LIFE AROUND THE peaceful surrounds of Tassagh, deep in the Armagh countryside, has ambled along to its own rhythms forever, a cider advertisement in real time.
The picturesque disused beetling mill and viaduct, and the welcoming Basil Sheils bar and restaurant sits a stroll away from the Post Office and Tearooms.
It wouldn’t be a stretch to say there is a quaint, almost Yorkshire Dales feel to the place. With less than 50 residents in the 2021 census, it qualifies for the tag of sleepy.
Imagine then, if you will, the effect of Kerry’s multiple All-Ireland winner, Kieran Donaghy, taking up residence for a few years.
Big man. Big truck parked outside. Big voice. Massive presence.
Making friends everywhere he went. Commanding silence in the Tearooms when delivering his latest yarn.
They lapped him up. They couldn’t get enough of him. In Donaghy, the people of Tassagh had an Ozzy Osborne, Brendan Behan and Michael Jordan all rolled into one.
Scratch that. They had so, so much more. He helped the locals to Armagh’s second All-Ireland title.
Some 21 months later he’s back in the Athletic Grounds, only this time as a Kerry coach.
Donaghy in Armagh lasted from December 2020, until last summer. It lasted a long time for a man faced with a 10-hour round trip.
But it couldn’t last forever.
“See when he left Armagh? It was nearly like a death in our family,” says Mark Fegan.
My wife cried. The children were so upset.”
***
If Kieran McGeeney was the reason Kieran Donaghy agreed to come and join Ciaran McKeever in a new Armagh coaching backroom team in 2020, Fegan was an integral part of why he stayed so long.
Fegan knows McGeeney on a deeper level than most. Though the Armagh manager’s façade has melted away to an extent this year as he has let fly in entertaining post-match briefings.
He knows McGeeney as the Elvis fan who would call into Fegan’s bar and restaurant, the aforementioned Basil Sheils, to take a pint in his local. Not too many – you don’t get guns like that by being a barfly.
But when he does, there is something of his father Pat, a charismatic figure who was for a time the Bard of Armagh, a cultural title for those recognised for their storytelling and poetry abilities.
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In one of their catch-ups, McGeeney revealed that Donaghy was on the hook for the 2021 season. The issue was, they needed a place for him to stay occasionally to ease the travellingg commitments from Tralee.
Donaghy with Ciaran McKeever and Kieran McGeeney. Morgan Treacy / INPHO
Morgan Treacy / INPHO / INPHO
Guessing correctly that he wouldn’t like the impersonal nature of hotel life, they came up with two options: at the pub, which was shut due to Covid, or an apartment joined on to Fegan’s own home.
Arrangements were made for Donaghy to call out to Fegans, review the apartment, then the pub and make his choice. The first time he arrived, Fegan’s boys were outside pucking around. Donaghy parked up and opened up his boot, retrieved his own hurley and joined in.
He met Fegan’s wife, Bernice. No cold handshake; straight in with a bearhug. The kettle was boiled. Donaghy cleaned all the biscuits. After an hour of craic, Fegan said he would bring him to the pub. No need, said Donaghy. This would be perfect.
Soon, everyone knew Donaghy. Patsy Nugent turned 80 last week and he and Donaghy became instantly close. Whenever Donaghy was about, Patsy would make his way into the apartment, where Donaghy would prepare them their scrambled eggs for breakfast.
His wife Hilary, and daughters Lola Rose, Indie and Ruby May soon got a handle of the area. They made friends with the Fegan children. They became mad Armagh fans.
The pub also got a rattle.
“And from when he walks through the door to when he gets sitting down it could take him 10 minutes by the time he finishes talking to everyone,” recalls Fegan.
“For me, it was good for business, because people loved seeing him there. Our local celebrity!
“Even after matches it was the same. He was walking around Tassagh and everybody knew him, they all have a different story about him.
“Even when he is having a bit of breakfast and a coffee, he will stand up and tell a story with everyone sitting there silent, listening to everything that comes out of his mouth. Because he does it with such presence, the big, strong Kerry accent and a massive personality.”
***
One thing Kieran McGeeney does not get enough credit for is his ability to keep re-inventing his backroom.
The idea of a Kerry man coming to coach Armagh was preposterous. That Kieran Donaghy hadn’t much experience coaching Gaelic football didn’t deter McGeeney.
