Downings: From nowhere to All-Ireland Sunday

Downings are putting the final plans in place for Sunday’s All-Ireland final. Emer Trearty is one of the players bidding for glory but she remembers the days when they didn’t even have a team. Michael McMullan writes…

THE Downings team bus will snake its way through the narrow streets of Donnycarney on Sunday afternoon.

It will be a totally different planet inside. To the local residents, they’ll be thinking about Christmas. It will just be another bus creeping past.

For those inside, it’s special. The inner circle. A group who slogged and battled together. Cried and sang. Won and lost. They’ve a bond that will stand the test of time.

The music will be pumping. Nerves and excitement will be battling it out for the attention span of those inside.

The bus journey to a game is always an emotional one. Nosing inside the gates of Parnell Park, Downings can reach out and touch their most historic hour.

Game by game, they’ve grown into this All-Ireland adventure. Christmas shopping can wait until Monday. Maybe even Tuesday or Wednesday.

As they step off the bus, they’ve one sole focus. To finish what they started.

To those outside eyes, it’s a special season that began with a league that moved into a championship phase and a ramping up of efforts.

That’s the short term. Downing’s long game goes back to when they had a ladies’ team, to it fizzling out and to when it came back.

It was Shannon McGroddy who kicked the extra-time point that eventually shook Warrenpoint from their Ulster final coattails.

Rewind the clock eight years, to 2016, and it was her group chat on Facebook that set ball rolling all the way to Sunday’s All-Ireland final.

Downings started previous ladies’ teams that didn’t last.

They were the first Donegal team to play at Butlins in the early eigthies. In the mid-nineties, there was another first, a trip to Scotland after Donegal won the 1992 All-Ireland. Without an underage structure to keep feeding players, it fizzled out.

There was another attempt in the mid-noughties before numbers and interest saw the lights go out again.

Emer Trearty recalls her underage days that fell between the stools of Downings back in the day and the new established ladies’ scene.

There were bits and pieces of underage. She can remember playing football on the boys’ teams until u-13. After that, she had three years of football with the local Loreto Community School in Milford.

Below her age, Downings pushed out an u-12 ladies’ team in 2012 with u-14 and u-16 following in turn.

It was a start, but with no senior team, a handful of players hooked up with some of the neighbouring clubs.

Everything changed when Downings pondered over a bid to host the All-Ireland Gaeltacht Championships in 2018. A stipulation of needing both senior men and ladies’ teams was their crossroads.

It was October 2016 when they took stock. Setting up a team would take time but they needed the main raw material – people.

The local soccer team had also folded, leaving just an athletics club to engage the sporting side of the parish.

“I think they just made a Facebook group chat and put everyone, as many girls in the parish, into it,” Treaty said of the early steps.

“We had girls of all ages, anyone who might be interested in playing football.”

There were enough upward thumbs. By December, they made a start in to ensure 2017 would get the wheels in motion ahead of hosting the 2018 Gaeltacht All-Ireland.

By the time January came, former manager John McBride was back on board. He had a mixture at his disposal, young and old.

“The first training back was on a Saturday morning or Sunday morning,” Trearty recalls.

“We landed down and there were people with brand new boots on. I couldn’t really believe that there was actually going to be a ladies’ team again because I hadn’t played for the club in years.

“Anyone over the age of, say, 14 or 15, hadn’t played in years. There was quite a substantial amount that were well into their 20s and 30s.”

The first competitive action was in the Donegal Gaeltacht Championship in March of 2017.

“We won the first game,” Trearty said. “We were playing Naomh Muire and won by a point.

“We got to the Gaeltacht final that year but lost to Dungloe.”

While there was initial disappointment, the flip side was the early progress and they’d remain in the junior grade when they hosted the All-Ireland the following year.

“We competed in the league,” she added of 2017. “We didn’t really feature high up but it was more about getting games and seeing where everybody played.

“Goalkeeper-wise, we had a few different ‘keepers as well so we didn’t really know our positions. It took us a year to get up and running.”

Their progress continued in 2018 with league promotion to Division Two with the pinnacle of a double All-Ireland Gaeltacht success – men and women. It was a significant weekend. Downings were firmly on the map but it was only the beginning.

****

The following year, they were Junior B champions and continued their development in the leagues as their stock rose.

They’d have to wait for success. Susanne White was in unstoppable form as Killybegs beat them in the 2020 Junior A final.

“We were there or thereabouts every year,” Trearty said. “We were the underdogs at that stage (against Killybegs) but we were only new at the same time, only going three years.

