Brothers in Sport (16 page)

Conal is constantly amazed at how players manage to mix the modern demands with work and believes there are some jobs that will not allow time for inter-county hurling or football. ‘If you have a job that requires more than forty hours a week and that doesn’t allow the player the flexibility to work around that forty hours then it is almost impossible to be an inter-county player. It is becoming a young man’s game. You won’t see many self-employed guys playing hurling at the highest level in the future.

‘Players are making huge sacrifices and you wonder where it will end. There is talk about pay for play, but very few professional sportsmen do what these guys are doing. The problem here in Ireland is that even if pay for play was introduced the market isn’t big enough for a player to earn enough over a ten-year career to provide for himself later in life.

‘The GAA has changed; it is no longer just a body set up to promote Irish culture. Its structures are no longer amateur. It has changed a lot. It is now big business, but the people who are creating the business are making all the sacrifices and a solution has to be found. To play at the top level now you have to put your career on hold. But players cannot afford to do that. They must have a career to provide for themselves and in many cases to provide for young and growing families. A lot is being asked of them and the time has come for this to be recognised with some form of payment.

‘But that is only part of the solution. There must be an all-encompassing solution in relation to careers. The GAA must become actively involved in helping players in their careers away from the games. The GAA could become a university for inter-county hurlers and footballers, providing greater scholarship incentives, working on CVs, finding work placements, etc. For example, they could work on a pilot scheme whereby their major sponsors would give players six-month work placements. Massive revenue is now generated by the inter-county game. Because players are spending more time training and preparing – sometimes as much as sixty to seventy hours a week, more than they spend on their careers – the GAA is attracting major sponsorship from local and international companies. Gate receipts are higher than ever before. A large section must now be diverted into a scheme to help the inter-county players in terms of enhancing their job prospects and their futures.’

Colm has seen at first hand all the changes. He has spent years working with Waterford Institute of
Technology teams, is one of the most qualified hurling coaches in the country, has worked in the inter-county game with Waterford and Tipperary and was appointed Wexford’s senior hurling manager in 2008. He returned to inter-county hurling with Tipperary in 2000 and won an All-Ireland Intermediate Championship on a team managed by his older brother Brendan. He played at club level with Dunhill in Waterford until his coaching duties demanded his full attention three years ago. ‘I love coaching and working with talented young players, but there is nothing to beat playing. I would have played for as long as I could, but my coaching commitments took over.’

Cormac’s teaching career has brought him to Milltown in Kerry where he is now principal of the Presentation Secondary School. He played with Dr Crokes in Killarney and won county titles. He has coached a number of teams and for two years was part of the Kerry hurling management setup. ‘We had great times,’ he says of his hurling days. ‘I was lucky because I was getting to the end of my career when the lads were just starting. I am so glad our career paths crossed. It was a privilege.’

Donegal’s James McHugh keeps a watchful eye as his brother Martin shoots for goal.
© John Quirke Photography

Almost eighteen years have passed but there are moments when one could be forgiven for thinking that time has actually stood still. There are changes around The Diamond in Donegal town, evidence that it enjoyed the favours of the Celtic Tiger before the world economy imploded, but in many ways it is still the same. The façade of the Abbey Hotel is familiar, though inside it has been modernised. This is a busy February lunchtime in 2010, a cold but bright day, as Martin and James McHugh arrive for lunch.

The bar, where food is served, is doing a tidy business despite the tourist season being quite a way off. All that activity stops briefly when the two brothers from Kilcar enter. Everyone acknowledges their presence; a series of ‘hellos’ and other greetings lead them to an end table where their privacy is respected. Except for the attention of one elderly man. He means no harm, of course, and Martin and James happily engage him in chat. The subject is football. It always is.

They talk about the prospects for the year ahead, albeit briefly. Inevitably, this conversation becomes a reflection. Nearly two decades on from Donegal’s only success in the 1992 All-Ireland Senior Football Championship, memories of the homecoming to The Diamond on the night after the game, the tens of thousands of flag-waving supporters welcoming the Sam Maguire Cup and the thumping sound of Tina Turner chanting ‘Simply the Best’, remain fresh in every mind.

‘Sometimes,’ says James, who lined out at right half for-ward on that famous September day beside his older brother, ‘you feel the county is still living on that day. And maybe it’s not such a good thing.’ But he has a smile on his face. Donegal have not enjoyed anything like that level of success since and has dropped down football’s order. But that roller coaster journey to the All-Ireland title and the entire experience has left an indelible mark.