On the basketball court, players coach each other through set plays and defensive shape. You cannot just play your own game, communication is essential.
When he started coaching Armagh, Jemar Hall noticed it straight away. His own father, Sherman, had made it from his beginnings in Washington DC to the NFL, before switching to basketball, coming back to live in Ireland with his wife from Armagh.
“The way he played the game, he had that enthusiasm in his coaching as well; with all those set plays from basketball such as screening, wall passes and so on,” said the 2024 All-Ireland winner.
What’s a wall pass, seeing as we’re asking?
“It’s on a controlled attack. Say you are on the wing and got the ball off to the middle of the pitch, that’s a wall pass. It’s a bounce-board as such. You see it in basketball when there is a 1-2 and then you have a third man as a runner.
“He would have introduced stuff like that, freeing men up, screening. The level of communication was unbelievable as well. About scanning the pitch, constantly talking.
“And defensive work as well, he would have helped with everything, the kickouts as well.”
Apart from that, he lit everything up around him.
“It’s his energy, his positivity and optimism. He is just so positive in everything he says and does and the confidence he brought to it, it maybe gave boys more of an edge and confidence, the way he went on and the way it bounced off other people,” says Hall.
The admiration was returned. When Armagh played Kerry in Tralee in 2023, they stayed on to watch Donaghy play basketball for Tralee Warriors.
In Armagh, he was able to open a few doors of perception and let some air in.
Donaghy coaching Armagh. James Lawlor / INPHO
James Lawlor / INPHO / INPHO
In his autobiography, he recounted a time when he urged his then manager Jack O’Connor that they might practice some scenarios in training, say when they were two points down with three minutes remaining.
O’Connor gave him short shrift and instead used the chance to bring up some balls Donaghy dropped in a previous game.
“That’s the sort of stuff we would have really dialled in on,” recalls Hall.
We had a bit of a structure like that before he came but he just took it to another level.
“His detail around controlled attacks, the set-plays and stuff like that, he really brought us on. A whole load of small things, such as your body position in taking the ball. He and Kieran (McGeeney) were massive into making the man beside you look good. They had the same idea on that.”
Hang on, body shape?
“Yeah, the way you go and attack a defender. Attack on their inside shoulder, awareness of space you are taking somebody into, pulling space away for somebody else, screening a player to free somebody else up. All of that helps your teammates, rather than thinking of yourself. It’s all selfless work that he would have done himself.”
It’s clear that after 2024, and having broadened out his coaching input with the inclusion of Paddy Tally and Cian O’Neill, O’Connor recognised Donaghy had a point. He made a hard play at the end of last season.
It was something Donaghy had already turned down. But he is Kerry. As an Armagh man once said, “You never forget the bush you dried your shirt on.”
***
Last summer, after Armagh’s interest in the All-Ireland series had ended, Donaghy had enjoyed enough Armagh hospitality and sent out the invitations.
He was having a barbecue at his. If people could make it, he promised them a full weekend of fun and craic.
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Fegan and Bernice headed down. His boys were barmen for the night. Naturally, they brought Patsy Nugent. Other neighbours from Tassagh made it.
Standing alongside Donaghy in his living room, throwing out the quips and jokes was his Kerry full-forward prototype, Eoin ‘Bomber’ Liston.
He promised them a good time, and delivered. To cope with the crowds, he had a marquee in the garden.
Some players such as Ciaran Mackin and Paddy Burns had club commitments, but came down, stayed off the beer and left at first light. Ciaran McKeever couldn’t stay the night so made the journey down and up on the same day.
All the Armagh players made it. It was a love-bombing and a display of how much they wanted him to commit to 2026.
When the conversation was steered in that direction, there were suggestions that Donaghy would be treated like a veteran player, leaving off the Dr McKenna Cup and the early part of the league to keep him fresh for the championship.
Try as they did, the lure of The Kingdom was too much.
“I know for a fact Kieran would prefer it if Armagh were safe and the game had no consequence. But Kerry have a job to do,” says Fegan.
“There will always be a part of Armagh in Kieran’s heart, but he will be with Kerry on Sunday and he might not like it, but he will do everything he can to make sure Kerry beat Armagh. That’s just the way he is.”
