24 years is a long time.
It’s a longer time than many of Kilcar’s players have lived. It was long enough to have them so hungry for success last Sunday in the Donegal senior football Championship final against Naomh Conaill that they didn’t give a damn what way they won it. As long as they did win it.
They won it by one of the dourest scorelines you’ll hear, 0-7 to 0-4, but Donegal star Mark McHugh didn’t care. Why would he?
https://www.instagram.com/p/BaRv2ZMFv_P/?taken-by=mmchugh3
He was a guest on Thursday’s GAA Hour Show and the 27-year-old spoke about how sweet it was to win it alongside his brothers, his cousins, to win it for his club-mates, his father, his mother, his family.
It was sweeter than his Sam Maguire win in 2012.
“For the Sunday/Monday there, it was like the whole town went on shut down except for a few of the bars. There was older generations there with tears in their eyes, and the younger generation who will be the future of this area, it was great,” he began in an interview with Colm Parkinson.
“Myself and Pat walked down the same streets with Sam in 2012, but it’s a different feeling now, you’re there with your best friends, who you grew up with, doing it for them, it’s what club football is all about,” he added.
That’s the magic of the club Championship, and the Kilcar boys have been lapping it up ever since last Sunday.
2017 Kilcar County Champions Homecoming #drmaguire pic.twitter.com/I02SM80iHP
— Eamonn Doherty (@eamonnbilly) October 17, 2017
If anything would make you crave a County Championship win, that’s surely it.
You can see the bond, the unity, the togetherness in the place, but when you hear that there’s only 900 people, and less than 500 houses in the area, it really is no surprise that they’re all so close-knit.
This is beautiful stuff https://t.co/D3mTpA1AMS
— SportsJOE (@SportsJOEdotie) October 19, 2017
“I think we’ve overachieved with the numbers we have. There’s 900 there, about 500 houses in total. Obviously half of the population are women as well.
“It’s something we pride ourselves on, we’ve won three under-21s and three minors over the last six years and we’ve been there competing for the senior Championship and league,” he added.
“We live and breathe football, something similar to Slaughtneil with the small community that we have.
The GAA is what they live for, it’s what they die for, and it shows there’s still hope for all other clubs with small picks to choose from.