MOVING ON UP…The Downings team celebrating after winning the Junior B Championship in 2019

“After we lost the game, we were obviously disheartened by it but we just pushed on,” she added of the 2020 final defeat.

There were quarter-final and semi-final defeats over the next few seasons. Dungloe and Gaoth Dobhair were setting the standard but persistence was the Downings’ word of choice.

Away from the championship arena, there was progress in the form of the Donegal Intermediate Gaeltacht Championship in 2022 and second spot in the league that saw them promoted to Division One.

“We were getting closer and closer every year but we could never actually get over the final step,” she added.

They charged towards the top end of the league’s top flight in 2023 before getting back to the Junior A Championship final but it was Dungloe’s time to shine.

With the benefit of hindsight, Downings had peaked too early in the season. Throwing everything at the league campaign didn’t leave enough in the tank for the business end.

“We were up in the top three or four in Division One, whereas, this year, we steadied ourselves all the way through the league,” Trearty said of the difference.

“We were up there and narrowly got demoted in the league this year, so I think last year we probably peaked too early.”

When they circled the wagons back in February, after the appointment of manager Barney Curran, winning the Junior A Championship was at the top of their wish list, a passport to the intermediate ranks.

While they competed well in the league, they were on the wrong side of the tight battles. A run of narrow defeats saw them relegated, but they didn’t lift their eyes off the summer and championship football.

“There wasn’t much difference, even against the likes of Glenfin and Ballyshannon,” Trearty said of their league performances.

“We weren’t losing by much, even against the likes of Termon. We weren’t pushing as hard for league because our main goal at the end of the year was the championship.

“When it came to the championship, we had been obviously playing Division One football all year, we were playing the bigger teams and competing.”

An unbeaten championship campaign was topped off by beating Naomh Pádraig in the final. The box was ticked. After five seasons, Downings were Junior A champions.

The partied before regrouping. It was destination Ulster. An away victory in Cavan over Butlersbridge was followed by coming out on the right side of a tough semi-final on home soil against Derry champions Eoghan Rua Coleraine.

“We’ve never actually featured outside of Donegal before so that was something different,” Trearty said of the excitement of their Ulster and All-Ireland campaigns.

There was pressure playing at home in the semi-final. Why? The locals showed up in numbers and there was an unspoken fear.

“We’re well used to playing in front of big crowds but we didn’t want to disappoint ourselves,” she points out.

“We were playing for each other, working for each other so you didn’t want to let anybody down.”

The same fans were in Kildress for the final against Warrenpoint when Shannon McGroddy kicked the winning point to land the Ulster title.

Another step up on the ladder. A first Donegal name on the cup and more history for Downings.

There were joyous scenes as they celebrated before hosting Kildare side Kilcock on their home pitch in the All-Ireland semi-final.

By this stage, they’ve banked a season of winning games and knowing how to dig out a result on the toughest of days.

For the older players, they had the experience from winning the All-Ireland Gaeltacht title. The young blood didn’t but learned from the vibes around and have now made their own history.

“We’ve been working with these girls for the last four or five years,” Trearty said of the fusion of young blood into the current senior group.

“It’s great for them. They’ve come out of their shells; they’ve amalgamated into a really good team. Without them, we wouldn’t even be here.”

Looking ahead to the Sunday’s final, there is a balance to be found. The age-old debate of enjoying the buildup without letting it consume every waking hour. Everybody is different. Emer Trearty is comfortable with both.

“During the day, you go into the local shops and everyone’s talking about it and wishing you luck,” she points out.

“When you’re at training, your main focus is to work hard for each other and do the right things. Anything we need to work on, we’re focusing on it there.

“When you have the girls around you, whenever you’re training, you’re working for them they’re working for you, you’re all one.”

“Outside of it, we have our supporters. It’s them pushing you on, it’s them watching you on the day. You do have two sides to it at the same time but it obviously does interlink as well.”

A win on Sunday against Munster champions Mungret would add the final piece of the puzzle but the Limerick side will have their own script and dreams.

For Downings, Shannon McGroddy’s Facebook post was the first chapter of a story about progression, of success, of learning and of enjoyment.

There will be tension and excitement on the Downings bus on the way to Parnell Park on Sunday afternoon.

They’ll hope for an extra passenger glistening on the dashboard on the way north.

Either way, the boom box will be pumping out the tunes.

The Christmas shopping will have to wait. It’s been a long eight years.