Saints switch for Mulligan who is building a new life in Sligo
EMLYN Mulligan, the Leitrim legend who has joined St Mary’s GAA Club, says that personal circumstances led to him wanting to continue his club career with the Sligo town outfit.
The Garda, 33, is now based in St Mary’s catchement area where he and his wife have purchased their first home. He has transferred from Melvin Gaels.
“I’ve made the tough decision to leave my home club Melvin Gaels. I suppose my reasoning behind it is, firstly, my life is in Sligo now,” he stated. “I’ve being happily living here for the past six years, happily married to a Sligo woman with a baby on the way in June – all going well.”
He continued: “I’m setting up here for my family, and my future is here in Sligo so I want to be part of the community where myself and my family are now living.”
“It just made sense. A few clubs had approached me but having bought my house where it is I couldn’t justify transferring to any other club.
“Life’s for living and after years of putting preferences of other people first I’ve realised at my age that priorities change and family becomes number one.”
“My wife is also a first cousin of the [St Mary’s] manager, Aidan Rooney, so that connection helped too along with knowing many of the St Mary’s lads.”
“I see St Mary’s as my new adopted home club for the foreseeable future and look forward to getting involved with the club’s underage structures.”
He added: “Obviously it wasn’t an easy decision leaving my home club, but Sligo is my home now and it is a decision that makes my life a little bit easier with no travelling.”
The talented attacker, who turns 34 next December, had a spell playing club football in Dublin with St Brigid’s.
He has overcome three serious knee injuries during his career and in 2019 helped Leitrim earn promotion from Division Four of the Allianz Football League.
The former Leitrim Senior team captain recently undertook a successful fundraiser last November – for each of that month’s 30 days he climbed Knocknarea Mountain, raising €17,765 for two charities, Sligo Cancer Support Centre and Little Blue Heroes.
Mulligan’s new club St Mary’s, who were county semi-finalists in the last two campaigns, were last Sligo Senior Football Championship winners in 2015. They were runners-up five years ago.