Glen 'tense' as they prepare for Derry final parish battle with Slaughtneil

Michael McKeefry says a Glen victory in Sunday's Derry SFC final would mean a "lifetime's striving fulfilled" for him and his fellow long-time members

"Everybody is just tense and wondering and talking about the match."

Like all connected with the Glen GAA club in Maghera, 85-year-old Michael McKeefry is finding it difficult to keep his mind from wandering to what may unfold in Sunday's Derry Senior Football Final at Celtic Park against their parish rivals Slaughtneil.

Derry finals happen every autumn but in the 112-year history of the competition, the Maghera club, in both their Patrick Pearse's and Watty Graham's incarnations, have never won the title.

Given the remarkable Adrian McGuckin-inspired success of St Patrick's College Maghera, it seems almost ridiculous that Glen have never landed the John McLaughlin Cup but that fails to take account of the school educating boys and girls from traditional GAA powerhouses such as Bellaghy, Ballinderry, Lavey, Sunday's opposition Slaughtneil, and numerous other rural hamlets throughout south Derry.

Glen and Lavey had the most representatives in Derry's 1993 All-Ireland Final line-up as Watty Graham's men Enda Gormley and the McCusker brothers Damien and Fergal started but even during that decade, a county semi-final appearance was the best the Maghera club could muster.

Enda Gormley was one of three Glen players who started in Derry's 1993 All-Ireland Final triumph but a county title continued to elude the Watty Graham's club

Two years ago, it appeared as though Glen's famine was on the brink of ending as they reached the final only for Magherafelt to deny them in a tight contest but the Watty Graham's faithful are hoping the full integration of Conor Glass back into the team following his return from Australia could help them finally land the county title.

"There were not really a lot of near misses as such," recalls Michael as he talks from the main Maghera premises of McKeefry's Furniture family business.

"We always had a lot of bother passing the second round of the Derry championship."

The Maghera club were called Patrick Pearse's when Michael represented them for the first time as an eight-year-old in 1943.

Five years later the club became Watty Graham's Glen, as the amalgamated outfit took on the name of what had been the town's minor team.

Michael's early playing days with Glen saw him in the same teams as young boys who then switched to the new Slaughtneil club in the mid-1950s.

"Half of Slaughtneil is in Glen parish and half of it is in Swatragh parish. Originally it was all one parish, the Glen parish, but Swatragh went on their own and took a bit of Slaughtneil with them.

"Slaughtneil didn't start until about 1954. Their players mainly played for Glen and I played with some of them for Glen and then against them when they came into the leagues."

Those decades saw Watty Graham's play on a tight wee pitch outside town but in 1970 Michael and a few other visionary club members decided it was time to find bigger premises which, in 1982, became the ground familiar to those who regularly drive on the main Derry to Belfast road.

"Seamus Lagan was our full-back and a very well known county player and when he kicked the ball from one square it landed in the other so we thought it was near time we had a bigger pitch," recalls Michael.

"There was a small grant available from the Derry county board for a pitch in the Maghera area. We decided it was time we got something.

"We had very little finance. Some of us had only about £100 each in our own names in the bank and went on from there. We ran marquee carnivals and silver circles and the like to raise money.

"Clubrooms then came about in the intervening years when a building came on the market and Patsy Forbes gave us great assistance in purchasing those.

"We did quite well in the clubrooms in those days because there was no dancing on Sunday night except in clubs and hotels and we raised enough money there to develop the pitch and went on from there."

Slaughtneil's Brendan Rogers (back row second from left) and Padraig Cassidy (front row fourth from right) were part of the Castle Cup-winning Glenview Primary School team in 2004 which also included Glen trio Ciaran McFaul (front third from left), Connor Carville (front third from right) and Ryan Dougan (back third from right)

Glen and Slaughtneil stars in same school teams

Michael remains one of three club trustees and his family's continuing links with Watty Graham's are emphasised by his grandson Connor Carville, a former Hogan Cup-winning captain with St Pat's Maghera, being part of the team that will take to the field on Sunday.

Carville, Conor Glass and Danny Tallon are among several likely Glen starters who helped the club win four straight Ulster minor titles between 2011 and 2014 before three further successive provincial under-21 titles were achieved between 2015 and 2017, with Enda Gormley's coaching input vital to those underage successes.

Even before that, Carville was part of the 2004 Castle Cup-winning Glenview Primary School team in Maghera which also included his current Glen team-mates Ciaran McFaul and Ryan Dougan plus Slaughtneil duo Brendan Rogers and Padraig Cassidy.

Rogers is among a host of Slaughtneil dual players who have battled magnificently on two fronts over the last decade to help the Robert Emmets land five Derry football titles in addition to nine successive county hurling triumphs.

"It's a lot of pressure for Glen. Slaughtneil have done it all before so it's not just as tense for them as it is for us," adds Michael, who laughs that the Watty Graham's wait for the John McLaughlin Cup is almost akin to the Mayo curse and in actual fact, his first time attending an All-Ireland Final was to see the Connacht county's last Sam Maguire Cup triumph in 1951.

Maghera set for exodus to Celtic Park

Malachy O'Rourke's arrival as Glen boss last October seemed to be a statement of intent by the club of their total determination to finally win a Derry title but with teak-tough Slaughtneil their opposition, the Watty Graham's players may need to produce a near-perfect display to win.

"There will not be too many people left in Maghera on Sunday I would say and Slaughtneil have a tremendous support. I'll definitely be there," adds Michael.

"It's a lot of local rivalry. Everybody's personality changes when they get to a football field."

And as for what a Glen victory would mean for Michael personally?

"It would see a lifetime's striving fulfilled from that point of view.

"I've been actively involved. I'm still a trustee of the club along with Chris McGrath and John J McKenna.

"We're all in that same older group and it would mean a lot to us. It's the peak of what could be accomplished as far as we're concerned."