Doohamlet’s glory days

WHEN it rains it pours. Doohamlet had no real Intermediate Championship history worth talking about before the early noughties. Two final appearances were accompanied by two defeats in 2003 and 2005.

But something was brewing. This same team had won two Junior Championship titles in the space of a couple of years and while intermediate glory had evaded them, they reached the senior grade through the league.

They more than held their own at that level. Competing with the best, Doohamlet really felt they belonged there. Unfortunately, their stint was all too brief, and they were back in Intermediate in 2010.

With that hardened senior experience behind them, they decided to do what no other Doohamlet team had ever achieved. They wanted to bring an Intermediate Championship title back to the club.

Not only that, but they went on a journey over the next decade that brought plenty of good days to the club. They were crowned Intermediate champions once again in 2012, 2015 and most recently in 2018.

Colin Walshe was still only a youngster for the first one. He’d go on to achieve great things at county level with Monaghan, including two Ulster titles and an All-Star award in 2013, but 2010 was what started it all.

“2010 was a huge year for the club,” he said. “A group of lads came through and won Junior Championships in ’99 and 2001 and had been knocking at the door in Iintermediate for a good few years,” recalled Walshe.

“We managed to go up to senior in 2006 on the back of Carrickmacross winning the double. I think we might have topped the league and reached both finals, we lost both to Carrick, but we still went up to senior for the first time.

“In ’07, ’08 and ’09 we were senior, but we dropped back down and in 2010 it was a huge year to actually win some silverware. We had an experienced group that had competed well at senior level and got to a few league semi-finals and stuff.”

Their success was tinged with sadness, however. Two years earlier, the club had been struck by tragedy. Getting over the line and bringing some joy to the community was what made 2010 a year to remember.

“It was a real emotional year for the club because we would have been hit with a few tragedies. The year or two before that we lost two young lads to suicide, two playing members. Then in 2010 there were different families that had different personal stories.

“We had players who lost parents that year or shortly before the county final. I just remember at the final whistle looking around the field and seeing the different families grouped together, that really stuck with me that day.

“Our club’s a small club in the corner of a parish but it’s built on the back of a lot of brothers and sets of families. We’d been a real close-knit team and that came through after that match, it was something that really hit home.”

Fergal Reel was the man in charge, and he sparked their historic run of success. Reel, who guided Louth to the u-20 All-Ireland final this season, left nothing to chance and called on the aid of an old friend to get Doohamlet to the promised land.

“He came in under Dessie McBennett in 2009. Dessie took us in the years previous and then Dessie stepped away and Fergal stepped up as trainer and manager. He was keen to stay involved after his first year and we had a great year under him,” added Walshe.

“Fergal was great with us that year and we were going well but we were stumbling through the championship. We drew with Rockcorry early on in the championship and we won the replay 0-7 to 0-5.

“We just about got over the line, but we weren’t really performing that well. He ended up bringing in Peter McDonnell between the quarter-final and semi-final of the championship. Peter would have just finished up being the Armagh manager.

“He brought him in for a few sessions and it was a fresh voice, and we really clicked in the semi-final. We blew Aughnamullen away and really found our form and then Peter stayed with us for the rest of the year.

“I remember Fergal had us primed for the final, just things like even the first kickout, we had that planned. When things like that come off, it was nearly like everything just went to plan and we won comfortably enough.

“We just gelled and worked really well. Peter added a wee bit to it and between himself and Fergal, they really helped us get over the line in the final and then we ended up going on a run in Ulster as well.”

The Ulster club runs was something else. In 2010, they went all the way to the final and despite tasting defeat against Lisnaskea, the experience of those road trips will live long in the memory for all involved.

“We won the championship, we reached the league final, and we went on a run to the Ulster Club final and in 2010. It was a really bad winter and the Ulster final got put off twice and ended up being played three weeks after it should have been,” Walshe continued.

“The league final then got put off until the end of January. I suppose the county board were conscious to let us play our Ulster Club final and it ran in close to Christmas. We ended up losing the league final and it was just hanging over us through January.

“They were serious memories, winning in different places. We played in Clones, we played in Crossmaglen, we played in Enniskillen and then we played the final in Breffni Park and it’s great in the Ulster Club that you can go on those journeys.”

He added, “You’re playing teams that you wouldn’t be used to and playing on pitches that you wouldn’t be used to. You’re bringing your club to all these different places and that was a serious run we went on that year.

“The most enjoyable games I ever played in were those Ulster Club games. It wasn’t senior level but that was where our club was at, and I remember winning a few of them after extra time and things like that really stick out.

“Those Ulster Club games are really competitive; you’re going into the unknown and you don’t really know the teams. You might be able to pick out a few names but it’s a real test of everybody in your club.

“The fans are maybe getting buses to these places where they’ve never seen their club play and it’s the excitement of it and there’s a buzz around it. It’s something that really tests you and it’s a brilliant competition and we really went after it.”

Sure, Doohamlet would have loved an Ulster title and always gave it everything they had, but they were coming up against the very best. That Lisnaskea team, who beat them by just three-points, finished their season in Croke Park as All-Ireland champions.

“In the run up to that Ulster final, we were flying. I think Derrylaughan were favourites for Ulster, they were definitely favourites to beat us in the semi-final, and we blew them away and then we played a league semi-final the following week and won it.

“We really found our groove but then the final got cancelled twice because of snow and we were trying to keep the training going but it was tough to get sessions in. One of the lads ended up going to Australia, he was supposed to be leaving after the final.

“But then when it was pushed back, he ended up going and that maybe disrupted us too. In the final, we had a chance cleared off the line with 15 minutes to go and that would have put us six up, but Lisnaskea came back strongly.

“They kicked points from everywhere, Daniel Kille kicked sidelines with the outside of the right boot, and they went on to win the All-Ireland. Cookstown beat us in 2012, and they won the All-Ireland as well.

“More recently in 2018, St Enda’s from Antrim beat us and they lost the All-Ireland final but that was the calibre of team that we were losing out to so we weren’t far away in those years, and you can take some comfort from that.”

More glory followed of course in the years after 2010. Three more Intermediate titles were collected, but no more special than 2015. The club achieved the league and championship double in the year that Walshe wore the captain’s armband.

“That team that played the three years of senior was still the tail end of that team in 2015. The 2018 team would have been made up of a younger generation that came through and we’d only a couple of players that had played in 2010.

“I’d done my cruciate in 2014, so I was only back and to get back playing and win the double as captain, then going on a good Ulster run as well, it was great.

“My younger brother and a few other younger boys would have come into the team that year, so it was nice to win a championship with him. There were a few special moments that added to it that year.”