Читать книгу The Boys of '93. Derry’s All-Ireland Kings онлайн

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1 MIGHTY OAKS FROM LITTLE ACORNS GROW

It was November 1990. I’d been away from home and living in England for almost five years, having left for work in 1986 and staying after the break-up of my marriage. Approaching forty years of age and after sixteen years as a husband, I’d gone away to grow up.

Back home Fermanagh had beaten Derry in the first round of the McKenna Cup for the first time in Derry’s history. The manager then had been Father Sean Hegarty. On my frequent trips home, I’d have given him a hand with the training but he had had enough. Now nobody would touch them with a bargepole.

I got a phone call to England. Harry Chivers, Chairman of the Derry County Board, spoke briefly on the phone. Would I be interested in taking the Derry job and if so would I fly over to meet him, the county secretary Patsy Mulholland and treasurer Jim McGuigan in the Archers Hotel in Magherafelt?

I flew home the following weekend. No interview took place; it was just, would I take the job with Mickey Moran as trainer with me. I said I’d let them know. It wasn’t the first time I’d been approached about the Derry senior job. Back in 1986, the then chairman Sean Bradley had asked me to take it on. I’d have taken the U21s of that year but the senior position wasn’t the job I wanted.