Interview: O’Hanlon’s journey in orange

Armagh footballer Ciaron O’Hanlon explains why he has decided the time is right to hang up the boots. Shaun Casey writes…

FROM making his first Armagh senior appearance as an 18-year-old schoolboy in the opening round of the Ulster Championship, being told he’d never kick a ball again to having Sam Maguire at his wedding, Ciaron O’Hanlon stuffed a lot into his inter-county career.

The Killeavy clubman has hung up the orange jersey for good and at Armagh’s recent annual awards night, O’Hanlon, along with four other retirees (Stefan Campbell, Mark Shields, Niall Rowland and Jemar Hall), received special recognition awards for their contributions.

O’Hanlon was in the trenches when Armagh were battling it out in Division Three. He was also part of the panel that finally climbed the summit and brought Sam Maguire back to the Orchard County.

His journey with Armagh started in 2013. He was the star man for the St Paul’s, Bessbrook team that won the MacLarnon Cup in 2012, containing six future All-Ireland winners.

The following season, they made it all the way to the MacRory Cup final, and just came up short against St Patrick’s, Maghera, who claimed the title with one point to spare.

O’Hanlon was juggling his school ball with the Armagh set-up at the same time.

“I was still involved in the MacRory Cup, so I didn’t really get much of a pre-season,” said O’Hanlon, reflecting on his introduction to county football.

“My first impression was that it was a lot more physical than club level. For my age, I wasn’t too bad physically, but county is a completely different grade altogether. You could feel it right away – you’d less time on the ball and had to make decisions quicker.

“On the tactical side of things, the game has evolved an awful lot since then but during those early years, we tried to bring in different structures and ways to set up and that was something I’d never been exposed to.”

The MacRory Cup final was in mid-March and two months later, O’Hanlon was handed the number 11 shirt as Armagh began their Ulster campaign away to Cavan. If you’re good enough, you’re old enough, was Paul Grimley’s thinking at the time.

“I hadn’t played too much because of school and stuff but I was in really good form and moving really well. I never expected to be getting any game-time; if I hadn’t played all year, I wouldn’t have been heartbroken.

“Paul Grimley approached me and said he was going to start me, and I couldn’t really believe it – I didn’t know how to react. I can’t really remember too much of the conversation, but I had a sense of excitement and a bit of nerves as well.

“It was a proud moment too when I think back on it. It’s something that I’d dreamed about as a young lad, representing Armagh at that level. It was probably a dream come true.”

On the game itself, O’Hanlon added: “The changing rooms in Cavan are outdated and even back then they felt that way. Whenever you walk out of the changing rooms, there’s a toilet on the left-hand side and I thought I was going to vomit, I was that nervous.

“Believe it or not I still get that feeling in big games for club and county. In that particular game, I just couldn’t get my hands on the ball. I couldn’t get into the game and any time I did get the ball, I was jittery.”

After 50 minutes of action, O’Hanlon’s day was done. At the other end of the field, Cavan’s Martin Dunne was having a dream debut and kicked 0-9 as the Breffni Blues sent Armagh packing.

It was the qualifier route for Grimley’s men after that, and they hammered Wicklow and Leitrim before seeing their season finish at the hands of Galway. O’Hanlon played the final 22 minutes of the Leitrim trouncing, his only other minutes of the campaign.

“It was definitely a knock in confidence,” O’Hanlon said. “It was hard to take but in my own head I just wanted to keep plugging away. If you’re moping around, you’re not really adding to the team so there’s nothing else much you can do.”

O’Hanlon decided to step away in 2014 to find some form again with the club and enjoy his introduction to student life, although looking back, he feels he could have handled things a little differently.

Kieran McGeeney joined Grimley’s management team that season as the Orchard County reached the last eight of the race for Sam Maguire, only to be dumped out at Croke Park by Donegal by the narrowest of margins.

“I wanted to try and regain a bit of confidence and perform for the club, but I was also still playing with the u-21s and with college. I had a whole heap of football on at that time, and I wanted to settle into uni life as well.

“I remember ‘Geezer’ texting me for pre-season and he offered his help as he always does. I suppose I thought I knew better. I wouldn’t say I regret missing out that year, but I probably needed someone like ‘Geezer’ to give me something to focus on.

“After that championship debut, the confidence took a bit of a knock and maybe he could have helped me out, but I probably thought I knew best.”

It wasn’t long before O’Hanlon was back in the orange and white and three of the next four seasons were spent swamped in Division Three. They claimed league titles in 2015 and 2018, and thankfully from an Armagh perspective, haven’t returned to that level since.