Football was central to the brothers’ lives before thoughts of playing for Donegal even entered their minds. It still is. A week on from our meeting and the McHugh brothers are together again, this time watching their sons Eoin (James) and Ryan (Martin) playing for Carrick Vocational School (VS) in the Ulster Under-16 Championship against Cookstown. The opposition coach is Peter Canavan.

Carrick VS has always been an integral part of football in south-west Donegal. ‘A real breeding ground’ is how Martin describes it. They both recall fondly the inspiration provided by Barry
Campbell, now retired, in the school. They won Divisional and County Championships with regularity. They graduated to the county vocational school team. Martin recalls playing in an Ulster VS final, he’s not sure which year, when Packie Bonner lined out at midfield; a solid grounding for his future career as one of the Republic of Ireland’s greatest goalkeepers.

South-west Donegal was always a hotbed of football. Jim McHugh won a Donegal Championship with Killybegs in 1952 and his sons and daughters were reared on stories of that success and the great rivalries that grew up over the decades between Killybegs, Glencolumcille, Kilcar and other small rural communities. Their uncle, Frankie Daniels Cunningham, was president of the Killybegs club and one of the foremost supporters of the game all his life. ‘In places like those,’ says Martin, ‘you had the pub, the church and the football field. No other game was played.’

They also had big families providing lots of boys to play football. Farming was still profitable, the fishing industry was going well and the fish factories were creating plenty of employment to keep the boys at home. As Martin and James were growing up in the early 1970s, Kilcar enjoyed a period of great success, winning three Donegal Under-21 Championships in a row between 1972 and 1974. For such a small club competing against the big guns from Letterkenny and Ballyshannon, this was a serious message.

During that same period Donegal won the 1972 and 1974 Ulster Senior Championships. Martin remembers travelling by bus to Clones for those finals. In 1974 Michael
Carr from the Kilcar club played; Finian Ward from Glencolumcille was at left half back.
Danny Gillespie was a sub. ‘Michael was a player I really looked up to,’ says Martin. ‘We used to go training on our own. He was a great footballer but he was also a great athlete and I learned a lot from him.’

Although Martin was making quite an impression with Carrick VS, he failed to attract the notice of the Donegal minor selectors. It seems incredible today that a player who would become the central figure in the county’s historic All-Ireland breakthrough never played minor football for the county. ‘No, I went off for trials and all of that, but I was never picked,’ he says with a smile. ‘At the time St Eunan’s in Letterkenny and De La Salle in Ballyshannon were the strong schools. I was just a wee lad from Kilcar; I was small so I didn’t get too many passes and I wasn’t noticed.’

In 1980, the Kilcar selectors decided that nineteen-year-old Martin McHugh was good enough for their senior team. The club won the Donegal Championship for the first time and the wee man kicked ten points in the final. A month later he played in the National Football League for Donegal against Tipperary in Ballyshannon. ‘I always remember the Tipperary full back wore glasses. I never saw it before or since. And he was a good footballer too.’

So began a senior inter-county career that would last fifteen seasons and earn him plaudits as one of the outstanding footballers of his generation. ‘I was never dropped,’ he states before making a mild correction. ‘Well, I was dropped once for a game against Sligo. But the game was never played because the goalposts blew down. So I think I can say that I never missed a game for which I was selected.’

The intense club rivalry that was generated throughout the 1980s, as well as ever-increasing inter-county involvement, ensured that football would be central to the lives of the McHugh family. James was elevated to senior level in the club in 1981 and played minor football for Donegal a year later. Martin played his second year at under-21 level in 1982, a significant milestone in the history of Donegal football. They had lost the previous year’s Ulster final to an
Éamon McEneaney-inspired Monaghan. Team manager Joe Watson stepped aside and Tom Conahan took over.
Matt Gallagher, Eunan McIntyre,
Tommy McDermott, Brian Tuohy,
Anthony Molloy,
Donal Reid,
Charlie Mulgrew,
Joyce McMullan and Paul Carr were just some of the squad members who joined McHugh on the famous journey that brought Donegal its first All-Ireland inter-county success at any grade. ‘It was a major breakthrough and it did put us on the map. The county won another under-21 All-Ireland in 1987 and that all contributed to a change in mood in the county.’

