The cult hero tour takes us to Donegal this week.
The mission statement of the cult hero series can be viewed here and we would encourage you to do so. Before we go any further, we must congratulate Eoin Kelly, aka, the 'Son of God' on his victory in the Tipperary poll of two weeks. (The announcement of the Liathroid Oir winners in football and hurling pushed us back a week).
This week, it's Donegal. A county who, in the first eighty years of the GAA, barely caused a ripple at provincial level, let alone All-Ireland level. In the modern era, however, they have emerged as one of the most ingenious and innovative counties in Gaelic football. A healthy portion of Ulster titles and two All-Ireland titles, spaced twenty years apart, have been their reward.
We enlisted the help of Chris McNulty of the Donegal Sports Hub and Michael Daly, the current editor, and former sports editor, of the Donegal Democrat for help with the nominations.
Readers can pick the greatest Donegal cult hero of the lot from the august shortlist below. Vote early and vote often. Please share your own personal narratives attesting to the cult hero-ness of your chosen candidate to [email protected]. We'll be posting these over the week to influence the voting.
Brendan Devenney
What could be cult-hero-ish than standing out as the most talented and mercurial player on an underachieving team and then spending your winters playing League of Ireland soccer? Answer is, very little. This is cult hero 101 stuff.
Jim McGuinness talked ad nauseum about how the Donegal team of the late noughties had been dismissed as unserious party boys.
The personality of their most famous player was central to building that image. Devenney's career was played out mostly in the lean years of the noughties.
He won a League title in 2007 and played in Brian McEniff led side that reached the 2003 All-Ireland semi-final. But this was thin gruel compared to the riches of the Jim McGuinness years.
"He was very effective on the field in a team that won very little. The nearest thing he got to recognition was being brought in to play in the international compromised rules series which was a great achievement because he wasn't the biggest player in the world and at that time, they were looking for big players."
Michael Daly
It is not just on account of his playing career that Brendan finds himself in the shake-up for this most prestigious of awards.
His punditry work was been distinguished by both playfulness and a willingness to experiment that is rarely found among ex-players.
When the Off the Ball (now Second Captains) lads rang him the day after Donegal beat Cork in the 2012 All-Ireland semi-final, Brendan, clearly still celebrating, quickly grew bored of the earnest chatter about the glorious win.
He abruptly decided that the show would be livened up by him passing the phone to a man standing beside him. He did so without a word of warning to the show's host Eoin McDevitt.
His drunken pal proceeded to tell an extremely long and directionless anecdote about Daniel O'Donnell. After what seemed like about 15 minutes (it was probably only a minute) it became apparent that the story had no point whatsoever and McDevitt was forced to end the call.
Devenney may have been blackballed for a little while by the station but it didn't' last forever.
"It's a pity that Brendan missed the Jim McGuinness influence on the pitch. Brendan was free-spirited. He was an enigma. Brendan was a special talent that over his career, even by his own admission, didn't fulfill fully the talent that he actually had. For a Donegal supporter, there was something special about seeing Devenney taking on a defender at speeding and hooking over a point at speed... He's one of that era of Donegal footballer that has a national name."
Chris McNulty
Brian McEniff
Watching the Laochra Gael programme honouring his career, it's clear that Brian McEniff more or less invented Donegal football. At least in as far as we might recognise it today as a county who are capable of competing for provincial and All-Ireland honours.
Before he came along, Donegal were beyond terrible, boasting the kind of record that one would associate with counties that only care about hurling.
Let's go through the decades. He made his minor debut for the county in 1959 at the age of 16.
In the 1960s, with a newly serious Donegal trying to make the breakthrough, he was an influential player, but still just a player.
In the early 70s, he was player-manager when they finally won their first provincial title in 1972. He was still a wing back when they won in '74 and was also involved at management level.
In the 1980s, he managed Donegal to another Ulster title in 1983 and brought them to the brink of a first ever All-Ireland final appearance only for Val Daly to snake a late goal for Galway.
In the 1990s, the managed them to two Ulster titles (1990, 1992) and the first ever All-Ireland title in 1992. The Dublin team had an open topped bus booked for the Monday and then took the bizarre decision to go ahead with it after they lost the game.
"McEniff gets his cult status from being the person that broke the mould. He was player-manager in '72 when they won their first Ulster. And then he was involved in everything, good, bad or indifferent for Donegal until they won the All-Ireland in 1992. And I think he got sacked three times as well, so it wasn't all running smoothly for him."
Michael Daly
And finally the 2000s. After managing the international rules team for two years he was serving as Donegal county board chairman and applications weren't flooding in for the manager's job. McEniff became manager again, bringing them to the All-Ireland semi-final in 2003. This, after a miserable loss to Fermanagh in the first round.
In 2003, he was the Donegal county chairman. And Donegal couldn't get a manager. Donegal exited the Ulster championship after a defeat to Fermanagh.
A couple of months later they were playing in an All-Ireland semi-final that they could have won and some would argue they should have won. And he took them from absolutely nowhere. He was the man with the midas touch again.
He was Donegal's first All-Star back in 1972. He won a couple of Ulster titles as a player-manager. You're talking about his contribution over a period of 40-50 years.