“They were definitely tough years, but we didn’t know any different,” O’Hanlon explained. “It wasn’t like we were coming into a team that was littered with success, but something had to change because we were in a rut for a while.

“The goal was to get back up playing the best teams in the country again and it took a while, but we were trying to instil a culture within the group for the fellas coming in after that as well.

“The likes of Aidan (Forker), Ciaran McKeever, Charlie Vernon, Brendan Donaghy were the lads that were driving that standard. Obviously ‘Geezer’ was at the forefront pushing those boys too.

“They were tough years, but we had our Division Three success as well and that was something to grab onto. It helped to build a bit of resilience in those years too because it wasn’t always plain sailing.”

Just days after helping Killeavy claim the Armagh IFC title for the third time in their history, O’Hanlon boarded a plane to Australia and football took a back seat, for a while anyway.

“I won a New South Wales league and championship double with Cormac McAnallen’s with a load of Tyrone boys. I’ve great memories because I was never going to give up on football, but it was fairly basic.

“I enjoyed that part of it, having that extra free time that I wouldn’t have playing with Armagh. It got me thinking that football maybe isn’t the be-all and end-all because I would have thought that football was the only way of life.

“But that bit of travelling and seeing different parts of the world and different perspectives opened me up to other important things in life outside of football.”

The lure of the orange badge was too strong, however. O’Hanlon returned for the 2021 campaign and was flying. Playing an unfamiliar role in the half-back line, he finally had a full run at it with Armagh and loved it.

Frustratingly, a knee injury picked up with the club that summer sent all his plans down the drain. O’Hanlon was told he’d never play football again, but, in his own words, that was never going to happen.

“That August I ruptured the patella tendon in my knee, and the plan was to build again for 2022, but I didn’t get the opportunity to do that. I’d never had a run like that with Armagh – I had started every league and championship game,” he recalled.

“I finally got a season like that under my belt and then a big injury comes along and puts a spanner in the works. I was told I’d never kick football again and those words are hard to hear when football is such a major part of your life.

“I had the people I needed around me to galvanise myself and not kicking a football again was never going to be an option. I had the best support from Armagh, from ‘Geezer’ and Maura (McGeeney) and Julie (Davis), they were fantastic.

“To get back at county level was unbelievable. I thought that if I got back to play club football, that’d be brilliant, but to get back training with the lads and get back into the orange jersey again was definitely something special.”

All the hard work, dedication and sacrifice was worth it in 2024. And it was a year to remember for O’Hanlon, both on and off the field.

O’Hanlon and his fiancé Hannah decided to tie the knot in July of that year. Friday the 26th to be exact. But at short notice, the wedding had to be postponed. History was up for grabs for Geezer and his team.

After beating Kerry in the semi-final, Armagh’s date with destiny was fixed for Sunday 28th of July. Galway stood between Kieran McGeeney’s men and a chance to win the All-Ireland. Joe McElroy’s last-minute block on Paul Conroy saved a second delay.

“I was supposed to get married on the Friday. We picked the date a couple of years beforehand,” O’Hanlon detailed of the wedding switch.

“Myself and Greg (McCabe) were in the gym during that pre-season, and the championship dates were released, and I laughed that we’d end up in the All-Ireland final the year I go to get married. Of course that’s what ended up happening.

“I’d a couple of nice words with Hannah and she agreed to move it to the Wednesday. We had Sam there and everybody was on such a high. It was class and it was the first time that we got to spend a bit of time together without fans or anything.

“It was good to chat through everything that had happened over the past 72 hours. It was really nice just to be able to do that. It was class. Thank God for Joey McElroy.”

O’Hanlon has stepped away from the inter-county scene, deciding now as the right time to hang up the boots and pass on the baton to the next crowd of youthful hopefuls, dreaming of pulling on that orange and white jersey.

“There comes a time in your life when other things take priority, and I’ve given ten years or so to Armagh and lived my dream. Whenever kids come along and work’s getting busy, life just gets in the way.

“I felt it was the right time to go. I didn’t want to be hanging on, becoming a bad smell around the place. There’s a lot of young lads in Armagh primed and ready to push on and keep the squad moving in the right direction.

“I’ve maybe done my part for the guts of two or three years, trying to nurture young lads along. Obviously, I wanted to play and get game-time, but you realise too that there’s more to it at times than playing.

“You have to look out for the younger generation who are going to be putting ten years of their own lives into Armagh. To be able to help out in that regard over the last couple of years was great.

“I wanted to be playing more than what I did but everyone has a different role in the squad, and I made that mine.

“It just felt like the right time to step away; kids take up a lot of time so that ultimately made my decision for me.”