THE FIRST TIME Eamonn O’Hara became acquainted with how things are done in Mohill, it led to a comical skit in Croke Park in front of an appeals committee.
He was playing for Sligo against Leitrim when he was body-check by the late Philly McGuinness. O’Hara reached out a hand and while there was a strike on McGuinness, it wasn’t exactly full-blooded.
Nevertheless, he was set off and then-Sligo manager Peter Forde was adamant he would appeal the decision.
Despite O’Hara’s reluctance, he traipsed along, half-apologetic to the committee for forcing them out of their homes on a midweek night when he knew he shouldn’t really be there.
Armed with nothing but a video clip – which clearly showed contact being made – they decided to take their chances away. Only, when the committee tried to take the projector screen down, it froze. Broken.
So, they had to flash it up on a wall. A red brick wall.
The precise contact between O’Hara and McGuinness was obscured by the cement joints between the bricks.
“And someone who was there looking at it says, ‘You know, there doesn’t seem to be a whole lot in that,’” recalls O’Hara.
“They said they would let me know and I was on my way back down from Dublin and they called me an hour and a half later to tell me my red card had been rescinded.”
When he came to Mohill to be their manager ahead of the 2022 season, Philly’s former club and county team mate Ronan Gallagher was there to remind him about it, a nice way to introduce yourself.
One of the bluebloods of Leitrim football, Mohill now move up to joint-fourth in the leaderboard of county titles after they won the county final on Sunday.
13 years after his passing, Philly McGuinness’ presence remains. The grounds were renamed the Philly McGuinness Memorial Park in the months after he died following an accidental collision in a club game in April, 2010.
“What happened, the tragedy of what happened, some players were on the pitch and they themselves would talk about it and how it came about,” says O’Hara.
“He got the bang and went to hospital. Later that evening he was sent home and the call came in that things weren’t going to be as positive as people thought they might have been.
“The lads would chat about it. It’s not that it is always being mentioned, but there’s a lovely plaque inside the clubhouse and lovely pictures of Philly as a player.
“He will always be there and always be part of the DNA of Mohill.”
Last year in the final, they were beaten by St Mary’s despite being five up at half-time.
In the second half, they added only two more points, one of them from the dead ball.
O’Hara has made his coaching bones in the same way he played; discounting excuses and looking within for the answers. He couldn’t let these patterns continue.
“Mohill never lacked self-belief. They always felt they were good enough,” he says.
“Last year when I came in, the narrative was that they had the best team, had the best individuals. But there’s one thing saying it, another thing being it.
“So we didn’t do it last year, and this year we had to deliver on what we are talking about.”
And what does that look like?
“You think you are good enough? Right. Well, how do we show that? How do we measure that?
“We got the GPS Units in this year. Last year the lads were saying they were fit, but I wanted to challenge them. So we got them and everything was measurable. Lads weren’t covering the same distances they thought they were covering.
“But then you’d use the football and the visuals, to back it up and say, ‘this is where you need to be.’
“You have to get fellas to understand that this is the standard they need to be at. You cannot just say you are a great footballer and you have the best team. This is the data and this is what you are up against.”
O’Hara sourced GPS data from various top sides in the country. Players weren’t privy to the names of the players, but they could see the kind of records that winning teams were posting. He got data from ladies’ county teams. Accountability became their touchstone.
All that is for later in the week. On Monday morning, O’Hara had work calls to make in Galway and had to go coast to coast for something in Dublin after that.
He arrived in Mohill in mid-afternoon to join The Monday Club. The famous restraint he showed in his playing days has loosened, although he’ll never be a paid-up Pintman.
“In the last few years, I have started taking the odd glass of wine. I was a teetotaller up until after I finished playing,” he recalls.
“When I relaxed and took time out, I would take the odd drink. I am not a drinker. I am a fruity wine type. I like sugary drinks! You’d never see me with a pint of lager or anything.
“But what does a manager do? You get in and enjoy the craic and be one of the lads.
“The boundary lines, even though you never cross the boundary line between manager and player, there is plenty of slagging and lads reminding you of what you said through the year.”
Once the groggy heads are shook off, Mohill will eye something in the future. The Connacht Club championship is named ‘The Shane McGettigan Cup’ after the Leitrim player and son of Eurovision winner Charlie. The Allen Gaels man died after a fall in a New York building site at the age of 21.
No Leitrim club have ever won the province. Ballinamore made it to a final each in the ‘60s, ‘70s and ‘80s. Aughawillan lost the ’92 and ’94 deciders, while St Mary’s in ’95 and Allen Gaels in 1997 lost to Corofin in the decider.
Mohill are due to meet whoever emerges from the Sligo and Roscommon pairing.
“Why it hasn’t happened for Leitrim clubs is hard to put your finger on it,” says O’Hara.
“It’s like when we were playing with Sligo, against the Mayos or Galways, you would be with them, there or thereabouts with 20 minutes to go.
“When I was with Tourlestrane, we were playing Castlebar Mitchells who were getting to All-Ireland finals, St Brigid’s who won an All-Ireland final, Corofin who won many of them.
“You were able to stay with them, play with them up to a point. And that one moment when you’d make a fundamental mistake in your game… If you made it in a club game in Sligo, it would never get punished.
“The really good teams, the clubs coming out of Roscommon, Galway and Mayo, they would come in, punish you and knock all the momentum out of your sails.”
It’s never done, until it’s done.