McGivney on a mission to defy odds with minnows Mullinalaghta
Tiny Mullinalaghta driven by special bond, says McGivney
THERE are so many singular elements to the story of how a half-parish of roughly 400 souls in north Longford has made it all the way to Sunday’s Leinster club football final that it’s no wonder the tradition around Mullinalaghta winning a county title is unique.
James McGivney was one of just seven pupils in his class at St Columba’s National School growing up. One of just three boys. ‘I’m the only one still playing football,’ he said.
With the game becoming increasingly the preserve of teachers and students, he again, is a throwback: ‘I’m a full-time farmer at home, we’ve our own beef farm.’
In economic and business terms, it’s often a case of ever-decreasing circles for rural Ireland. Mullinalaghta is a case in point. ‘The post office closed two months ago. Everything is hard in rural Ireland and if it wasn’t for the club there wouldn’t be too much else happening.’
And yet the 25-year-old centreforward is at the vanguard of a once-in-a-generation group of footballers defying the odds and population drift from west to east coast. They are the first Longford club to reach a provincial senior final where they meet a team with an illustrious history in the competition, southside Dublin powerhouse Kilmacud Crokes.
McGivney gives an insight into the shared sense of local history marked by the celebrations that followed a three-in-a-row of Longford titles.
‘Every year we’ve won it, we’ve went straight back to Gowna to the Piker’s Lodge for grub. Then up to Fitzpatrick’s Tavern. Head back on a bus. Drive by Mullinalaghta graveyard. The first year we drove by the graveyard we got out of the bus, said a few prayers, and brought candles over to relatives. Laid them on the grave. The priest said a few words. It was nice.
‘Everyone was there. We got the bus back then to this cross in the middle of the parish and there was a big bonfire there. That’s where all the signs are. It’s a fairly friendly environment. Everyone comes together there.’
The tradition of a graveyard stop was to honour the men of the club’s first titles in 1948 and 1950. ‘I suppose we just wanted to stop off at the graveyard in memory of those lads who did win it back then. We just wanted to show our respects to them, that they were still being thought of as highly as they were then.’
Sharing its parish with Cavan neighbours Gowna is just another unique element to the story. ‘It’s a half-parish,’ said McGivney. ‘There’s only a church, a community centre and a school with 44 students and a football field. And only for the football field I’d say the majority of our team would be emigrated by now. That’s the heartbeat of the club and the only thing keeping the community together.
‘We have two or three lads there who got offers to go to America this summer — and they turned it down because of the club. I know that’s hard to do for young lads. But fair play to them.
‘That just goes to show the trust the players have in everyone around them.’
He took off himself in 2014, but the lure of home, and playing football, prompted his swift return.
‘I went to Australia for 10 months. I had planned on going for the year but I cut it short to come back to the club and that year we were beaten in the Longford quarter-final by a last-minute goal, which was heartbreaking. But we always knew we had the talent, it was a matter of putting it all together and producing it.’
They have done just that this past three seasons. McGivney has been a key figure, his goal against Éire Óg in the Leinster semi-final setting his team on the way to this historic first appearance.