IN FOCUS: Sean Quigley reflects on an eventful career with Fermanagh

By Shaun Casey

THERE wasn’t much to do around Roslea growing up, other than kicking ball around the backyard and that’s where Sean Quigley honed his footballing craft alongside older brothers Conor and Seamus.

They formed a connection that saw them compete alongside each other at both club and county level, although the brotherly love between the trio wasn’t always displayed inside the white lines.

Quigley was an enigma throughout his Fermanagh career. There are funny stories of eating pizza the night before an important Qualifier game and his goal against Dublin, where he bundled Stephen Cluxton over the line will live long in the memory.

But behind the laughter and the craic, there was a serious footballer. A player that did it his way. A player that, on his day, could match the best in Ireland, as he showed on more than one occasion.

Had he played for one of the top teams, he’d have been hailed throughout the length and breadth of the country. There are the obvious disadvantages of playing in the Erne County, population and tradition so often go against them.

Throughout his 12 seasons in the green and white, Quigley and his teammates provided the Fermanagh fans with plenty to cheers about. There were tough days as always, but there were lots of standout memories as well.

“I had two older brothers that were very involved in football and coming from a small rural place like Roslea, there was very little else to do but kick a ball around so that was always going to be a big thing for me,” recalled Quigley.

“From the early days, there was no soccer or any other sports around our local area, so it was all shoulders to the wheel with the club. We had great mentors when we were younger that just sent us down that route.

“My earliest memories of football were going to watch the two boys playing in a county minor match before the Ulster Championship game and I thought these lads were superstars.

“The fact that we actually went on, the three of us, and represented our county and won four club championships together, there was a great bond, but I’d say you wouldn’t have thought there was a great bond the way we were shouting at each other!”

After losing to St Patrick’s, Dungannon in the MacRory Cup semi-final on a Friday night in 2011, having lined out for St Michael’s, Enniskillen, Quigley made his inter-county debut less than 48 hours later as a schoolboy.

A number of star players, including the likes of Marty McGrath, Mark Little, Ryan McCluskey, Tommy McElroy, Niall Bogue and the Sherry brothers, Peter and James, had left the squad during John O’Neill’s reign, leaving room for Quigley to get the call.

With Fermanagh comfortably 7-1 up at half time of their round six league tie with Leitrim, the Roslea attacker was beckoned from the line for his first minutes in a Fermanagh jersey. They ended up losing 11-10.

“At that point Fermanagh went through a bit of a rough patch with a few players that had left the panel, and they were probably down in numbers but that didn’t really matter to me, it came as a lovely surprise.

“We played Leitrim in Carrick-on-Shannon on the Sunday and that was it for me. It was unexpected, and it was probably one of the lowest ebbs of Fermanagh’s history because we got beat by London in the Qualifiers that year.

“Looking back on it, it was a huge part of my career. John O’Neill was the manager, and he was only in for one year, but he gave me my county call up, so I owe him an awful lot for that.

“I was lucky enough that I had played for the u-21s that year and there were seven or eight lads walked away from the group so a number of u-21 players got called up, so it was familiar enough for me because I knew most of the lads.

“My older brother Conor was on the team and there were a few Roslea lads there. I can’t really remember much about it, it probably was daunting, but you go in with that bit of confidence when you’re younger.

“I was probably a wee bit naïve to it all looking back on it, but it was thoroughly enjoyable even though that year was a really tough one, but I really enjoyed it.”

His championship debut followed, and Quigley quickly became a permanent fixture in the Fermanagh forward line and one of the best attackers in the province.

During a 2014 Qualifier tie with Laois, the conversation of pre-match meals arose between Quigley and his marker. The full-forward admitted to eating pizza the night before their clash, and that story has stuck ever since.

“That story is 11 years ago and it’s still following me around,” Quigley laughed. “That was maybe a wee bit out of the ordinary, was there boys doing that? Possibly, I wasn’t going to get too caught up with nutrition and that.

“It does matter, and it’s completely changed now but that story definitely grew some legs over the years. I laugh because every time it’s told back to me there’s a different swing on it.”

What’s not spoke about as much however is the fact that Quigley kicked 2-8 that day, earning him the player of the match award, all while Fermanagh ended up losing the game and crashing out of the championship.

“I don’t know if it was something in the pizza or what it was but that’s the thing, that kind of becomes a bit of a sidenote,” Quigley said of his performance. “I’d say I probably played my best ever game or one of my best ever games for Fermanagh that day.

“My focus at that time was on playing a game of football and I just did what worked for me. That day it worked but unfortunately as a team we got beat. It still wouldn’t cost me a thought to go out and have a pizza the night before a match!”

If that was his best game ever, his best season ever was to follow. That 2015 campaign was a special year for Fermanagh folk. They gained promotion from Division Three, which was a big thing, but also reached the All-Ireland quarter-final.

They came up against Jim Gavin and a Dublin side just finding their groove and kick-starting their famous run to a historic six -n-a-row of All-Ireland titles.

Quigley led the line for Pete McGrath’s side that season. He was the top scorer across all four divisions in the league and finished second in the scoring charts come the championship, just behind Mayo’s Cillian O’Connor.

“That Laois game in the Qualifiers the year before lit a bit of a spark in us. We were going down to Laois that day and Laois were actually going really well, they’d run Dublin pretty close in the Leinster Championship.

“The following year we got to the league final unbeaten, we drew with Armagh in the Athletic Grounds, and they beat us in the league final, but we went on and had a few good Ulster Championship games.

“We beat Antrim and were unfortunate enough to get beat by Monaghan but we got the ball rolling again and we had a great summer so that was really enjoyable. That was one of my most prolific years, definitely on the scoreboard anyway.

