The capable feminist was assisted in the management role by Donegal’s 1992 All-Ireland winning boss Brian McEniff, whose previous motivational role on the sporting front was unknown to Ms McCafferty.  “I blushed with embarrassment when I found out who he was.  Sure, didn’t I pass through Ardara the day after they came back with Sam Maguire.  I didn’t know about bainisteior back then.”

For the record, Faughanvale and the ‘Gaels drew a massive gathering of around 5,000 people to its magnificent complex and after an absorbing contest, in which extra-time, was also played it was the visitors that squeezed through for another outing in front of the television cameras and the viewing national.  “For us, it was a great occasion just to be in this small little village of Kilbehenny.”

She continued:  “After the match, to the astonished delight of Faughanvale, the team from the north was hosted royally and generously by the parish they had vanquished.  Club chairmen exchanged gifts.  A hot meal was served in the Kilbehenny Community Centre.  Jon Kenny left money behind the bar and sang the song he had written for the Gaels, which the team has recorded.  Noble calls were ordered and Faughanvale sang back.

“Jon and his team then took us back and forth across the street, between two pubs in the village, ‘where the three counties meet.  The counties, of course, are Limerick, Tipperary and Cork and, before the night was out, the younger element had scattered in taxis around all three, to dance in nightclubs, discotheques or whatever they are called these days.”

“I am of Ireland, come dance with me in Ireland,” Mary Robinson said the day she was inaugurated as Ireland’s first woman President in 1992.  “Mary, the men are dancing.  It’s a GAA thing,” summed-up the winning Faughanvale manager, who must surely wish that her travels will bring her back to the Galtees some day very soon, for more craic with Kenny, his ballad singing footballers and to feel the warmth of a real welcoming rural community.

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