney sent him a very sincere and inspirational good luck message.
It was based around the poem Invictus by William Ernest Hensley which speaks of a man’s “unconquerable soul” and how someone can take whatever hard knocks and bad luck life has to offer - “the bludgeonings of chance” - and come back even stronger.
Whatever football has thrown at him, McGeeney has kept fighting and pushed through it in the belief that his destiny is in his own hands. Even his critics must concede that he has instilled those battling qualities into his players.
On Sunday, Galway will have periods of dominance but you know Armagh will keep coming back.
They are the masters of their fate, they are the captains of their soul…
A PUB in the West of Ireland is an Aladdin’s Cave full of characters and craic. I’ve had a couple of great nights in Queally’s of Caherlistrane in county Galway.
It’s just up the road from my sister-in-law’s home and you’ll always get a warm welcome.
After a family function, I called in with no expectations of what the evening would bring. One thing led to another and after midnight an arm-wrestling competition started up in the bar.
It was Armagh versus Galway and the competition was fierce.
My turn came against this local fella I’d been chatting very amicably with but the two of us were soon locked in battle. With the whole pub looking on, neither of us gave an inch and, next thing, I took a ‘friendly’ headbutt from my rival. Laughter broke out all around us so what could I do only give him one back? We pushed and shoved like a couple of rutting stags but there was no winner when the landlady, fearful that anarchy that was threatening to break out in her bar, called ‘Time’ and we were soon on the road home.
My sister-in-law Deirdre Madden (nee Lennon) married into a GAA-mad family out there and she has been leaving among the stone walls and the turf bogs in ‘the Whest’ for the best part of 20 years now.
She has held on proudly to her roots in Tullysarran, county Armagh and whether at her work in Tuam - where he car regularly gets covered in maroon and white bunting - around home or on (occasional) visits to Quealys (sponsor of the local club), Deirdre gets plenty of good-natured stick from the locals.
No better woman to enjoy it and handle it and, if Armagh win, I’d love to be a fly on the wall to see her arrive back at work or march triumphantly into Queally’s.
By the way, the game on Sunday could be another Armagh-Galway arm wrestle. Just watch the heads lads…