“We were winning games that year that Fermanagh would usually lose. Fermanagh always had a reputation that they could put it up to anyone on any given day but inevitably they would fall away.

“We beat Roscommon, we beat Westmeath, we had a couple of really titanic battles throughout the league with Armagh. You drift away and don’t see each other as much which is a pity because we had such a good bond, and it was a special group to be involved with.”

The Erne County hadn’t reached the All-Ireland quarter-final since 2004 when they overturned Armagh in one of the biggest shocks in GAA history. Could they repeat that magic against the Dubs in 2015?

“You have to have some sort of belief if you’re going to put in a performance,” Quigley reflected. “Realistically, were we going to beat Dublin? No, we weren’t. That’s the bottom line.

“We can tow the party line and say we have full belief, but it was a strange one. You build yourself up and you have to give yourself a chance.

“The way we thought about it was that if we performed at a level, and everything went right for us, now we needed absolutely everything to go right for us, we got a few lucky calls that day, but we weren’t good enough, we weren’t at that level.

“The occasion itself is one that people will remember for a long time, especially coming from Fermanagh, we don’t get those opportunities very often. We played very well that day but Dublin were just a joy to watch sometimes.”

Like the pizza tale, the one of his goal against Stephen Cluxton is another fan favourite. With his side 13 down, a shot fell short, and Cluxton casually pulled the ball into his chest, only for Quigley to shove the Dublin goalkeeper across the goal line. The goal stood.

“Leading on from the pizza story, that’s another one that has followed me around for years and I think that people forget that I actually scored 1-8 that day when I was marking Rory O’Carroll. In today’s money it would have been about 15-points!

“I always remember going home and my girlfriend’s granda would have been 84 and he couldn’t get over what the big deal was. He said that it was a perfectly good goal when he was playing. He was dumbfounded to understand what the issue was.”

The 2018 season was another standout campaign. With Rory Gallagher now in charge, Fermanagh once again gained promotion from Division Three and this time, they made their mark on the Ulster Championship.

First, they defeated Armagh at Enniskillen before toppling Monaghan to reach a first Ulster final in a decade. Eoin Donnelly’s late major was the winning score against the Farney County, but Fermanagh should have been more comfortable, Quigley suggests.

“That was a different type of year. Obviously, Rory had come in and we got ourselves into really good condition. We stumbled through the league not playing overly well, we drew with Armagh and then the league final was a bit of shadow boxing.

“Getting promoted wasn’t a priority, our priority was Armagh in Brewster Park, and we didn’t take our eyes off that. There was a stat last year that 10 or 11 of the Armagh team that played in the All-Ireland final played against us that day.

“We won that game comfortably, there was five points in it, but we dominated the game. Then the Monaghan match, we shouldn’t have been in a position that we needed a late goal because we dictated most of the game.”

The Ulster decider pinned them against Donegal. On the day, Fermanagh just didn’t show up and all their good work that season was undone in a single afternoon. Donegal ran out convincing winners, 2-18 to 0-12.

“The build up to the Ulster final was immense, it was really good but unfortunately, you always remember the games you lose and in that Ulster final, we just didn’t turn up having prepared so well, our performance levels just weren’t at it,” Quigley added.

“Donegal were a brilliant outfit but if we had of played the way we played throughout the championship, we were so ruthless, we weren’t giving away free kicks, we weren’t giving away goals.

“I don’t know if it was the occasion or inexperience, but it seemed to just get on top of us that day. We were like rabbits caught in the headlights really, we just didn’t perform which is such a pity because we were so well prepared.”

In 2020, Quigley decided to step away. He’d gone straight from county minors and u-21s into the senior team and needed some time to recharge the batteries. He did return and played as recently as 2023, before hanging the boots up for good, unintentionally.

“When I did step away, there was no notion in my head of retiring, it was more because of work commitments. It didn’t pan out the way I would have liked and about a month after stepping away, I ruptured my MCL so I’m only really coming back from that.

“In terms of the Fermanagh setup, I do miss it. I would have struggled to even go to a match; I was only at two games this year. I went to the Tailteann Cup semi-final (against Kildare), and I went to a league game in Ederney against Offaly.

“I struggled watching them, I didn’t enjoy it. It’s strange because when you’re so used to being involved and then all of a sudden, you’re no longer in that bubble, it’s a tough enough pill to swallow at times.

“It was my own decision to step away but it’s definitely strange not being involved anymore. I would have found it strange to go to games but I’m slowly getting out of that and I’m trying to get to more games.”

Those days in Croke Park and Clones were the highlights of his county career, but winning the ultimate with Roslea, four times, will never be topped. It all started with the club and it’ll all end with the club.

He’s back now from injury and he’s lining out in goals at club level. Roslea are currently top of Division Two with a record of five wins and one draw from their six outings. Quigley will hope to add another piece of silverware to his trophy cabinet before the year is out.

“Unfortunately, with Fermanagh I played for 12 years and got to a couple of finals but never won anything really. Looking back, 2015 was a really good year personally, but you remember the games you lose more so than the ones you win.

“I suppose that run to the Ulster final, we didn’t win it and that’s tinged with regret. The build-up and the buzz around the county was something that I had never experienced as a player.

“In terms of my inter-county career, that would be my highlight but in my overall career, winning a senior championship with Roslea, to win one was unbelievable, but we ended up winning four.

“When I started playing football, my goal wasn’t to play for Fermanagh, it was always to play for Roslea and that still is the goal. There were lots of highlights and lots of lowlights but overall, it was a positive experience.”