The day Jim McGuinness made himself known to the GAA world

Jim McGuinness will take his Donegal senior team to Celtic Park, Derry on Saturday evening in the glamour championship tie of the weekend. We have unearthed a photo of Jim in his early playing days when he was man of the match in an Ulster Minor Championship semi-final - against Derry in 1990.

According to a teammate on that minor team, that was the first time the long-haired McGuinness came to prominence and for many of the team it is their claim to fame: They played alongside Jim McGuinness.

McGuinness was full-forward on the team who lost the semi-final to a very strong Derry team, who were reigning All-Ireland minor champions at the time.

At midfield for Donegal was the red-haired Charlie O’Donnell of Aodh Ruadh, who now resides in Leamington in England but is still involved in the St Finbarr’s GAA Club in Coventry and up until this year was manager of the Warwickshire team, who won two All-Britain titles in two years.

“I know Jim well and I know him for a long time. But the one thing that I remember about that day; that’s the first day that Jim  came to people’s attention. He got man of the match, I can’t remember if it was 1-1 or 1-2 he scored. Everyone knew who he was after that.

“Then Jim made the U-21 panel in ‘91, which was unusual with him being so young, and he went well at full-forward there as well and that was the reason Brian McEniff took him into the senior panel.

“That really was the springboard for Jim in 1990 when we lost to Derry,” said O’Donnell.

Donegal went into the game very much as underdogs having struggled to get past Cavan in the quarter-final.

“We drew with Cavan in the first round in Ballybofey and we had to go back to Breffni and we beat them in a replay. I remember Noel Rua McBride from Gaoth Dobhair nearly won it for us on his own in the second half against Cavan.

“Derry were the All-Ireland minor champions from 1989 and I was just looking at the team sheet. When you look at it you have Karl Diamond, Gary Coleman, John Mulholland and Eamonn Burns who were definitely involved in the 1993 All-Ireland, and then after that Oliver Collins, Dermot Dougan and Geoffrey McGonigle, they all played senior for Derry.

“So you had seven or eight of that team that played for Derry and half of them won All-Ireland senior medals.

“That Derry minor team won Ulster that year but lost the All-Ireland semi-final to Meath.”

The lineouts for the 1990 Ulster minor semi-final

The story of the game was that Derry went well clear in the second half scoring two quick goals but Donegal staged a great comeback with McGuinness winning a penalty for Noel Rua McBride to convert and then McGuinness got a second goal. In the end Donegal lost out by a goal - 3-6 to 2-6.

And it was unusual for a player from the losing team to be selected as man of the match, but there was no doubt about it as McGuinness was the dominant player on the Clones pitch that day.

“It was the usual warm day in Clones. Sean Ward was our manager, PJ Buggy was there, Sean Masterson was there. We had a team with no stars in it. You obviously had some very good players. Kieran Lynch was exceptional,  from Ardara; Barry Tinney was a top class player back then; Gavin (Bourke) was centre-half back. We had no superstars, compared to the following year. We got Declan Boyle in and Declan became a super player,” said O’Donnell, who added that Mark Boyle from Killybegs was only a sub because of injury.

“Damien Devine of Robert Emmetts would have come in very late. I don’t think Damien played against Cavan and I think Sean took him in and put him in at right half-forward.

“Damien was always a brilliant player but he was very committed to his soccer at that time, so we couldn’t get our hands on him.

“I was marking John Mulholland at midfield that day and I’ll never forget it. Derry got a couple of scores on the board and he started talking to his teammates, ‘let’s get this Derry machine up and running’. That’s something that always stayed with me. That’s the type of standard these boys had; they had played with St Pat’s, Maghera and Mulholland had played with Anthony Tohill in the middle of the field the previous year when they won the All-Ireland.

“The main thing I remember was Jim keeping us in it. (He won a penalty and then scored a goal). Then the dejection afterwards. We were in the old dressing rooms up the steps on the left hand side. It was a long old track when you lose.”

It was a double date for Donegal and Derry that day with Donegal senior defeating Derry in the main game which had a particularly small attendance of 5,000, which was attributed to a clash with Ireland v Egypt in the 1990 World Cup in Italy.

“Myself and Barry Tinney, Paul Crampsie and Gavin (Bourke) would still be in touch on a WhatsApp group. You would be wishing each other happy birthday on social media. A team photo from 1990 always crops up somewhere and the one claim to fame we all had is that we all played with Jim McGuinness.

“Barry Tinney was messaging me last week and he said ‘Charlie, I’m still clinging on to that for dear life’. Barry was a very good underage player himself,” said O’Donnell.

Charlie O'Donnell pictured in his management role with St Finbarr's of Coventry last weekend

DONEGAL V DERRY THIS SATURDAY

O’Donnell keeps a close eye on what is happening in Donegal and is really looking forward to the senior championship clash between Donegal and Derry this Saturday in Celtic Park.

“No matter where you are in the world now, you are up to speed on everything. We get all the matches, whether it's GAAGO or whatever. And if I’m on the way back from a match, I have the RTE Radio app, or Highland Radio or Ocean FM. 

“When Jim came back it gave everyone at home in Donegal a lift, but over here you take more pride in your county when you are away from home.

“When we heard that Jim was coming back, it was massive.

“I met up with Jim last summer when we were in Dublin with Warwickshire in the All-Ireland semi-final. I had so much time for that man already, but what he did for us last year, he went out of his way to help us, to advise us and guide us and gave of his time and asked for nothing.

“He came out to speak to my players and they never heard anything like it. I was a good friend of Jim before but after that his estimation in my eyes went through the roof.

“And that’s part of the reason why I would still be confident for Saturday. You can imagine since he took this job, he has Saturday’s date mentioned every night in training.

“When you look at a Donegal team now, irrespective of the amount of injuries they have, long term or short term, we’ve got players like Shaun Patton, Mark Curran, Ryan McHugh, Caolan McGonagle, Peadar Mogan is playing out of his skin; Jason McGee is coming back; Michael Langan, Oisin Gallen, all these are top class players who would star on any county team in Ireland.

“When you add in the Jim McGuinness factor into that, their fitness level and hunger. And correct me if I’m wrong, Jim has a bit of an Indian sign over Mickey Harte.  He’s so organised. Is the team fit? Yes they are going to be fit.

Will there be a game plan? You can be sure Jim has something up his sleeve.

Will there be a planned structure? Will there be an A, B, C and D?

And with those players. I would be fiercely confident going into it. Any team that Jim manages and looks after, those players will just die for him,” says O’Donnell.

The former Aodh Ruadh player says his club don’t have a match this weekend and he will be free to take in the game.

I would back Jim to the last. We’ll have the jersey out and we’ll all be watching on Saturday evening to be sure.”

O’Donnell is enjoying his leisure time and is still putting in hours coaching St Finbarr's in Coventry.

“We played  St Mary’s of Wolverhampton on Sunday and we beat them 4-8 to 2-4, so  that went well,” said O’Donnell, who lives about half an hour from the Coventry pitches. “There are three clubs in Coventry and then you have clubs in Birmingham, Leicester, Nottingham, Wolverhampton and Derby. Derby would be the furthest away, about an hour and a quarter.”