Seán MacCulhaill’s: Building a bridge to the future

From a handful of u-10s and progress, Seán Mac Cumhaill’s became Ulster minor champions in just over a decade. Jamesie Donnelly, Martin McGonigle and Conor Malone recall the underage journey that has delivered in spades. Michael McMullan writes…

IT’s no ordinary Sunday night in Ballybofey. The Seán MacCumhaill’s underage hurling conveyor belt takes another piece of silver over the bridge from neighbouring Stranorlar. Home is in sight.

This is different. It’s Ulster glory this time. Christmas is 11 days away but Santa has delivered early.

Despite injuries taking part of their spine, the club’s minor team turned over a fancied Éire Óg, Carrickmore side to land the Ulster Shield in Ballinascreen – the tournament of champions.

In keeping with a tradition that started after winning the first of their three minor titles in 2023, the players stepped off the bus at the chapel, before parading over the River Finn, back home as Ulster champions.

“The guards were there, took us across the bridge and there was a big crowd on both sides,” recalls Jamesie Donnelly of 2023.

“It was very special but the night after we beat Carrickmore, it went to a new level altogether. The crowd that was there, the people roaring us on, it was massive.

“It’s something that’s very special, that we could carry it across the water where the two towns come together.”

Winning the Ulster Shield was the passport into a cup semi-final against Ballygalget. MacCumhaill’s would go on to upset the odds against the Down champions. It was arguably the most seismic hurling result anywhere in Ulster in 2025.

A sizzling Cushendall team were too many rungs up the ladder in Ulster underage club hurling’s biggest game.

They cried in defeat before wiping away the tears to reflect on 12 years of climbing from a handful of u-10s and a glut of titles along the way.

Aside from the Ulster Cup final defeat to Cushendall, MacCumhaill’s missed out on just one other title last year. A talented Burt side turned them over in the Donegal Féile final before they regrouped to annex the regional Féile in Mayo.

It’s been a trophy-laden few seasons. MacCumhaill’s won the Donegal Féile in 2024, alongside another underage championship clean sweep. Add in minor and u-16 league titles. There was u-11, u-15 and u-17 championship success in 2023.

“We had a recent underage prizegiving night and some of the lads walked out with six medals,” recalls Conor Malone of the players who doubled up between Féile, u-16 and minor wins.

“That’s more medals in one day than most fellas would lift in a lifetime.”

Malone, a native of Waterford, has been in Donegal for over 20 years. He has his head under the bonnet too, helping tune MacCumhaill’s hurling engine, last year taking the u-14 and u-15 teams with Martin McGonigle and Mark Cannon.

There is a big picture. Success is brilliant but clubs can make the mistake of putting all their eggs in one basket.

“What we’re very conscious of is a great team at one age group, all the resources can go in and all the attention is on that team,” he pointed out.

“It’s no good in the long term, if you have a great minor team and you have none out of u-16s. We wanted to keep a consistent production line.”

For Malone, seeing where the club has come from over the last decade, having squads of over 20 players at all ages, is as important an indicator as any.

Word of mouth has helped increase the numbers. Going into schools as a presence is another plus point.

Another key point is the club’s decision to place value in their dual element. In a county where football is the more popular code, MacCumhaill’s have taken away any need to choose.

A HEROES’ WELCOME…Seán MacCumhaill’s minor hurlers return from Ballinascreen as Ulster Shield champions

If a day is dedicated to hurling, football can’t be allowed to clash and vice versa. The coaches ensure their kids playing both sports see both sides of the line. If a swap is needed, accommodation is there.

It’s not about hurling or football. It’s about MacCumhaill’s. The players’ freedom to choose is King.

At the end of the day, a player will always want to play. If you dig deep enough, one sport helps the other. Then you have the social value of sport.

“The most satisfying thing for me is seeing young people down in the club,” Donnelly points out, himself involved with the u-12, minor and senior teams last season.

Turning into the grounds and seeing balls – big and small – whizzing across the grass or thumping back from the ball wall is tonic for the soul. The club must be doing something right, especially in town.

“I love that because it gives me that sense of, we’re doing the right things here,” he adds.

“When there isn’t even organised training on and they want to spend time down here, I take a lot of satisfaction out of that.”

Malone takes it a step further. Friendship, the dual option and success have combined to help the growth.

The Tuesday after the first minor success in 2023, his phone pinged. The u-15 coach was unavailable so he stepped in to take the session.

It was the first collective coaching ahead of the championship, given the previous crossover with the u-17s.

Malone noticed six footballers, who hadn’t lifted a hurl all year, reporting for training.

“They had been down at the minor final and showed up for hurling,” he pointed out.

“These young lads saw the success and three days later, literally turned up, looking to join the u-15 hurling team.”

They were the extra ingredients as the u-15s went on to win the championship but Malone credits that first minor success for prising the floodgates open.

“It’ll mean nothing if we don’t keep it going.” he added. “In a football county, you’re never more than six months away from disaster, if you get complacent, or if you don’t stop trying to drive it forward.”

MacCumhaill’s know too well. They’ve been there before.

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MacCumhaill’s won the first of two senior titles in 2010 but took their eyes off their underage development.

By the time their second arrived six years later, the wheels of longevity were back in motion.

