MINNOWS’ NEW MISSION
Mullinalaghta ready
SHANE MULLIGAN is talking about what it feels like to be invited on to The Late Late Show, to be looking out at a live studio audience on a Friday evening with hundreds of thousands more watching on from the comfort of their own home.
‘It’s more than three days into the celebrations so you can’t feel a whole pile of anything!’ laughs the man who captained the Longford champions to a fairytale Leinster football title, the ‘Miracle of Mullinalaghta’ gaining national traction.
‘The novelty of jumping on the bus, going into the RTÉ studios, meeting Ryan Tubridy, Pat Shortt as well — we had a right laugh there. It’s a different aspect of celebrating. Something not too many teams get to experience after a final. Great novelty. Something you’ll always look back on.’
Even with Michael D Higgins amongst the A-list of those offering congratulations after the milestone win over Kilmacud Crokes, the players thought at first that the invite was a wind-up. The story though of how the half-parish of 447 souls took on and beat the best in the whole of Leinster had struck a chord the country over.
‘It was all a bit of a blur in the days afterwards because we were here, there, and everywhere. You were at the schools and things like that. It started to trickle in, “The Late Late are looking for ye to come on”. We had a laugh at that. At the start we were thinking, “ah now, come on.”
It was great. Nice way to celebrate.
‘Handwritten letters and things started arriving in the post, text messages. People from Galway, Offaly, even from outside football circles it struck a chord with people from small areas, small communities, what can be achieved if people come together. That’s great. Anything positive in this world now. Because you see so much negativity. It’s great to bring that positivity to people.
‘For the days and weeks after, it was all very, very surreal. An enchanted bubble we were in there was that much wellwishers.’
Apart from playing an inspired role at centre-back, Mulligan caught the mood perfectly when he rounded off his speech with: ‘Light the bonfires, we’re coming home.’
Yet he didn’t dare tempt fate by preparing anything before the win last December which sets up a tilt at blue-blood Kerry champions Dr Crokes at Semple Stadium next Saturday in the AIB All-Ireland club semi-final.
‘I hadn’t planned anything. I hadn’t thought as far as the speech. I just wasn’t going into that head-space; it wasn’t something I wanted to do. I just tried to narrow the focus to 60 minutes of football. I remember then, a couple of the officials grabbed me on the pitch, said “we have to try and move this along”.
‘It was just one of those things that came up in the end of the speech. It’s a tradition since we’ve been successful. At the four crossroads there for the homecoming, coming into the parish, we light a bonfire to welcome the cup home.’ From that moment of lifting the cup on, he said he was on a ‘permanent high’, the homecoming pulling further at heartstrings. ‘It is special when you get back to the parish, the crossroads just as you’re coming in. It’s lovely to see the bonfires lit, the fireworks going. We got an extra special welcome then with the pipe band going. We walked behind them. Great noise and colour. Something you’ll always cherish. ‘Winning Leinster gives others hope. The story of Mullinalaghta doesn’t come around that often but you only want it to come around for your own club once. Thankfully it did. There was a ripple right through Ireland. It struck a chord with everyone. It was hard not to get caught up in it for the week or two after.’ Mention of the phrase, ‘Miracle of Mullinalaghta’ brings a smile to his face. ‘We don’t look at it as a miracle — maybe others do.’ Though he goes on to concede that it deserves to be classed as ‘a minor miracle’ at the very least, given how such a small rural half-parish has struggled with the familiar tale of local businesses and amenities under threat, the closure of the post office last autumn the latest example.
Mulligan makes a point of saying how the club’s focus has long-since turned to the challenge of beating the 2017 All-Ireland club champions Dr Crokes. It’s like David felling Goliath only to find the latter’s big brother has decided to step in. From a county perspective, the Longford veteran has been here before. He was wing-back back in the summer of 2006 when his county travelled to Killarney to take on the eventual All-Ireland champions in a round-four qualifier. Forever remembered as the day Kieran Donaghy announced his raw talent to the world at fullforward, it’s almost forgotten that Eoin Brosnan scored a hat-trick that day from centre-forward, a player who, like Colm Cooper, is set to feature for Dr Crokes next weekend.
‘That was a hugely talented Kerry team,’ says Mulligan. ‘We had been competitive. That was the same year we ran Dublin very close in Pearse Park. Had a good run through the qualifiers. You were going down to Killarney and playing one of the greatest Kerry teams. They were a star-studded side.’
As for Donaghy’s impact? ‘That’s where he marked his arrival. The success story came after that. A fantastic team. Got a good start. We were chasing the game. Great colour, great noise. Everyone in Longford appreciated being able to compete against Kerry in the flesh.’
Manager Jack O’Connor wouldn’t have forgotten his shock introduction as Kerry manager, beaten by Longford in his first game in charge in Division One of the league in 2004. ‘I was in the stand that day,’ reveals Mulligan. ‘Stephen Lynch scored a goal near the end with his fist.’
Now it’s the champions of Longford and Kerry going head-to-head. ‘You’re in the last four where you’re talking about Kerry, Donegal, Galway and Longford – that’s not four names that normally line up in an All-Ireland semi-final so it’s great to be in that company.
‘But the most important thing is that we concentrate on our own house, don’t get caught up in anybody else.
‘Make sure that when we turn up at Semple Stadium that we deliver a performance that will enable us to compete and hopefully get us over the line.
‘We’ve talked a lot about the Leinster final but we’re very conscious that what has gone before will have little bearing. If you spend too long looking back, you’ll forget what’s coming down the line.