A decade on, St Gall’s All-Ireland kings still fondly remembered

YOU’D almost forget about anniversaries and landmarks, but one caught the eye on the most peculiar of St Patrick’s Days yesterday.

Ten years ago, the footballers of St Gall’s won an exceptionally rare All-Ireland Senior Football Championship, beating Kilmurry-Ibrickane of west Clare in the final.

As it happened, it came in the centenary year of the club itself. The final was a let down. St Gall’s opened the scoring with a Kieran McGourty point and their opponents replied instantly as Stephen Moloney buried in a goal.

From then on, St Gall’s exerted a kind of choking influence that allowed them to practically own possession and score at will. The final score was 0-13 to 1-5 but on the day the Belfast lads were like a basketball team in how they moved the ball around the field, how deep they went to defend, how they never, ever did the selfish thing.

In some ways, it was a portent of how football would be played in the future. Under their manager Lenny Harbinson (right), they were already building something special when Rory Gallagher landed at the club to join his brother Ronan, who had been there for several seasons.

After not venturing his opinion for their first year, Gallagher opened up when Harbinson asked him to. They couldn’t shut each other up.

“Once I got to know him better in year two, and certainly in year three (2011) which was my last year and Rory’s last year, we would have talked on a regular basis about tactics and how football should be played,” said Harbinson, the current Antrim manager.

“It was very obvious from an early stage that he had lots of great ideas. He is very knowledgeable and thought-provoking.

“It doesn’t surprise me at all what Donegal, with Jim McGuinness and Rory there, achieved.

“People who don’t know Rory might underestimate his contribution, but it’s a combination of Jim McGuinness and Rory Gallagher.”

Gallagher aside, that was a team that brimmed with character. You had the feminist corner-back Paul Veronica, an avowed fan of Andrea Dworkin radicalism, the three McGourty brothers, CJ, Kieran and Kevin, all brought slightly different but brilliant qualities, each of them dripping in class. The athleticism of Aodhan Gallagher, the brain of Terry O’Neill, composure of Sean Kelly, cuteness of Kevin Niblock, Mark Kelly, Anto Healy and Sean Burke, the captaincy and leadership of the excellent Colin Brady. Even Karl Stewart, a talented forward, had to make do with a place on the bench.

It was a team for the ages, but as soon as they hit their apex, they were eclipsed by a third coming of Crossmaglen. No shame. They were great champions.