The schedule with Kilcar was hectic. James captained the club to their second Donegal title in 1985. They would also win in 1989 and 1993 when younger brother Enda played. ‘My father always rated him better that either of us,’ says Martin. ‘He was a defender, very strong. The fact that he came after the two of us didn’t make it easy. But I always remember the Ulster club final in 1993 when we played Errigal Chiaráin. He was marking Peter Canavan and did as good as job on him as I have ever seen.’ Enda also played in the county minor and under-21 teams.

James was taking his time joining Martin on the Donegal senior team. ‘I wasn’t a great one for winter training and I also broke my ankle twice,’ he explains. Martin defends him: ‘James was very versatile and that went against him. With the club we played him corner back one day, centre back the next and midfield if we needed him. Then we played him in the forwards. He was so important to the club. There are people here in Donegal who would say he was one of the best club footballers ever in Donegal.’

Martin and James McHugh lined out alongside each other at numbers ten and eleven for the first time in Championship football for the 1990 Ulster Championship. Their parents, Jim and Catherine, watched with pride as the two boys played a leading role in Donegal’s win over a highly rated Armagh team in the Ulster final by just a point, 0–15 to 0–14. That day is naturally cherished. Other memories of that Championship bring creases of pain across the foreheads of the two brothers.

The draw pitted Donegal against Meath, the champions of 1987 and 1988, in the All-Ireland semi-final. In terms of achievement there was a gulf between the two teams. But they had played each other in League games and the Donegal players didn’t have any fears. Before the day had ended the entire Donegal half forward line of Martin and James McHugh and Joyce
McMullan had been replaced. Meath won fairly comfortably by 3–9 to 1–7. ‘Definitely one of the worst days in football for me,
’
is Martin’s sad recollection.

‘That game affected me more than any other and I’m still not sure why. The game just passed us [the half forward line] by. [Anthony]
Molloy had a brilliant game at midfield with [Brian]
Murray. They easily won that battle. But for some reason the three of us never got into it. Maybe it was the long ball being driven in from farther out, I don’t know. I went home and wanted to lock myself in. We [Martin and Patrice, his wife] were living in a flat at the time and I wouldn’t have come out at all but for the fact that our son Mark was born on the Wednesday. I felt I had let everyone down, I had let my family down, the people down. I had let Donegal down. It is hard even now to work out what went wrong. Meath were a really good team, but that wasn’t all of it.
Kevin Foley marked me that day. I had kicked eight or nine points off
Liam Harnan in a League game, which is probably the worst thing I could have done. So
Foley marked me. He didn’t get much ball, but neither did I so his job was done. We got a lot of stick after that which I felt was unnecessary.’

James believes that Donegal lost their way before that semi-final. ‘Donegal’s best game was a short passing game, whether people liked it or not. It might not have been attractive but that is the way all the clubs here played and it is what we were used to. For the game against Meath we changed. We played the long ball into
Tony Boyle and it didn’t work. You have to say too that Meath were a brilliant team. Just look at the full forward line – O’Rourke, Stafford, Flynn. That says it all.’

They thought it couldn’t get worse. It did. Donegal reached the 1991 Ulster final and suffered an eight-point thumping from Down. ‘We didn’t know at the time that this was a really good Down team. That realisation would come later. But coming out of Clones that day I fully expected that it would be the last time I would play for Donegal,’ Martin reveals.

‘Myself, James, Noel
Hegarty and
John Joe Doherty left the ground together. As we were walking down the hill towards the town I told the guys, “we should remember this because it will probably be our last time making this journey together as Donegal footballers”. This had been our third Ulster final in a row. It was an ageing team and it was hard to see how we could turn it around.’

So how did they do it? ‘You would have to say luck had something to do with it as well as ability,’ insists Martin. ‘I mean we did have the talent, had it for a few years, but we needed some luck. All the successful teams do. And the draw we got for the Championship in 1992 was our bit of luck.’

There was little evidence of a turnaround when Donegal travelled to Breffni Park on 24 May 1992 to play Cavan. It was a tight match which Martin seemed to have won for Donegal with an angled 50-yard free kick just before the end. He recollects: ‘Our preparation was not good enough going into that game and we were lucky to get away with it. We were a point up when Damien O’Reilly fly-kicked a ball that went over the bar. It could just as easily have dipped under the bar and we would have been gone. There was no back door then. We got them back here to Donegal for the replay on a wet day and won easily enough. Then, with all due respect, we had Fermanagh and they were not going too well at the time. But that was a turning point.’