From Greencastle to Sydney… and back again?

By Niall Gartland

ROUGHLY 10,000 miles separates Sydney, one of the world’s major cities, and Greencastle – not one of the world’s major cities – but John McCullagh says he kicked every ball as he watched his home club’s agonising defeat to Gortin in last September’s Tyrone Intermediate Championship semi-final.

We can only speculate whether McCullagh’s presence would’ve made a tangible difference to the final outcome – the bare facts are that he’s a corner-forward and they lost by a point after extra-time – but the result certainly played on his mind and it’s no coincidence that he’s now pining for home.

McCullagh, who is best known for his man of the match display in Tyrone’s All-Ireland Minor Championship final victory over Cork back in 2010, is one of four former Greencastle players living within a couple of hundred yards of each other in Sydney; Sean Warnock, Christopher Gillen and Pearse Warnock could be back on Irish soil at some stage as well, and what a boost that would be for the tight-knit club on the edge of the Sperrins.

Taking a phone call last Sunday evening (well, it was evening in Australia anyway), McCullagh, who’s lived Down Under since 2017, said he’s given serious consideration to coming home within the next year or two.

“Greencastle went on a deadly run last year in the championship and we all got together to watch the games. Losing to Gortin was absolutely heart-breaking, Cahir [McCullagh] put on a show that day but we didn’t get over the line.

“As a Greencastle man you’d definitely question yourself – I’m not saying I’m any use but if the four of us had have been there, we could’ve made a difference. More than anything else, that’s why I want to go home.

“It’s great to come here and live the lifestyle for five years, and it’s the best decision I’ve ever made, but I’d probably be back in Greencastle already only for the pandemic. My girlfriend, she’s from Ballycastle, loves the lifestyle out here so I’d need to convince her.”

Tyrone club football is a particularly parochial beast, but McCullagh said living and playing elsewhere has broadened his horizons – even if there’s plenty of his fellow countrymen around ever corner.

“I’m telling you now, there’s a mountain of Irish people here. Everywhere you go, there’s Irish people, and they support each other like nothing you’ve ever seen.

“Back in the day, if I was in Sally’s and saw a lad I didn’t like, I might have a pop at him, but if I met the same person over here I’d be like ‘there’s your man from Carrickmore, he’s a bloody great lad!’

“When Sean and I came over here in 2017, we moved into an apartment and even though we had no money, everything was furnished for us.

“People would give us a TV or sofa and things like that, stuff that might be worth 500 dollars and they wouldn’t want anything for it, we’d just give them a bottle of whiskey or something.

“It has been brilliant but I am looking forward to getting home, especially after watching Greencastle in the semi-final last year, kicking every ball and pulling the hair out of my head.”

McCullagh scooped the man of the match award for a sublime display from corner-forward in the All-Ireland Minor final against Cork back in 2010, and he played for the Tyrone u-21s for a couple of years after that. He didn’t make the jump up to senior level, and he’s honest about why that was unfortunately the case.

“I never pushed on for the very, very simple reason that I was never good enough. People like to make excuses but I’ve always been able to look myself in the mirror and say ‘if I was good enough to play for Tyrone, I would’ve played for Tyrone.’

“It’s actually scary that the minor final is already 11 years ago, I saw it mentioned in the paper recently and I thought ‘how the hell is that still mentioned?’

“Mattie Heagney from Kildress mentioned it to me as well and said if it was him, he’d have it plastered over his Facebook and Twitter, but for me it’s a long time ago. Greencastle people love to point out to me that Ronan O’Neill was double marked so that keeps me grounded…”

When it came to enlisting with a GAA club in Sydney, there was only ever going to be one choice – Cormac McAnallen’s, a club that vows as its mission statement to honour the name of the tragically deceased former Tyrone captain. The standard of football is surprisingly high, says McCullagh, who’s now 28 years old.

“McAnallen’s is predominantly a Tyrone club, last year eight or nine of our starting team were from Tyrone albeit our captain was from Offaly.

“The social aspect is a big thing, but I’m with the club to play football and I’m not going to waste my prime years just playing for the craic. One of our rivals is Michael Cusack’s, and Dara McVeety, who was Cavan captain in 2019, is playing for them, so there’s a lot of good players out here and the games are taken very seriously.”

McCullagh, who works as a pipe layer for a construction company owned by Carrickmore man Sean Grogan, also says that one of his brother-in-arms in Sydney, Sean Warnock, is playing fantastic stuff at the moment. Music to the ears of Greencastle fans, we’re sure, as Sean is understood to be thinking about coming back home as well.

“He’s playing the best football I’ve seen from him, he’s marking county players week-on-week and more than holding his own. He was on the Tyrone panel for a bit but didn’t really make it – it just shows the standard of Tyrone club football that Sean gets overlooked for Tyrone. If he was from 28 other counties, he’d be one of their main players.”