Steady hand at the helm of Good Ship Donegal for next five years

The Good Ship Donegal has a new captain in the wheelhouse with the election of Fergus McGee at the recent Co Convention to succeed Mick McGrath, who had completed his five-year term.

Now living in Letterkenny and a member of the St Eunan’s club, Fergus is a proud native of Loughanure, a place that holds many great memories. It was there that many of his values were formed and where he played a little bit of football.

“I played a wee bit for my school. I was born in Loughanure and was brought up by my grandparents. The house, in Irish, was called a ‘teach airneáin.’

“It was a house where a lot of people would come in the evening, a celidhing house. My grandmother, in particular, had a great love of songs and of music. My grandfather was Gaoth Dobhair, a very proud Gaoth Dobhair man and also a very strong Fianna Fáil man. And my grandmother was absolutely the direct opposite on the Fine Gael side. At election time that house was a lot of craic. They were very good, but when election time came around they would have words with each other and the people would come in to observe and have the craic with all this kind of stuff.

And he became even more proud of his roots after an encounter in Listowel later in life.

“Years later I was down in Kerry one day from work and I was asked to go to a session in John B Keane’s pub, and I said I would love to go. This lad came around and asked me, ‘where are you from?’ And I said Donegal. He said ‘I would have guessed that, but where in Donegal?’

“And I thought, there’s no point in telling this fella, Loughanure, because he won’t know it, so I said do you know where Dungloe is? He said ‘I don’t know Dungloe that well, but there’s a wee village five or six miles from it called Loughanure. I spent three happy summers there.’

“It turned out he was there learning Irish and his Bean a Ti was my mother. This man was Mickey McConnell, the man who wrote the song ‘Only Our Rivers Run Free’.

“It was just one of those things that came back to me. From that day to this I never said I was from anywhere only Loughanure. Mickey gave me a bit of a roasting about it that day and told me to always say I was from Loughanure.”

Born in 1958, and growing up in the Gaeltacht, like many young fellows, there are memories of listening to Michael O’Hehir on the radio and also on television in the early 1960s when the All-Ireland semi-finals and finals were shown on TV.

“We got a great love of all things Gaelic, listening to Michael and seeing the giants of the game in Croke Park and hoping that Donegal would be there some day.

“I went to the Tech in Loughanure and played a bit of football there but I knew my career would be short when one day I was in the middle of the field and a high ball came and I was standing waiting for it. The next thing I was on the sideline and the manager, a Hughie McFadden, and he said to me: ‘You were standing out there like a man waiting for manna to fall from heaven’.

But while there was no Gaelic football career for Fergus McGee, his connection to the Association was cemented when he moved to work in Kildare in 1987.

It was in the town of Newbridge and with the Moorefield club that the GAA career took off.

“Somebody said to me, ‘you have Irish, you can do Oifigeach na Gaeilge’. And that is how it started. I first encountered Scór at that time and there was a connection there between my growing up and the love that my grandmother had for the music, song and recitations.

“I went into Scór and it was like being back in the old house,” said Fergus, who said he also got involved in coaching at underage with Moorefield.

“I would have been secretary of the underage in the club as well as being Oifigeach na Gaeilge and also serving as PRO for a time.”

His job, however, restricted him from taking some posts as he was employed by Schlötter Ireland, a German company from outside Stuttgart, who had come to Ireland in 1976. Fergus spent 35 years with the company before retiring last year. In those 35 years, he was Marketing Director for 23, travelling all over Ireland and many parts of the world including Europe, United States, South East Asia and the Middle East.

Fergus and his wife Rita welcomed children Kevin and Orla, and they are both married and living in Donegal now, Kevin married to Angela with children Caoimhe and Oisin while Orla is living in Loughanure with husband Sean ‘Point’ Gallagher and they have a son, Fionn.

Fergus’s wife, Rita, is a native of Glenties and a great supporter of her husband’s involvement in the GAA.

It was during his 10 years in Newbridge that underlined for Fergus his love of Donegal.

