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‘She came to look after the house when my mother was very ill. She did all the heavy work, for mammy was weak, ye know.’ He tells me this during one of our chats. We’re pals and I’m proud to be so. Possessed by football, at just thirteen, he had ‘not a clue’ how ill ‘mammy’ was. When she died – in the early summer of ’61 – he missed her, ‘Ach, I did surely but it was worse for Eileen and Mae.’ Eileen is the eldest and his senior by nine years, then two years below her is Mae. She is my mother and despite being his big sister, she has always seemed, to all of us, the baby. ‘They kissed her and touched her in the coffin but I couldn’t. I didn’t even cry.’

His father Tommy had little interest in the GAA but his mother was ‘football mad’. He doesn’t believe it’s in the genes, though: ‘All oul’ nonsense that. Ye take football after nobody; you’re either good enough or you’re not.’ So, the All-Ireland-winning Derry minor, and All-Ireland-winning U21, is now a successful county manager, in the final with his footballer son – his All-Ireland-winning Derry minor and Ulster U21-winning son.