Like even there last year, his club Bundoran lost their manager and Brian, as he tends to be, was club chairman. And what happens when they played in the championship, McEniff was back as manager again. He's just one of those guys who keeps coming back and keeps coming back.
Chris McNulty
Neil McGee
"There was a veneer of madness there"
It was inevitable that one of the McGee brothers was going to get selected. The family has cult-hero-ness bursting from their veins.
Eamon may be a favourite with the internet community for his political tweets and his stunningly original retirement message.
The nation's Gaelic football correspondents spent the morning of August 8th ringing up Lord of the Rings scholars and trying to decipher what Eamon was getting at when he alluded to Frodo's decision to leave the hill of Cerin Amroth forever.
We thought Eamon might get the nod.
But our Donegal sources tell us that his brother Neil has to be included.
He's been in the county setup since the final reign of Brian McEniff in the mid-noughties and has grown in prominence, like the rest of them, under Jim McGuinness's reign. McGee won three All-Stars in 2011, 2012 and 2014.
A la Kilkenny's Tommy Walsh, this is a defender famed for operating "on the edge". Daly gives us the lowdown.
My interpretation of why people love Neil McGee is that there is a sense that Jim McGuinness's teams were structured. And he (McGee) bought into the structure of the training and the rest. But there was still, and I say this in a complimentary way, there was a veneer of madness there that you would almost encourage if you were a coach.
He was on the edge. And, I don't know about Jim McGuinness liking that, but I know the fans liked that.
And I know people who could have sat in the soft seats in Croke Park in the middle of the pitch but they went to the terrace to be behind the goals where Neil McGee was.
I could name people who did that and I actually did it myself one day. And it was fairly recently in the home game against Tyrone last year (2015).
It was an education in terms of watching how he marked someone. And I would say legitimately but he was on the edge.
Michael Daly
Martin Griffin
Donal Reid, an All-Ireland winning wing back from the 1992 team, has just released an autobiography entitled 'Confessions of a Gaelic Footballer'.
A callow young player during the 1983 Ulster winning campaign, Reid was seated beside full back Martin Griffin in the dressing room before the Ulster final.
He looked and learned as the veteran Griffin geed himself up before the big game.
“The dressing room was tense.
Martin Griffin was fired up like a raging bull, banging a ball against the wall and repeatedly talking to himself. I was sitting beside him and he scared me.
His opponent was to be the great Derek McDonnell of Cavan at full-forward.
Griffin kept repeating ‘RIP Derek McDonnell’ with sweat dripping down his forehead.
But it did not do Martin much good as McDonnell had the ball in our net right sharpish, but Griffin was a real charismatic character.”
Martin Griffin #Donegal in action during semi final of 1983 All Ireland SFC #gaa #nostalgia pic.twitter.com/QtgNt7hKkI
— GAA Nostalgia (@gaanostalgia) May 12, 2016
A high-fielding hero of the Donegal team of the 1970s and 80s, Griffin was on the Ulster winning teams of 1974 and 1983.
Never a devout trainer, he was renowned for his power, his ferocious marking and his spectacular fielding. A great character both on and off the field. Reid's new book is packed with references to Griffin.
He belongs to a time well before the GIF generation. For the sake of this poll, he is dependent on a high turnout from the older demographic among our readership.
"He was a bit of a legend. On the field and off it. He was a character. He wouldn't have been the perfect trainer. Far from it. But he was a man-mountain. He needed a bit of a runway alright but he was a serious man to get up and win a ball.
And there would have been times in games when he would have done that and he would have lifted the team. The winning of the ball was always dramatic. He was incredibly powerful.
Michael Daly
Tony Boyle
Like scores of other Donegal players, Boyle was a keen soccer player. There's been plenty of crossover there. The year after the Ban was dropped, Donegal won their first ever Ulster title. It can't be a total coincidence. Packie Bonner played minor inter-county football for Donegal as a young man, Shay Given's Dad used to flaunt the ban continually back in the 60s. Brian McEniff told us this summer that he played a fair amount of soccer himself.
Tony was the powerful, ball-winning full-forward on the 1992 team, flanked by Manus Boyle and Declan Bonner in the two corners.
Boyle won two Ulster titles with Donegal in 1990 and 1992, and of course the historic All-Ireland in '92, and kept soldiering away until the beginning of the noughties.
Daly can't forget his bit of skill from his 1990 Ulster championship introduction.
He came from Keadue Rovers. He came from a soccer background. And he had serious pace. And as long as I live I'll never forget him winning a ball that was going over the endline that he had no business winning. And he actually won it with a kind of a soccer sliding tackle, flicked it up, knocked it inside and we scored a point.
Mick Lyons was the most feared full-back of the era, and very possibly any era. After Meath scraped through the 1990 All-Ireland semi-final, he confirmed Boyle's quality.
He was the baby-faced assassin. He was big and strong and the likes of Gerry Hargan and himself would have had great battles.
I remember Mick Lyons paying him several compliments. He couldn't get over his power and strength. We had a quote in the Democrat several years ago where Lyons would have said he was the most dangerous and powerful forwards he ever came across and that was a lot coming from Lyons.
Michael Daly
Read more: "I'd Say Babs Is Still On The Nokia 32 10!" - We Speak To Tipp GAA Cult Hero Winner - Eoin Kelly