“That’s when my grá for Donegal became greater.  I found that when I left Donegal. There was nothing wrong with anyone in Kildare, but they were just a bit different to the way we were. They wouldn’t be as forthcoming. I lived in Newbridge and they had pubs for jockeys, pubs for a lot of army there on the Curragh. But there was one pub in the middle of Newbridge, Neeson McDonnells, it was the dividing line between the two clubs in the town, Moorefield and Sarsfields.

“I joined up with Moorefield and they were salt of the earth people. They were my kind of people and I got involved. I became PRO and back in those days, Tommy Callaghan was (and still is) the sports editor in the Leinster Leader. I would write the report and send that to the paper. You would call in the results to the local radio station, Kfm.

“Then at the underage presentations you would meet some of the greats of the game, Dermot Earley was there and Mick O’Dywer when he came to Kildare to manage.

“During my time there Kildare and Donegal met quite a few times in Newbridge but Donegal never won there

“I used to say to the Moorefield lads I hope you play well but I hope the Donegal lads knock sparks out of you.”

At the time also Muintir Thir Chonaill, Lar na hEireann was set up with former county footballer Fionn Gallagher as chairman. 

Muintir Tir Chonaill, Lar na hEireann was then spent up. Fionn Gallagher was the chairman. Cormac McGill was part of that and we used to go to Donegal matches all over the place and the craic was mighty.”

Around that time also the Donegal folk in the area felt that Cormac McGill should be recognised for his work and his column The Follower in the Democrat.

“We decided to have a night for him in Moorefield GAA Club and it coincided with a Donegal match in Newbridge. It was a great night because we had a lot of people down. Michael Jack (O’Donnell), God rest him, was there; Michael Duddy, God rest him, was down. There were so many solid Donegal Gaels and afterwards we went to that pub Neeson McDonnells in the middle of the town and we played and sang there to three or four o’clock in the morning.”

McGee had two other Donegal natives in Newbridge at the time, Conor Cleary, originally from around the Ballintra area and Noel Gill, an Inishowen man, who has since passed away.

“The three of us would head away to the Donegal matches in the car, if we weren’t going on the Muintir Thir Chonaill bus.”

The Moorefield club threw a party for McGee when he was returning home and he told them if they were ever in the Hills to give him a shout. As fate would have it, when the Féile was held in Donegal, Moorefield qualified in Kildare and he was reunited with them for a weekend.

Back in Donegal, in 1997, he joined St Eunan’s and it wasn’t long before he got a ‘phone call from Seamus de Faoite and within a short time he was representing Donegal at Scór meetings in Ulster. He also spent a couple of years with the Donegal Supporters’ Club helping out with functions and fund-raising.

His first connection with the Donegal Co Board came in 2005 when he was elected Oifigeach na Gaeilge, succeeding Alan Boyd, who had taken over from Seamus de Faoite.

“That was for just one year but during Tom Daly’s tenure as Ulster Council President from 2007-2009, he appointed me as secretary of the Ulster Scór Committee with Micheal Grennan as chairman. We did six years and had great success. During that time also I did two terms on the Language committee in Croke Park.”

Fast forward to 2015 and McGee was back on the Donegal GAA Executive as Cultural and Teanga officer. He is proud of his five years in that office and says that during that time 38 of the 40 clubs in the county took part in Scór, either at Scór na Óg or Scór Sinsear.”

After his five years he was going to step away as he was also doing the PA at Donegal county and club championship games, a role he took over from Naul McCole.

But someone asked him to put his name forward for an Ulster Council delegate and he ended up there. “In the second year the President, Ciaran McLaughlin, asked me if I would take the chair of the Ulster Language Committee in Ulster and I said I would be happy to do so.”

But three were bigger things on the horizon. “It must be three or four months ago, after a match in O’Donnell Park, some individual asked me if I would consider the chair, as Mick McGrath’s time was up.

“My answer was, not at all, I wouldn’t be able for that. He said I would be well able and I got a few more ‘phone calls.

“I thought then about it and about my work with an international company, directing the sales side of the business. We were dealing with some of the biggest companies in the world, many based in Ireland.

“I thought I do have management experience and I always have the grá and love for the GAA and the experience of being around the table in Donegal for seven years.”

At the Convention in December, McGee was elected to the top position in the county and he knows that it will be a huge undertaking.

