Shaun Casey looks back on Clan na Gael’s breakthrough years ahead of the first all-Lurgan Senior Championship final since 1968

HISTORY has a funny way of repeating itself. The more things change, the more things stay the same and while the faces may be different around the Clan na Gael club nowadays, the names and the attitudes are the exact same.

This Sunday is the first all-Lurgan Senior Championship final since 1968 and just like they did 56 years ago, old rivals Clan na Gael and Clann Éireann will once again lock horns and battle it out for the top prize in Armagh club football.

During the early ‘60s, the Clans were in the doldrums but there were encouraging signs at underage level with a crew of minors ready to break through to the senior ranks. They won an Intermediate title and a couple of years later, defeated Clann Éireann in the senior decider.

Fast-forward to the current generation, and it’s the exact same story. The Lurgan Blues captured the Intermediate title in 2020 and now four years on, led by a number of talented youngsters, they’re aiming for the senior trophy. Against Clann Éireann.

One of those youngsters bursting through at the Clans was Jimmy Smyth, who would later go on to captain Armagh in the 1977 All-Ireland final. “I remember the whole razzmatazz around that ’68 final,” recalls the Clan na Gael legend.

“We won an Intermediate Championship in ‘65 and the O’Hare Cup in ‘67, which was an internal Armagh competition, and then we met Crossmaglen in the championship semi-final. We weren’t supposed to have had a chance against them because Cross were Cross.

“They had won three championships in a row at that particular stage. We hadn’t won a championship since ‘53 and then this team came along with a lot of minors, there were six minors on it.

“There was myself, Dessie Turley, Colum McKinstry, Martin Cavanagh, Danny Traynor, Jim Burns and we slotted into that team. We beat Cross by a point and that got us into this county final against Clann Éireann.

“In those days the rivalry didn’t enter into it at all, at least not as far as we were concerned. It was different for the senior players because they would have been very conscious of it, but we went ahead, and it wasn’t just another match, but it was a game.”

The captain of that ‘1968 team was Brian Seeley who went on to manage the club during their most successful period in the ‘70s when Clan na Gael not only dominated Armagh, but Ulster as well.

The Lurgan Blues won nine championship titles in 14 years and picked up three Ulster titles along the way in 1972, ’73 and ’74. Brian sadly passed away just a few weeks ago, but was still around to see the Sam Maguire return to the Orchard County for the second time.

Seeley had played in the first ever Armagh team to reach the All-Ireland final in 1953 and got to see two Clans players, Diarmaid Marsden and Barry O’Hagan, collect Celtic Crosses in 2002, while Stefan Campbell and Shane McPartlan did likewise this year.

“Brian was a legend in the club through his county exploits. What he’d done on the field as a player and then subsequently as a manager spoke for itself,” recalled Marsden, who was part of the last Clan na Gael team to win the championship in 1994.

“Brian was also a next-door neighbour to me, there were three of us living in a row. There was the Seeleys, there was ourselves and then there was Barry and Noel O’Hagan next door. The three houses up on the old Portadown Road were always chatting football.

“Brian was always a good one for having a chat over the fence, particularly when I broke into the Armagh squad, seeing how things were going or what did I think of this match or that match and likewise with the club.

“Myself and ‘Bumpy’ (Barry O’Hagan) and my brother Dominic were knocking 10 bells out of each other to win the ball up against the wall so that’s the neighbourhood we lived in. Across the road was Gerry McKerr, another stalwart Clan na Gael name.

“I suppose it was hard to get away from football and the blue jersey and hopefully Brian’s legacy will continue for many years to come.”

Clan na Gael are hoping to end a 30-year wait when they take the field on Sunday and in 1994, the class of Marsden and O’Hagan were the newbies breaking new ground with the seniors and leading the way.

At just 19 years old, Marsden, who played for the Armagh minors in the 1992 All-Ireland final defeat to Meath, thought every year was going to end in celebration and with a championship victory. Things didn’t exactly go to plan.

“I was coming in at 19 years of age thinking this just happens every year, and 30 years later and we are still waiting on another one,” Marsden reflected on winning championship titles in 1993 and 1994.

“It just doesn’t happen like that. We came off the back of a couple of minor successes in the early ‘90s and then in ‘93 we beat Maghery in the senior final. We had the traditional blend of youth and experience and that continued to the next year.

“Unfortunately, Mullaghbawn came along in ’95 and won Ulster and then Crossmaglen came along with the juggernaut in ’96 onwards. Even though we had a decent team for most of the ‘90s and into the noughties, we just simply couldn’t get over the line.

“Other clubs were the same. Dromintee had an excellent team at that time, as did Pearse Óg and all three of us struggled to get over Cross and that’s just the measure of how good they were at the time.”

Following in the footsteps of Marsden and O’Hagan have been Campbell and McPartlan. The pair climbed the famed steps of the Hogan Stand this season with Armagh and are now trying to bring Clans back to the top.

The two Armagh players picked up Intermediate Championship medals in 2020 when Clan na Gael finally made their way back up to senior and like the generations that have gone before, it’s the youth coming through that has inspired those around them.

Clan na Gael did reach the county final last season, and McPartlan was the top scorer through the competition 12 months ago, but despite leading by one-point at half time, they suffered a hefty defeat at the hands of Crossmaglen.

“Last year you could hear people talking about how it came too early and stuff, but there’s a great tradition down here of county finals. Since I’ve been on the senior team, we just haven’t reached those heights yet,” added McPartlan.

“In the past three or four years we’ve really progressed, and it is something that we’re striving for, but it’s the youth that’s driving us on. It’s the young boys sitting there at 18 or 19, they have medals hanging out of their pockets.”

“Us boys that are a wee bit older just wouldn’t be as fortunate as that, but they’re driving the whole thing on, and they’ve come from winning stuff at underage level and that’s all they want to do.

“They haven’t seen the stuff that we’ve seen between fighting for Intermediates and possibly falling down to Junior, that was our lot. Looking at how we’ve progressed, it’s great to have them on board and they’re really pushing us on.”

History has a funny way of repeating itself but now it’s about performing on the big day and getting across the line. The fearless youths of ’68 completed the mission against their near neighbours, can the class of ’24 do the same?

“I’m a great believer that sometimes your name’s written on something but a lot of times it’s all about luck,” Smyth continued. “You can have all the skilled players in the world, and you can have players doing all they can, but you just need that something extra.

“You need a ball breaking for you or breaking away from the opposition or somebody dropping a ball in that falls your way. Games hinge on very, very small margins and if the margins are the same as it was in 68, that’ll do me!”