Naomh Padraig Uisce Chaoin are preparing for the Donegal junior final on Saturday. Their senior ladies lost to Downings in the last weekend’s final as they make their early steps. Michael McMenamin tells Michael McMullan the club’s story of progress

FORMED in 1989, based in Muff, Naomh Padraig Uisce Chaoin are now firmly on the map.

After a few unsuccessful attempts to rootin the area, Gaelic Games are here to stay.

Michael McMenamin, a native of Glenfin, had a civil service role that dotted in different places across the country before settling in Muff in 1973. He’s never been far away from the local GAA heartbeat since.

When Jim McGuinness led Donegal to Sam in 2012, he was in charge of logistics. He still fondly remembers the night when he carried the coveted silver into the club with clubmate Charlie Molloy who was the team physiotherapist.

Before that, McMenamin was involved in getting the Buncrana Cup up and running when Donegal’s development squads were getting a leg up on the ladder in the late 1990s.

Now, he currently doubles up as the club treasurer and development officer.

The club pitch is named after his late son Maurice who sadly passed away suddenly from meningitis in 2001 aged just 20.

Before 1989, the earliest Gaelic Games goes back to the 1930s, the Maids of the Mountain camogie team in Quigley’s Point won three county titles in succession before the chasing pack stopped taking them on.

A decade later, a Quigley’s Point football team, made up of gardaí, customs officials and locals, emerged but didn’t last. There was a Donegal junior title before fizzling out. There was also an attempt in the 1960s to get a club going.

McMenamin tells the story of local woman Rose Bradley using some of her housekeeping money to buy a set of jerseys. Her husband Joe wasn’t best pleased.

“It was a real reversal of roles,” McMenamin jokingly points out. Usually it would be a man immersed in a GAA club.

Rose left a few bob to help the club get off the ground and later became the president of Naomh Padraig Uisce Chaoin. Before the club was eventually established, the early years saw players pull on the jersey of other clubs in the area.

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Sean Lynch, a native of Valentia Island in Kerry and brother of Kingdom All—Ireland winner Ger – was stationed as a Customs and Excise Officer in Muff.

When he floated the idea of fielding an u-12 team in 1988, it was McMenamin who gave him a hand. That was the start of the club as it exists today.

“In the first year, we got to the county final and were beaten by Four Masters,” McMenamin recalls.

“Myself and Sean were involved. In two Volkswagen Beetles, we carried about 20 players to matches…there was no safeguarding or health certificates back then.”

Lynch was the first chairman and the “real catalyst”. Tommy Byrne and Kevin Diver, local teachers, promoted the games in school and were also involved with the club.

The club have benefited from their links with local schools – Naomh Bríd in and Scoil Naomh Fionán.

“At underage, we won every Inishowen title and a number of county titles at Division Two, as well as the county Óg Sport,” McMenamin recalls of the early days.

Six years ago, their minor team reached the final of the ‘A’ championship before losing to St Eunan’s.

Of that team, nine made it to the senior ranks including county senior star Caolan McColgan and goal machine Kevin Lynch who has played at minor and u-20 level for the county.

“When we started up here, and for a number of years afterwards, we had no child playing for us whose father or mother played Gaelic football,” McMenamin points out, aside from the few coming in from other counties.

“It was only when the boys who started as u-12 in 1989 became parents that we had a child playing whose mother or father played Gaelic football.”

Now it’s different. There is a base offering camogie, men’s and ladies’ football to whoever wants it.

Last weekend, Naomh Padraig ladies contested the Junior A final, losing to Downings. It was the natural progression from winning a Junior B title two years ago. With a panel of 36 players, McMenamin is positive. It’s only the beginning.

In recent weeks, their u-12 boys played out an exciting draw with St Eunan’s. The u-14s – looked after by Sean Lynch’s sons Cormac and Diarmuid – were beaten in the Division One semi-final by eventual winners Glenswilly.

Sean passed away in 2008 and the clubs’ stand has been named in his memory. Like Maurice McMenamin, his legacy will remain.

It took time for Muff to find their home. A small pitch behind the school was adequate at u-12 level. When they entered their early adult teams, the Nicholas family granted permission for use of their field on the Bridgend Road.

There were a few years renting a field below the church in Muff before a search began for their permanent home.

BASE…Work underway on their premises in Muff

In the late 1990s, local business man Jim McLaughlin offered 12 acres at a “very reasonable” price.

“We were very fortunate,” McMenamin recalls. “We started fundraising and produced one pitch and built dressing rooms.”

A second pitch followed. They’ve constructed a ball wall. Work has begun on a gym and there are plans for floodlights.

Their progression has been evident both on and off the pitch. The club is in a healthy state.

“A few people started camogie there a few years ago and we’ve 50 young girls playing at the moment and doing very well,” McMenamin said.

“We’ve more girls playing than boys at the moment, but that’s the way the numbers are breaking down…we’ve over 700 members.”