“It is going to take me a while to come to terms with what is involved, but I have got so many ‘phone calls since being elected. The ‘phone has not stopped since with a lot of good wishes.

“We had our first Executive meeting last week. You are always a wee bit nervous, but I feel there are good people around that table. My way of work was that I would see people have their own responsibilities. If I can hopefully help them and direct them in a certain way. I would be hands off but I would be hands on at the same time.

“We have a schedule of Co Committee meetings set out for 2023 and also two Executive meetings per month.

“I’m under no illusions at all about the job but I think Donegal’s in a good place. I did ‘phone people prior to my election and I got a lot of views on different things,” said McGee who praised former chairman, Mick McGrath, on getting Convoy over the line.

“I think it’s great that Donegal have their own home now. I think financially, there was not much fund-raising done last year and people probably needed a break after the House Draw. But I do believe that there is a requirement now for fund-raising and in that regard I have got Executive approval now to get someone who was involved in the House Draw to lead out on fund-raising,” said McGee, who said he hoped to meet with that individual over the Christmas period.

The new chairman also planned to meet the new county football team manager, Paddy Carr and find out more going forward and also to meet the Executive members individually to plan for the year.

There are many things to ponder for McGee, the motion passed at Convention to return the minor grade to U-18: “My own personal belief - the reason they moved to the U-17 hasn’t changed, but there are issues for clubs,” he said.

As for the Academy, McGee says there are a lot of different views.  “Some see it as a very positive thing. Some ask what is the percentage that actually made it to the senior ranks.

“I heard the figures recently and they are so, so low. But that’s for another day, one of the challenges ahead.”

There is the push to have the LGFA and Camogie combine with the GAA. “My own opinion,  at club level it is happening. The ladies game has come on in leaps and bounds. In Donegal at club and indeed at county level, we co-operate very, very well.

“I suppose the structures would probably have to change. Would you have one President? Would you have three Presidents? But I think there is a will throughout the country, but even with the goodwill it could probably be a few years away.”

GOALS

The new chairman has many issues to deal with but is fully aware that plans have to be put in place.

“Short, medium and long term goals are essential. I suppose there are so many changes and challenges for the Association with the new Irish that are here with us.

“But the biggest thing going forward, not just for the GAA, but for all sports: There are two moves going on in this country; there is a move from West to East number one and even within the West, people are moving into the larger centres of population.

“There are 40 clubs in Donegal now. There was talk at Convention whether there would be 40 clubs in five years' time. I think that would be a great achievement.

“The short term goal for the county would be for the footballers to stay in Division 1. The hurlers have come on leaps and bounds and I have seen that myself from being there at games over the last 10 years when I was announcer. The standard of hurling was poor, to be honest, but when you look at the standard now, it is definitely at a different level.

The medium term would be to see a bit of success for our players, be that at senior or underage and also a progression in the cultural and language side.

The long term goal, and this is what it’s all about, to have the GAA as it is today, at the centre of the community. To be a place where young people can express themselves, let that be on the field of play, let that be on a Scór stage. And in that long term, I would like to see the 40 clubs in Donegal still intact, and membership increasing more. And to see the new Irish, as we call them, coming to play our games and take on our culture.”

McGee strongly believes that the GAA needs to stay amateur but he also feels that the role of chairman will change with time and you might have a CEO running the affairs of the county.

“The GAA is a great organisation and when I look back to my youth, we had nothing, but we had everything. To me the GAA has brought me lifelong friends.”

Fergus McGee will hardly be a chairman who will create waves and anyone who knows him would be worried if he ever saw him shouting.

“I would hope to do everything in a quiet manner.  You would hope to bring people with you.

“There will be no shouting, unless things get very bad,” laughs Fergus.

“I learned over the years in my work, it’s about taking people with you. After I was elected I talked about Cormac McGill, as I learned a lot from people like Cormac and Seamus de Faoite. They were people that were probably ahead of their time and so passionate about the GAA.

“I said at Convention, even the people who didn’t vote for me, I would ask them to come behind us now because we are all in the one boat, all for the good of Donegal GAA. There are many challenges and we don’t need to be going in opposite directions, because then  it becomes very, very difficult.”