Jim McGuinness has revealed that when Naomh Conaill made their historic breakthrough in 2005 – the players had themselves backed at 6-1.
McGuinness was writing in his column with The Irish Times about this weekend’s All-Ireland Final replay between Dublin and Mayo – and reflected nostalgically about the time Naomh Conaill landed their first ever Donegal SFC title in 2005.
He recalled that the general consensus in the county was that Naomh Conaill had missed the boat in the first encounter – when St Eunan’s pegged them back late on.
The St Eunan’s juggernaut wouldn’t be caught twice and Glenties had ‘missed the boat’.
He compared that opinion as similar to what is being said about Mayo nationally, with many GAA pundits believing Mayo let Dublin ‘off the hook’.
McGuinness said that prior to the first final, the Glenties lads backed themselves in an Ardara bookmakers at 6-1.
After the replay, they backed themselves again in the same bookies, and when they won it, the pints tasted all the sweeter according to McGuinness because it was ‘Ardara money’.
McGuinness wrote, “In 2005, Glenties, my home club, reached a county senior final for the first time in 40 years. We had never won a senior championship in our history. And on the weekend of the final, the pressure to deliver was intense.
“You could cut the atmosphere with a knife in the town on the morning of the match. I could feel it when I woke up. And it wasn’t a positive thing either. This wasn’t frivolous excitement. It was very grave and solemn. It was tension at its purest.
“And we almost had the game won but St Eunan’s, who were strong favourites, fought back and got late scores to earn a draw. What I didn’t know was that most of our boys had themselves backed at 6/1.
“They used an Ardara bookies – Ardara are our biggest rivals so they wanted to compound the pain. But they collected no money for a draw.
“So around the county the feeling afterwards was that Glenties had missed their chance; that Eunan’s were a juggernaut and wouldn’t be caught twice. I suppose that’s the view nationally towards Mayo this week.
“In fairness, the boys headed back to the same bookies and backed themselves again. And we won it. I remember the boys sitting in Leo’s bar saying: those are wild tasty pints, those.
“Because Ardara money paid for them and that made them all the nicer.”
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