Students of Lord of the Rings were the first to realise that Eamon McGee announced his retirement from inter-county football today.
McGee played for Donegal for 12 years. He won an All-Ireland in 2012 and three Ulster titles in 2011, 2012 and 2014. He won a League title in 2004.
Eamon didn't reference any of this - at least not directly - in his tweet announcing his retirement today.
— Eamon Mc Gee (@EamonMcGee) August 7, 2016
We thought briefly about contacting Professor Cory Olsen, the Tolkein Professor at Washington College but decided to try and interpret ourselves as best we could. The hill of Cerin Amroth is representative of his Donegal career. His heart resides there but he must leave all the same.
He is the first inter-county Gaelic footballer to officially retire with a quote from a Lord of the Rings novel. We don't believe we are going out on a limb when we say this.
The subsequent tweets made clearer to non-Tolkein lovers that he was in fact retiring.
Two things I won't miss is chicken and pasta and warm ups. Thanks for all the tweets and messages feeling the love today. A great journey.
— Eamon Mc Gee (@EamonMcGee) August 8, 2016
He follows Colm McFadden into retirement.