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'When he left Armagh? It was like a death in our family' - Kieran Donaghy's Armagh legacy
LIFE AROUND THE peaceful surrounds of Tassagh, deep in the Armagh countryside, has ambled along to its own rhythms forever, a cider advertisement in real time.
The picturesque disused beetling mill and viaduct, and the welcoming Basil Sheils bar and restaurant sits a stroll away from the Post Office and Tearooms.
It wouldn’t be a stretch to say there is a quaint, almost Yorkshire Dales feel to the place. With less than 50 residents in the 2021 census, it qualifies for the tag of sleepy.
Imagine then, if you will, the effect of Kerry’s multiple All-Ireland winner, Kieran Donaghy, taking up residence for a few years.
Big man. Big truck parked outside. Big voice. Massive presence.
Making friends everywhere he went. Commanding silence in the Tearooms when delivering his latest yarn.
They lapped him up. They couldn’t get enough of him. In Donaghy, the people of Tassagh had an Ozzy Osborne, Brendan Behan and Michael Jordan all rolled into one.
Scratch that. They had so, so much more. He helped the locals to Armagh’s second All-Ireland title.
Some 21 months later he’s back in the Athletic Grounds, only this time as a Kerry coach.
Donaghy in Armagh lasted from December 2020, until last summer. It lasted a long time for a man faced with a 10-hour round trip.
But it couldn’t last forever.
“See when he left Armagh? It was nearly like a death in our family,” says Mark Fegan.
***
If Kieran McGeeney was the reason Kieran Donaghy agreed to come and join Ciaran McKeever in a new Armagh coaching backroom team in 2020, Fegan was an integral part of why he stayed so long.
Fegan knows McGeeney on a deeper level than most. Though the Armagh manager’s façade has melted away to an extent this year as he has let fly in entertaining post-match briefings.
He knows McGeeney as the Elvis fan who would call into Fegan’s bar and restaurant, the aforementioned Basil Sheils, to take a pint in his local. Not too many – you don’t get guns like that by being a barfly.
But when he does, there is something of his father Pat, a charismatic figure who was for a time the Bard of Armagh, a cultural title for those recognised for their storytelling and poetry abilities.
In one of their catch-ups, McGeeney revealed that Donaghy was on the hook for the 2021 season. The issue was, they needed a place for him to stay occasionally to ease the travellingg commitments from Tralee.
Guessing correctly that he wouldn’t like the impersonal nature of hotel life, they came up with two options: at the pub, which was shut due to Covid, or an apartment joined on to Fegan’s own home.
Arrangements were made for Donaghy to call out to Fegans, review the apartment, then the pub and make his choice. The first time he arrived, Fegan’s boys were outside pucking around. Donaghy parked up and opened up his boot, retrieved his own hurley and joined in.
He met Fegan’s wife, Bernice. No cold handshake; straight in with a bearhug. The kettle was boiled. Donaghy cleaned all the biscuits. After an hour of craic, Fegan said he would bring him to the pub. No need, said Donaghy. This would be perfect.
Soon, everyone knew Donaghy. Patsy Nugent turned 80 last week and he and Donaghy became instantly close. Whenever Donaghy was about, Patsy would make his way into the apartment, where Donaghy would prepare them their scrambled eggs for breakfast.
His wife Hilary, and daughters Lola Rose, Indie and Ruby May soon got a handle of the area. They made friends with the Fegan children. They became mad Armagh fans.
The pub also got a rattle.
“And from when he walks through the door to when he gets sitting down it could take him 10 minutes by the time he finishes talking to everyone,” recalls Fegan.
“For me, it was good for business, because people loved seeing him there. Our local celebrity!
“Even after matches it was the same. He was walking around Tassagh and everybody knew him, they all have a different story about him.
“Even when he is having a bit of breakfast and a coffee, he will stand up and tell a story with everyone sitting there silent, listening to everything that comes out of his mouth. Because he does it with such presence, the big, strong Kerry accent and a massive personality.”
***
One thing Kieran McGeeney does not get enough credit for is his ability to keep re-inventing his backroom.
The idea of a Kerry man coming to coach Armagh was preposterous. That Kieran Donaghy hadn’t much experience coaching Gaelic football didn’t deter McGeeney.
On the basketball court, players coach each other through set plays and defensive shape. You cannot just play your own game, communication is essential.