Martin McGonigle recalls 2013. He was u-12 manager. His brother Jamesie was taking the u-16s with Anthony Patton looking after the u-14 squad.

“The three of us were still playing senior hurling,” said McGonigle. By that time, he relocated to live in Derry, but the journey to coach the kids back in Ballybofey was a regular part of the week. You never forget your roots.

“I don’t think we had a minor team that year so we needed to start doing something.”

Martin and Jamesie took the club’s first ever u-10 coaching session by June of that year. Within a few months Martin and Anthony Patton took the team for a challenge game with Setanta.

“We had a very, very young team,” Martin pointed out. “Anthony’s son, Dylan, and Dan Donnelly, who’s me and Jamesie’s nephew, they were five and six years of age at that time.”

It was a successful evening, day one of the new beginning. MacCumhaill’s started something they believed would last.

As numbers grew, an u-8 group emerged the following year. Stephen Byrne offered his help, another man signed up for the long haul.

Last year he was looking after the u-10s and was part of the minor backroom team that also included. Paddy Clohessy and Terry Reilly.

“Then, the following year, Conor Malone came in and helped out,” McGonigle added of the earlier years.

“We took those fellas on into u-10s for a couple of years and they graduated up to u-12s. Jamesie and Anthony took them from then, all the way into minors.”

After losing successive u-12 finals to St Eunan’s and Burt, persistence was the word. Practice. Fail. Improve. Grow. Repeat. Success followed 12 months later and the club haven’t looked back.

“It just grew from there and we all just worked incredibly hard together,” Jamesie said, giving his thoughts on their success story.

“Our strongest point is, from our u-12 management group to our minor management group, we were all singing off the same hymn sheet.

“I know our minor team now gets all the headlines but they’re a very special group.

“You get that from time to time, but we have a serious u-16 team coming after us.

IN THE BEGINNING…Seán Mac Cumhaill’s u-10 hurlers at the first coaching session of their underage revival on June, 23, 2013

“We have a very good u-14 team. I’m with our u-12 team as well and we won the championship, so we have a good couple of teams coming after it.”

There has been over 10 years of graft with plans to do the same thing again for the next decade. It’s a crossroads they took the wrong turn at before. This is a plan for keeps.

“It’s just a lot of hard work by a core group of people,” Jamesie added. “We all just work together and for the betterment of Seán MacCumhaill’s.

“When you have that and it’s not about yourself, well, I think it can only be good.”

While Jamesie said satisfaction comes from seeing the pitches buzzing with youngsters – and it does – the winning feeling also ramps up the sense of value in their efforts.

He also states the importance of having a big squad. Last year’s Ulster minor run was the walking example.

“We had three missing going into the Keady (Shield semi-final) game and we got over in a tough battle,” he said.

“We went in against Carrickmore and they had high aspirations of getting to the A final themselves.

“When we played Ballygalget, we’d actually six missing and that just shows the importance of dipping into the other u-16s.

“If we had only 20 players, we would have been in big bother. I don’t think we would have got to where we got, the heights we got to.”

Jamesie’s emotions got the better of him after watching his side, despite missing key men, dispose of Ballygalget, a club with three Ulster senior titles. MacCumhaill’s were playing against tradition.

“I don’t think I’ve cried after a game since 2010, when we won our first senior championship. I don’t think I’ve cried since then but it was hard to hold the tears back,” he said, referring to their important mantra. Spirit.

“We would try and instil that into them, the 70-30s,” he said referring to chasing down balls they’ve no right to win. “We never chat about 50-50s, we always go after the 70-30s.”

The only disappointment is not performing in the final. It was a bridge too far. Injuries, playing on a big occasion and struggling to find that same drive. It wasn’t to be.

“Myself and Anthony, we felt very sorry for them because that’s a heavy cross to carry when you get to a final and you don’t perform,” Jamesie said, with genuine thought for the players themselves.

“For a young boy, that can be daunting but they could be very proud of themselves.

“I know they were a wee bit sore over that, about not performing on the day but hats off to Cushendall, they were an outstanding outfit.”

Being disappointed at not beating Cushendall in an Ulster final is miles away from a handful of young u-10s 12 years before that. It was an u-10 group that included Dan Donnelly, who made his Donegal senior debut in recent weeks in a Conor McGurk Cup semi-final win over Tyrone.

When they were edged out by Derry in the final, another MacCumhaill’s man, Gavin Browne, put his hand up for a start this weekend with his runs forward from corner back.

“We were at a low enough ebb with underage and started to grow slowly,” McGonigle added on the club’s growth.

“In the last couple of years, we’ve obviously built on what happened beforehand.

“The fruits of all the hard work over the past 10 or 15 years is starting to show now.”

The club’s senior team were in a first senior semi-final in seven years last summer. It won’t be their last. Burt and Setanta are top dogs for now but MacCumhaill’s will hope the duo are soon looking back over their shoulders.

If they can progress and add a third senior title, the drill will be the same. Total joy and a drive home from O’Donnell Park. They’ll congregate at the chapel in Stranorlar and walk across the bridge, cup in hand, with home in sight.

After a decade of toil, targets never disappear, they are just recalibrated. This group has got a taste for success. Men like Conor Malone, Jamesie Donnelly and Martin McGonigle hope the story is only getting started.