St Columba’s turn struggles into strengths
THIS is the time of the year when a light can shine on the small club from a typical Irish village of two pubs and a post office. The thing is, Mullinalaghta, a tiny speck on the map where North Longford becomes Cavan, is not that kind of village.
‘We used to like to say that we were a typical rural village of two pubs, a post office and a church. But we don’t even have that anymore,’ former Longford captain Shane Mulligan points out.
One of their two pubs closed for good last year while Cloonagh post office, where DP Finnegan had served the community for more than 40 years, bolted its doors last month, one of the rural establishments fingered in An Post’s latest batch of closures.
‘There was a local grocery shop, which was run by my family, but that has been closed for a few years now. So, the village now has one pub, a church and the national school, which has 37 pupils in it. And that’s all,’ Mulligan says.
When they say football is all they have in Mullinalaghta, they mean it. Not only that but football is the thing keeping this village alive.
‘We have less than 500 people so when the village has been struggling in other areas, the GAA has been the heart-beat of the parish. It has kept the thing going,’ Mulligan says. ‘As other parts of Irish rural life are being allowed to die away, the GAA is getting stronger and the club brings everyone together, brings all the young lads together. And keeps them together. It is keeping communities alive.’
There is nothing like the vexed issue of the rural-urban divide to cause political hand-wringing. It was on the news again on Friday evening as Mulligan and his St Columba’s Mullinalaghta teammates made their final preparations for tomorrow’s Leinster club semi-final against Carlow’s Éire Óg in Pearse Park. They are hoping to become the first Longford club to make a provincial decider, a remarkable achievement for a club with little more than 100 adult members.
Years of neglect by successive governments means that places like Mullinalaghta have been forced to help themselves. This has been exemplified by their football team. Under new Cavan manager Mickey Graham, they have won three successive Longford titles and now are on the brink of doing something extraordinary.
‘We have used our weakness, the size of our playing pool, and turned it into a strength,’ Mulligan observes. ‘We are playing for each other, the young lads and the older lads.’
The 2016 census recorded a population of 305 in the 11 townlands that comprise Mullinalaghta. Mulligan increased that by five last Christmas when he moved his young family back to his homeplace. The former Longford player is a garda and had been based outside Mullingar but a transfer to Kells allowed him to move home. Many other players travel down from Dublin to make training with county star Rian Brady currently commuting from Leeds for this provincial campaign.
Mullinalaghta are already unique among the four teams left standing in Leinster. Éire Óg, tomorrow’s opponents, Portlaoise and Kilmacud Crokes all come from big urban population centres. But the Longford club are used to making the most of what they have.
While Graham’s input has been rightly highlighted for their dominance in Longford, and close calls in Leinster — they were five points up against St Loman’s 12 months ago only to lose by a point — the club have also played a part in fostering young talent.
A few decades ago, alarmed by the declining population numbers, officials from Mullinalaghta and nearby Abbeylara came together to see if they could amalgamate at under-age level.
They combine in a team called Northern Gaels and play at all under-age grades up to minor level. As one unit, they have been remarkably successful in the recent past – and ironically, it was Abbeylara, and their former underage team-mates, who have faced Mullinalaghta in the past three county finals.
‘Abbeylara is our neighbouring parish, it’s a couple of miles away,’ explains club secretary Patrick Matthews. ‘The idea behind Northern Gaels was to ensure that young players in both parishes were able to play at under-age level and they have stuck together. We have had a cohort of five or six players who are now 21 or 22, who all came up at the same time. They have played for Longford minors and Under-21 together.’
As well as the success at underage level with Northern Gaels, Rian Brady and David McGivney, among others, also starred for Cnoc Mhuire, Granard, when they captured the All-Ireland Vocational Schools title in 2013.
Mulligan, who hung up his intercounty boots at the end of the 2014 season, could never have envisaged everything that has happened in the past three years. ‘We just wanted to win one county title. We would have been happy with that. I could have never imagined that we would win three.
‘But there is never any pressure on us, when we go out onto the field. There’s certainly no internal pressure or even external expectation. We are just playing for every 60 minutes and it will be no different in Pearse Park. We are playing a great club with great history and tradition, but we will just go out and get the best performance we can out of ourselves.’
This is their third successive Leinster semi-final and the general sense is that this is the best opportunity to make the historic breakthrough. In 2016, they ran into the St Vincents juggernaut but were still in the game with 10 minutes to go. Twelve months ago, they let the game slip against St Loman’s. Third time’s a charm, perhaps.
Mullinalaghta will empty this afternoon, with all cars heading for Pearse Park in Longford. The rest of the county will also come out in support. St Columba’s are 60 minutes away from a provincial final.
And they show that there remains a drive and spirit among the people of rural Ireland.