Daily Mirror (Northern Ireland)
HAUNTED BOSS O’NEILL DREAMS OF GAA DEFEAT
FORMER Ireland boss Martin O’neill admits he’s haunted by an All-ireland colleges final defeat over 50 years ago – and still dreams about it.
The two-time European Cup winner (inset) and successful manager revealed a number of sporting regrets, including those from his GAA career.
Kilrea native O’neill grew up hoping to play for Derry and played in the Ulster minor championship winning team of 1970 for them.
After moving to Belfast, he also became a key player for St Malachy’s school and admits he still blames himself for their one-point Hogan Cup final defeat in 1970.
The 69-year-old made the admission during a webinar hosted by Queens University, where he studied law, to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the GAA deleting the ‘Ban’ in 1971.
O’neill said: “Hogan Cup, definitely a big disappointment. Incredibly, less than three years ago I actually had a dream about the Hogan Cup so it must be somewhere away in the back of my mind. I would love to have changed that and to have won the Hogan Cup.”
O’neill also reflected on the bizarre episode the following season when he was caught up in the GAA’S ban on members playing or supporting foreign games.
The rule wasn’t supposed to apply to schools but Antrim officials took umbrage at the idea of rising soccer star O’neill, who transferred to Nottingham Forest months later, playing at Casement Park and moved the match to a school pitch in Omagh.
It was the blockbuster Macrory Cup semi-final of 1971 between Belfast colleges St Malachy’s and St Mary’s with St Mary’s winning and going on to claim the
All-ireland.
O’neill said: “I felt I was at the centre of something that I really should not have been.
“In hindsight, we should have taken a step up and said, ‘This is colleges football, not senior inter-county, these are colleges’.. we should have called their bluff.”
The Kilrea native described himself as ‘a staunch Gaelic man’ and said his initial hope as a boy was to star for Derry.
He said: “That’s exactly what I wanted to do, to play for Derry. I wanted to win the All-ireland.”
The veteran boss hasn’t been involved in management since being sacked by Forest in the summer of 2019 but isn’t ready for retirement yet.
“The enthusiasm I had for the games, Gaelic and soccer, hasn’t really left. So I will have a little look at these things and see what develops. I haven’t exactly gone into a cave yet,” O’neill said.