There is the expectation that last Sunday’s ladies’ final isn’t a flash in the pan.

Their story is no different to any other club. There is no secret sauce. It’s about work and it’s about people.

McMenamin hails the help of those putting their shoulder to the wheel, administrators and coaches, including some who have moved into the area.

“We’ve been lucky in that respect and they’ve been a tremendous asset to the club and that can bring a different viewpoint,” he added.

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After years of u-12 teams moving up the ranks, Naomh Padraig made their step into adult football in 1998 under the management of McMenamin and Kevin Diver.

Aside from a few players who came back from elsewhere, it was a group who had graduated from minor football.

Saturday is their third junior final after losing out in 2010 and 2016 to Naomh Colmcille and Downings – both by a single point.

The underage journey was growing alongside and 2018 marked the significant progress of making it to a minor Division One final.

A St Eunan’s team with current seniors Oran Winston, Ronan McGeehin, James Kelly, Shane and Conor O’Donnell were too hot to handle. But it marked significant progress.

“Our first county title was with an u-14 team in 1992 but we’d have won Division Two at u-14, u-16 and at minor down the years,” McMenamin explains.

“There was gradual improvement from year to year but that (2018 minor team) was a particularly talented group and nine of them are now involved in the senior panel.

“Some of them have given up football, some of them have emigrated but nine is a fair return.”

The club also had the helping hand of having their players involved with the now defunct Coláisti Inis Eoghain – made up of schools across the Inishowen peninsula – on the Ulster Schools’ scene.

With Gerard Callaghan at the wheel, it was another avenue for players in the locality to grow.

“It certainly improved the standard because young lads were getting more coaching and different coaching,” McMenamin recalls.

While it wasn’t overly welcomed by everyone in the county, the merged venture – similar to the new South West Donegal team – allowed players from smaller schools to rub shoulders with the top players
across Ulster. It was another link in the chain.

All the while, Naomh Padraig were hammering away. Their seniors are plying their trade in Division Two where they finished just below midway, two points below senior finalists Dungloe who they ran to five points back in May.

There was also a draw to eventual league champions Four Masters on the opening day. There was a win over Ardara, draws with Buncrana and Milford. They’ve more than held their own.

After losing to Naomh Ultan in the group stages of the championship, they’ve won the rest including wins over Naomh Bríd and Naomh Ultan in the knockout stages, hitting the net four times both days.

Kevin Lynch hit three goals against Naomh Bríd and will be a marked man against Carndonagh this weekend.

Caolan McColgan may well be the man to pick up county teammate Conor O’Donnell. McMenamin can see the impact the county success has had and there is pride from having McColgan playing on the big stage in places such as Clones and Croke Park.

“You see it from the young lads and young girls now, they are running on after games to get autographs and photos,” he said.

“That’s what you want to see and they are the role models. They’ll see him (McColgan) playing for the club, so you’d be hoping they’ll want to do the same.”

NO MINOR MATTER…The Naomh Padraig minor team of 2018 – including the late Evan Craig (13) and Donegal star Caolan McColgan (2) provided a core of players to the senior ranks.Photo: David Doherty

A junior title would be immense to the club this weekend. Another sign of progress. Should they not get over the line, McMenamin insists it won’t define the club either. Their coaching plans will continue.

“The show goes on,” he said. “The plan will be about how can we improve.”

The heads will be down but there will be another chapter. They’ve come so far with the local community firmly behind them. Politicians have helped support their needs to roll out a vital sporting outlet.

“We would have sold tickets to people of all religions and even no religion…we got great support from the local community,” McMenamin added of their efforts.

It was the same support they leant on last month with the passing of their senior player Evan Craig after his battle with cancer at the age of 24.

Having lost his own son Maurice, Michael McMenamin knows the road the Craig family have walked.

When the Naomh Padraig team run out at O’Donnell Park on Saturday, Evan will be deep in their thoughts. His father Joe will carry out Evan’s number 13 jersey. It will be an emotional occasion.

“They carried his remains onto our pitch before the funeral,” McMenamin points out.

“The young lads organised it all. . He developed cancer just before Christmas last year and unfortunately didn’t really respond to treatment.

“It has had an awful bearing on the club. He was a very popular young lad, a good player. It was very tough on his mother, father and the family.”

The community put their arms around the family. The Naomh Padraig club, the local soccer clubs all offered their shoulder of support.

“Joe would’ve played with us,” McMenamin adds. “He was an excellent player and I think Evan and Joe maybe even played on the same team one day.

“They were two guys fairly useful at knocking them over the bar…as they say, the apple didn’t fall far from the tree.”

Evan Craig would’ve been at the forefront of their title bid this weekend. They’ll never forget him. That’s what local communities do. They’ll never forget Maurice McMenamin and they’ll never forget Sean Lynch.

Naomh Padraig took time to find its place in Donegal’s GAA family but it’s here to stay. Like last weekend’s ladies’ final, Saturday writes another chapter in their history.