The Drumquin men in Armagh

By Niall Gartland

LAST weekend, a photograph was posted on Drumquin Wolfe Tones’s official Facebook page of two club natives happily stood beside each other following a football match.

Nothing strange there you might think, but it wasn’t quite as prosaic as it sounds. Instead, these two former Drumquin players – Pierce McGirr and Matthew Walsh – had faced off in opposing colours in their final league game of the season. Not in Tyrone mind you, but Armagh. Sometimes life takes you in unexpected directions and all that.

Matthew, who scored a goal, lines out for Blackwatertown-based club An Port Mór, which is a stone’s throw away from nearby Tyrone villages Benburb and Moy.

Pierce, meanwhile, has settled with his wife and kids in picturesque south Armagh village Camlough, the nucleus of the Shane O’Neill’s club. And he’s doing rather well for himself – he had an excellent championship campaign in 2025 as Shane O’Neill’s made the semi-finals of the Armagh Intermediate Championship. In the coming months they’ll aim to go at least one step further with their campaign set to commence this weekend. Asked how his move away from his native Drumquin all came about in the first instance, McGirr, who is now 35, said that the travelling took its toll, on his body as much as his mind.

“I was in London for a good few years. My wife is from Camlough originally, and we moved here when we came home from London in 2021. Whenever I first moved back, I was going back up the road to Drumquin for training and matches. It was just too difficult, it was tough going. I wasn’t getting home until 11 o’clock in the evenings and my body was in bits the whole time from being in the car so much. I picked up a few injuries and couldn’t get training right. Then the fitness was gone and it just wasn’t working, so I said I’d give it a couple of years with Shane O’Neill’s and that’s how I ended up here.

“It’s a lovely area and I’m only two or three miles outside of Newry. I’m working down in Dublin as well, so you’re literally five minutes from the motorway so it’s handy in that respect. You’re an hour from work in Dublin and that’s important.”

Asked to draw a contrast between the famously competitive world of Tyrone Club Football and its Armagh equivalent, he said that there’s no palpable difference in quality. He points to the presence of high-profile Armagh players plying their trade in the Intermediate ranks.

“It’s definitely very competitive. The way they run the league is very good – even in our last game, everyone was playing for something, you’ll never have a dead rubber. You’re ranked according to whatever position you end up, and that’s what pot you’re put into for the championship. It’s a high level as well.

“I’m in Intermediate and there’s a good sprinkling of county boys – in Shane O’Neill’s we have Greg McCabe and the two Mackins (Connaire and Ciaran). There’s Aimee and Blaithin Mackin for the girls as well, they’re an unbelievable family. Ciaran injured the knee again, he’s had bad luck. It’s not as serious as before but it’s still tough on him.”

There is one major difference though, and that is where access to intercounty players during the league is concerned.

“One thing that’s different than Tyrone, is that we miss those boys for such a long period of the year. They’re lucky to get one league game, maybe two. In Tyrone, the clubs seem to refuse to play much without their county players so that seems to be the story behind it.”

McGirr still keeps a close eye on the fortunes of the Drumquin team, who are presently fighting it out for Division Two survival with a couple of rounds remaining.

His brother Daniel lines out for Drumquin, as do his cousins Fionnan Patterson and up and comer Jake Donnelly. His uncle, meanwhile, is club legend Lele Patterson. And then a week ago, he touched base with former teammate Matthew Walsh in circumstances they surely wouldn’t have envisioned at the start of their playing careers.

“Matthew has a similar story to myself. He went to college in Belfast and his woman took him down to Armagh! That’s where he’s been living ever since. I think he came back and played for Drumquin for a year too and then he decided to play An Port Mór, which is close to the Tyrone border.

“It was the first time I’d come up against him in Armagh. They were Junior last year. They got promoted and we got relegated so we’ve ended up playing each other. We’re meeting again in the championship so that’ll be interesting as well, we’ve been drawn in the same group. We’ll be crossing paths again – he’s a good mate of mine, we’re close to each other. We’d a good chat with him after that game.”

And finally, does Armagh football take precedence in the McGirr household? McGirr admits that it sure looks like it…

“My wife has the children completely brainwashed by Armagh! I buy the Tyrone jerseys. In fairness Armagh have had more to cheer about in the last couple of years, though hopefully Tyrone are on the road back and maybe I’ll get some bragging rights.”