Monaghan's 'líathróidí'

There may never have been a denouement like it in an Ulster Championship encounter. Monaghan won the first instalment in 1888 and have enjoyed many fine days since but for their supporters, this one felt unique.

For an hour, Monaghan chased shadows and only for wasteful Derry shooting, they would have been dead and buried. But, even within that, it never felt that Ciaran Meenagh’s men were really humming – even when they were on top, the engine was not purring. Monaghan knew they still had a chance, as Gabriel Bannigan confirmed afterwards.

Bannigan has kept the faith all year. The league was not good but he knew that Monaghan would be a different side when the long list of walking wounded began to shorten.

He generally had sounded a positive note throughout the league. Witness his comments after the defeat to Dublin as evidence.

“The spirit is really good in the camp and training has been excellent, but the lads are desperately disappointed. They know we had a great opportunity of winning that game and we left two points behind us,” he told the Anglo-Celt at the time.

“We are going to keep putting the work in as a group to try and improve and build on the positives that we had from that performance. The league is not the be-all and end-all; it is about preparation for the championship. Of course, we fought hard to win Division 2 last year. Division 1 is where we want to be, but we have to deal with the challenges we face at the moment and I’ve no doubt the boys will do that.”

Bannigan’s faith was repaid against Cavan as his lads led from gun to tape, winning by a record-equalling margin. The rot from the league had stopped but few gave Monaghan a chance against Derry. To win was going to require skill, smarts, a bit of luck and a lot of… líathróidí.

“What, I can’t use the word I was going to use, what líathróidí – I’ll use the Irish version! – that he showed to kick that and bring the game to extra time,” Bannigan, slightly and understandably hoarse, said after.

“I genuinely felt when we levelled it at full-time, that we were going to go on and win it in extra time. And then we were a point down with 40 seconds left, we did brilliant to work that ball – Dylan Byrne passed to Micheál Bannigan, Micheál won the free and then… there’s only one Rory Beggan. What a kick to win it.”

The highlights? Where would you start? Davy Garland, the coolest head in Clones, maybe deserves the most plaudits of all.

After the maelstrom that was the end of normal time, that singular man, Beggan – who was forcibly trying to get his point across to Cavan referee Noel Mooney - got most of the credit from the pundits for changing the mind of the man in the middle.

However, when the dust settled, the focus turned to Garland, who had come on as a sub for the Farney and could also be seen quietly speaking to Mooney as Beggan remonstrated.

Perhaps uniquely in the inter-county game, Donaghmoyne clubman Garland has dabbled in refereeing and has acted as umpire at inter-county level for Monaghan whistler Martin McNally. Safe to say, then, that Garland probably has a good handle on the rules.

“I've done it for (McNally) right up through the years whenever I was a bit younger, 16, 17, 18, whenever you had more free time on your hands,” he stated in a 2020 interview.

“And yeah, I got to travel the length and breadth of the country with him to see some great grounds and great games along the way.

“Umpiring, it can be a challenging game as well, but I enjoy doing it.”

Footage shows there was a moment when Mooney realised his error and immediately set about reversing the decision. It was a mistake but the Cavan Gaels clubman was big enough to correct it and for showing that humility and smarts, his reputation will be enhanced.

The kick still had to be scored, however, and up stepped Jack McCarron with a wonder strike from the sideline to force extra time. In basketball, they have buzzer-beaters – here, the match had actually ended and yet Jack still got to take the sideline. In years to come, this kick will be spoken about with awe, the distance getting further out each time.

Regardless of the myth, the reality was that McCarron’s strike had the same effect as a defibrillator -it jolted Monaghan back into life.

And yet, their situation remained critical throughout extra time, too.

Stable in the first half, dodgy as hell in the second 10 minutes as Derry looked to have done enough on a couple of occasions until, in a desperate last foray forward, they won a free and sent for their number one.

Beggan had a ringside seat for McCarron’s kick; this one was into the other goals and Beggan’s routine was the same as ever. Short run-up, clean strike – and Monaghan are back in Clones for the biggest occasion in Ulster GAA.

Speaking afterwards, Beggan felt the performance was sloppy at times but heart and grit won through.

“We did a lot of things right but a lot of things that we did against Cavan sort of seeped back into our game, we had a good reset at half-time and then in the last 15 minutes, we just had to go for broke and every man stepped up to the plate and we turned them over numerous times,” he said.

“You can talk about the kick at the end but Jack’s kick to put it to extra time, that was a lot tougher of a kick, under the stand. Look, a lot of boys stood up and we’re in an Ulster final, that’s all it is.”

What was he saying to Mooney?

“I was just politely telling him that when a ball is gone dead before the hooter, there’s a chance you can score... He took a bit of convincing but in fairness he said it was right. It would have been hard sitting in the dressing-room knowing you were screwed by a rule so delighted that Jack kept his composure and scored it and gave us an opportunity.”

So Monaghan march on – we should have known it would happen. Their win over Derry continues an interesting trend – in modern times, whoever escapes the ‘Drumlin Clasico’ (Cavan versus Monaghan) has a tendency to kick on.

Combined, the two counties have only reached 11 Ulster finals since 1995. In seven of those years, they met their arch-rivals along the way, five of those games in the first round.

While relegation from Division 1 suggested otherwise, it has been a positive year for the Farney on the football front – their U20s made the Ulster final too and their minors won the Ulster League.

But to reclaim the Anglo-Celt Cup would be the big one. They haven’t met Armagh in an Ulster final since beating them on the big day in 1938. Could history repeat itself? Stranger things, as Saturday proved, have happened.