It would be very easy for Magheracloone Mitchells to feel sorry for themselves.
But the Monaghan club wouldn’t know how to.
They lost their pitch, clubhouse, community centre and handball alleys last September in a devastating and unthinkable blow, but they haven’t let it define them.
Immediately, the community rowed in together in the face of adversity. Within a few months, they had a temporary training facility planned, designed and built.
Local clubs have been brilliant, many of them offering Magheracloone Mitchells the use of their facilities when they had nowhere else to go.
The sight of their old pitch, demolished and stripped of all grace, is still an unsettling one on the Carrickmacross-Kingscourt road and while it will take years to recover from such a loss, it’s made their march to Monaghan and Ulster intermediate titles all the more special.
Now, they’re building for an All-Ireland semi-final and the whole parish have something to smile about again.
They lost their pitch, they’ve no clubhouse and they go to a different province to train.
But @monaghangaa champions @MitchellsGAA_ stuck together through it all and now they’re in an All-Ireland semi-final 👊 pic.twitter.com/lNEDb2JATX
— SportsJOE (@SportsJOEdotie) January 10, 2020
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