When he started coaching Armagh, Jemar Hall noticed it straight away. His own father, Sherman, had made it from his beginnings in Washington DC to the NFL, before switching to basketball, coming back to live in Ireland with his wife from Armagh.
“The way he played the game, he had that enthusiasm in his coaching as well; with all those set plays from basketball such as screening, wall passes and so on,” said the 2024 All-Ireland winner.
What’s a wall pass, seeing as we’re asking?
“It’s on a controlled attack. Say you are on the wing and got the ball off to the middle of the pitch, that’s a wall pass. It’s a bounce-board as such. You see it in basketball when there is a 1-2 and then you have a third man as a runner.
“He would have introduced stuff like that, freeing men up, screening. The level of communication was unbelievable as well. About scanning the pitch, constantly talking.
“And defensive work as well, he would have helped with everything, the kickouts as well.”
Apart from that, he lit everything up around him.
“It’s his energy, his positivity and optimism. He is just so positive in everything he says and does and the confidence he brought to it, it maybe gave boys more of an edge and confidence, the way he went on and the way it bounced off other people,” says Hall.
The admiration was returned. When Armagh played Kerry in Tralee in 2023, they stayed on to watch Donaghy play basketball for Tralee Warriors.
In Armagh, he was able to open a few doors of perception and let some air in.
In his autobiography, he recounted a time when he urged his then manager Jack O’Connor that they might practice some scenarios in training, say when they were two points down with three minutes remaining.
O’Connor gave him short shrift and instead used the chance to bring up some balls Donaghy dropped in a previous game.
“That’s the sort of stuff we would have really dialled in on,” recalls Hall.
“His detail around controlled attacks, the set-plays and stuff like that, he really brought us on. A whole load of small things, such as your body position in taking the ball. He and Kieran (McGeeney) were massive into making the man beside you look good. They had the same idea on that.”
Hang on, body shape?
“Yeah, the way you go and attack a defender. Attack on their inside shoulder, awareness of space you are taking somebody into, pulling space away for somebody else, screening a player to free somebody else up. All of that helps your teammates, rather than thinking of yourself. It’s all selfless work that he would have done himself.”
It’s clear that after 2024, and having broadened out his coaching input with the inclusion of Paddy Tally and Cian O’Neill, O’Connor recognised Donaghy had a point. He made a hard play at the end of last season.
It was something Donaghy had already turned down. But he is Kerry. As an Armagh man once said, “You never forget the bush you dried your shirt on.”
***
Last summer, after Armagh’s interest in the All-Ireland series had ended, Donaghy had enjoyed enough Armagh hospitality and sent out the invitations.
He was having a barbecue at his. If people could make it, he promised them a full weekend of fun and craic.
Fegan and Bernice headed down. His boys were barmen for the night. Naturally, they brought Patsy Nugent. Other neighbours from Tassagh made it.
Standing alongside Donaghy in his living room, throwing out the quips and jokes was his Kerry full-forward prototype, Eoin ‘Bomber’ Liston.
He promised them a good time, and delivered. To cope with the crowds, he had a marquee in the garden.
Some players such as Ciaran Mackin and Paddy Burns had club commitments, but came down, stayed off the beer and left at first light. Ciaran McKeever couldn’t stay the night so made the journey down and up on the same day.
All the Armagh players made it. It was a love-bombing and a display of how much they wanted him to commit to 2026.
When the conversation was steered in that direction, there were suggestions that Donaghy would be treated like a veteran player, leaving off the Dr McKenna Cup and the early part of the league to keep him fresh for the championship.
Try as they did, the lure of The Kingdom was too much.
***
On Thursday, Donaghy’s wife Hilary along with their children were due up to Tassagh to make a long weekend of it.
In phone conversations with Bernice, Hilary was apprehensive about sitting among the Armagh crew if Kerry won.
The Donaghy children were wanting to wear their Armagh jerseys. In discussions with the Fegans, they have reached a compromise; half and half jerseys.
“I know for a fact Kieran would prefer it if Armagh were safe and the game had no consequence. But Kerry have a job to do,” says Fegan.
“There will always be a part of Armagh in Kieran’s heart, but he will be with Kerry on Sunday and he might not like it, but he will do everything he can to make sure Kerry beat Armagh. That’s just the way he is.”
To embed this post, copy the code below on your site
Armagh Kerry Kieran Donaghy Starman