'I’ve learned a lot about my body, I’ve learned a lot about life' - Oisin Gallen

It’s January 2023 and as the new season beckons around the corner, Donegal are optimistic to see what football life is like under the new management of Paddy Carr, but far off in the shadows, Oisin Gallen is ready to walk away from it all.  

He burst onto the scene as the young 18-year-old from Twin Towns four years earlier. The son of a barber who was full of life and ready to make the game his own, but as another year beckoned, Gallen was once again sitting out another pre-season training in Convoy. Another injury has plagued the fair-haired man known as Farrah.  

“Last year was a real low for me because I was down in DCU, and I got back into a real rhythm of playing again and then I got an elbow injury and needed surgery which put me out until the middle of last season. I thought at that point I was done, I wasn’t for coming back this time,” Gallen admitted.  

“The thought of coming to Convoy most nights to do my rehab, it was a hard pill to swallow because I was also in my final year of college, and I had work placement. I just thought this was the final straw. I had three years of my life doing the same thing of trying to recover from injuries, I just thought I couldn’t do it anymore.”  

As the young teen circling the club grounds of Donegal, Gallen made nearly all opposition defenders his age shrink to his will. His two-footedness, raw strength, and Artful Dodger knack of picking the pocket of a defender without him even seeing it turned the heads of the figures of seniority in Donegal GAA.  

By the time he kicked four points from play in his senior Croke Park debut in the 2019 Division 2 final against Meath, the consensus was Donegal has produced one of the future talents of the game . . . a replacement so good that he could slot into the 14-jersey honed by Michael Murphy when the great one finally called it a day.  

It was the Age of New Hope, until it wasn’t.  

But repeated injuries and setbacks for the St Aengus' National School teacher set the wheels moving for long and painful recoveries. Repeated hours up and down to Convoy from DCU began to take their toll.   

He would confine his thoughts to the people in his life closest to him – his parents Seán and Geraldine - but ultimately the choice would be his.  

“I know when I first got injured in 2019, I had complete tunnel vision,” Gallen said. “For me it was about recovering as soon as I could to get back out and play at senior level.   

“I had three or four quad tears, a hamstring tear, a dislocated shoulder, and an elbow injury, which resulted in two operations since then. You were asking how long more this could go on for.”  

Consider the mental strength required for those solitary moments in an overheating boiler room in Convoy. Such mental fatigue would buckle the knees of mere mortals.  

But his love for the game is palpable and threaded with easy gratitude for what sport has given him.  

He had other choices in life, a trip to Melbourne in late 2019 to take on the AFL combine where he came fifth overall in the Agility Run, but placing the weight of the number 14 jersey always seemed the right fit.  

His return to the game last year in the championship saw him as the danger to Derry’s success when these two sides clashed on the very turf where Gallen honed his craft and made the game his own – in MacCumhaill Park.  

Tracked by Chrissy McKaigue, Gallen would tally nine points on the veteran All-Star, three from play and two from back-to-back marks. And while he had already appeared in several games for the county prior to that match, that game saw the reawakening of Donegal’s par excellence.  

“I don’t really know what happened, my mind was made up that I would leave that winter, but I suddenly just took a complete U-turn and decided to give it another chance,” he said.  

“I think I felt that playing for Donegal was something I’ve always wanted to do, I wasn’t about to walk away from something I loved. I don’t think I would’ve taken much convincing to stay anyway because I love being a part of this team, at the time it was just a mental challenge.  

“I think what I just couldn’t add up was, I was always fit for the club championship season. I actually don’t know when’s the last time I missed a MacCumhaill’s championship match, but then when county would roll around, it was like déjà vu in terms of doing getting injured and doing rehab again.  

“Last year’s injury was the tip of the iceberg at the time, but then I felt I went on to have a great season with Donegal and with my club when I recovered, so, I go back to it, football can be a funny game, you have to take it as it comes.”  

By the time last year’s club championship season arrived, Farrah had scores cascading under and over the posts in shattering avalanches, harvesting a vintage crop of points and a goal.  

His numbers alone spoke of a maestro in his chosen theatre as he finished up top scorer with 1-59 to his name over seven outings in the Donegal championship.  

When it came to the shootout with the great Murphy and his Glenswilly men, the All-Ireland captain hit 1-5, Gallen shot 1-9 – the baton looked certainly passed to the next giant in the forward line.  

To put that into perspective, his 1-59 tally was 22 points in front of the trio that finished in joint-second, Karl Joseph Molloy Ardara (4-25), St Naul’s Stephen Griffin (2-31) and Ethan Harkin of Gaoth Dobhair (1-34).  

And now after a solid league campaign that will see Donegal return to the top table again next season, Gallen and his squad are tasked with perhaps their hardest challenge in recent times when they face Mickey Harte’s Derry in Celtic Park in the opening round of the Ulster championship this Saturday.  

A new year and certainly a new team.  

“It was just a rollercoaster of a year last season, I think when we talk about losing to Down 12 months ago in the championship, we probably have to be honest and say none of us were really fully prepared and mentally ready for that match,” Gallen said.  

“We didn’t have enough players there last season with real long-term experience who could step up and lead us last season through injuries and lads walking away. But football is a funny game, I mean look now, it takes one pre-season, Jim McGuinness is back and once again the squad is strong and competing for trophies again.  

“The optimism is growing all the time and I think everyone can see that week-on-week, and people want to be a part of that, not just players but supporters too, we all want to be with sides that win and not associated with sides that fail, that’s only natural, so we’re building all the time and Derry now are going to be that real test to see how far we’ve come.  

“We know the challenge that’s ahead of us. Derry have been putting top teams to bed at their ease this year, so look, we know it’s going to be a challenge, but the Ulster championship is never an easy competition to begin with and we’re starting this one with a massive challenge, all we can do is look forward to it.”  

In American sport they say the best ability is availability and through the hardest days, Gallen has always made himself a soldier of the cause with the full forward line his personal fiefdom. His magnum opus may not yet be written but Gallen is hoping to learn from the past and look into a brighter future.  

One that sees him travel to Celtic Park where he and his crew face their hardest challenge yet.   

“What do you learn from all this? I think you build resilience as a player and a person,” Gallen admitted.   

“I think I understand I need to look after my body better than what I was doing, we’re always learning from our mistakes even though some things can be unavoidable, that’s the beauty of sport. I’ve learned a lot about my body, I’ve learned a lot about life.”