Cavan fans appreciate McKiernan all the more now
Cavanman's Diary
Although I can’t recall his face, I can clearly remember what he said. I was sitting courtside at a handball facility in Boston about 20 years ago, talking to an old-timer, and he pointed out a veteran player, held together by bandages and straps, who was walking in to warm up.
“That guy,” he said, pointing to the grizelled passer-by, in his local drawl, “there’s just no end to him.”
He said it as a compliment, with a complete, if possibly grudging, respect. It was an Irish-sounding phrase which is maybe no surprise as ‘Southie’ is one of the most Irish places outside of this island – it’s only natural that some of the vernacular from the old country would linger on the tongue, a few generations, maybe, on.
As the years have gone by, I’ve often heard the phrase repeated – in fact, I’ve said it myself, sometimes when talking about the cohort of centurions on the Cavan senior football team at present, the lads who have kept on keeping on.
At times, they’ve dazzled; on other occasions, they’ve looked like weary spouses, trying to keep a failing marriage on track. Regardless, they’ve kept their vow – for richer and for poorer, in sickness and in health, till in retirement us do part. And that is not an easy road to walk. The glare of the public can be overwhelming; inquests drag on and tend to be cold and detached, with no place for sentiment. On the terraces, death by misadventure is a common verdict.
It’s fair to say that football supporters, particularly here in Cavan, are a demanding lot. Cavan’s have been disappointed so often that they’ve subconsciously erected self-defence barriers. Hope for the best but expect the worst and it won’t be as painful, or so the thinking goes.
Those who trade in optimism invariably go broke eventually; pessimism bordering on fatalism is always a steadier market in which to invest. It’s understandable.
But take a moment - here we are writing on March 4 and Cavan find themselves with an outside chance of promotion to Division 1; regardless, only an unlikely sequence of events could see them demoted from Division 2, which is a great position to be in with two rounds of the National League to go, especially when one considers how things went badly awry in the opening two matches.
And while the mid-20s brigade have stepped up and have turned in some massive performances, it is still the ‘over 30s’ who have driven things on. Football can be cruel when it starts to go against you and fixing that can be as difficult as, to quote one commentator who was talking about the path to peace in the north of Ireland 20 years ago, “turning the Titanic in a bathtub”.
But Cavan have righted the ship and the men with ‘no end to them’ have been the architects.
“These lads are just immense,” Raymond Galligan commented.
“And you know, we should be very proud as Cavan people to have these lads just week after week coming out and putting in huge performances.”
Padraig Faulkner, Gerry Smith, Conor Madden and Gearoid McKiernan, all of them over the 30-mark, have supplied the crucial goals which helped secure the last three victories. And with apologies to these players and their fellow travellers including the likes of Dara McVeety, Jason McLoughlin, Ciaran Brady et al, we need to talk about Gearoid.
McKiernan was probably Cavan’s best-known player for over a decade and at times was burdened with the aspirations of the whole tribe.
It brings to mind Taylor Swift’s lyric – “Summer went away, and still the yearning stayed”. So high were the expectations that, despite his individual brilliance (and he had, like any player, bad days too), McKiernan’s career was at times pockmarked by disappointment and he wouldn’t be human if that didn’t take a toll on him.
As we have written before, McKiernan once, most unusually, replied to a tweet posted by Joe Brolly about Cavan’s win in the 1997 Ulster final with the rueful words, “To experience this just once”.
He finally got his reward in 2020 when Cavan got their hands on the Anglo-Celt Cup in the depths of winter. He was 30 by then; this year, he will turn 35. Starting outfield county players in their 35th year are a rarity; the retired Martin Reilly aside, Cavan haven’t had many or any others in this century.
But what makes Gearoid’s case is unusual is that he has come back. When a player steps back for a year well into their 30s, it almost always signals the end – but McKiernan has returned and the supporters can truly appreciate him now.
Look at the milestones in his career. Cavan hadn’t won an Ulster title of any hue in 14 years (a record) when he led the U21s to the 2011 Ulster title, captaining the side and winning Man of the Match in the final.
By then, he was already a regular starter with the seniors, who were close to an all-time low. The culture was appalling – there were instances of players stating their intent to go travelling and the board promising to pay for holidays if they stayed, for example, and others attending music festivals on the day before championship matches to list just a couple of examples.
When Donal Keogan stepped down as manager in 2008, he had referenced how he was “fed up with the players’ attitude. A lot of them wanted the trappings of an inter-county footballer, but they weren’t prepared to put the effort in and work.”
That was the dressing-room McKiernan entered as a promising graduate from the underage ranks. Keogan also made the point that some of the players “didn’t want it enough”.
Nobody wanted it more than McKiernan. His devotion to training was widely commented on by teammates. Terry Hyland, who had managed that U21 side, took the reins as senior manager and masterminded a run to the All-Ireland quarter-final, but by then McKiernan was sidelined with a cruciate ligament injury. He would return to play in excess of 150 games for the county thereafter, turning out even in the muck of the McKenna Cup, year on year.
He spent his entire 20s building towards the big day that finally arrived in November 2020 in a deserted Armagh. Five years on, in his mid-30s, a family man now, the flame still burns.
Last Saturday, as Damien Donohoe notes elsewhere on these pages, McKiernan’s glorious late two-pointer from 47 metres, the score that broke the opposition, saw his tally in the senior jersey cross the 400-point mark, a truly extraordinary return from a generational talent. And that was just part of the story on an evening when he hunted and harried for turnovers and made spectacular catches on kick-outs.
His body language is now more carefree; looking on, it feels like he is enjoying his football more than ever. After the match, he and his teammates played with his infant son on the pitch, a wholesome finish to a great evening.
Second time round, the Cavan supporters appreciate the Swanlinbar native and Cavan Gaels star more than ever. It’s true, what they say - you don’t know what you’ve got till it’s gone.
How great it is for Cavan football to have Gearoid McKiernan back. Savour every minute.