‘The people of Donegal are magic and the place is magic, it means everything to me’

On the first Saturday of November 2010, Jim McGuinness loaded his car and set off for Downings.  Thoughts filled his mind as he eased through the gears. He was a little nervous, although well prepared. After two unsuccessful attempts, this was finally the first time he would meet the Donegal panel collectively as their senior team manager. 

Breaking those players into small groups at the Rosapenna Hotel, McGuinness flipped the chart of how his team would go about their business. Step by step. Play by play. Year on year. 

Donegal hadn’t won a provincial championship since 1992 but McGuinness told them that in his mind, he could see the people of the county, decked in green and gold and armed with hopes and dreams, making their way up the hill in Clones on Ulster final day that following July.

He told them to look out the window. It was a beautiful crisp day, where the sun was strong without a cloud in the blue sky. The light waves rippled slowly into Sheephaven Bay, making  only a hushing sound. It was one of those crisp, autumnal days when the leaves have already browned and still grip the bark. One of those autumn days that just happened to fall in early winter, only because of a calendar. 

Those players were told they would not only wear the jersey. They would be representatives of this county. A place that is rugged and wild, almost forgotten on the periphery of the country. Donegal’s people needed a team they could be proud of. “You are going to be that team,” McGuinness stressed. “You are going to be that team.”

That day was the first step of a journey upon which Donegal enjoyed incredible success under McGuinness. He was right. Donegal supporters would make their way up that hill in Clones on Ulster final day – in fact, they would in every single one of his four years in charge, winning three, and the 2012 All-Ireland title.

After Rosapenna, that winter, one of the coldest on record, Donegal’s panel put in the gruelling work that would serve them well come summer. Tramore beach, not far from Downings off towards Dunfanaghy, was where the graft started.

When McGuinness eventually left in October 2014, he never thought he would be back. He would work in Glasgow for Celtic, with Chinese Premier League side Beijing Sinobo Guoan and in North Carolina, at Charlotte Independence. 

“Never is a long time,” he tells DonegalLive. “Coming back was not on the radar. But things change and things evolve. And here I am.”

Away from the hustle and bustle, the cacophony of Croke Park or the claustrophobia of Clones, McGuinness used to slip on the trainers to clear his head and formulate his thoughts. 

It was just like, many moons before, when he,  the youngest in the family that lived at Ard Patrick in Glenties,   would head to Naomh Conaill’s pitch with the boots slung over his shoulder to kick balls endlesslessly till dusk turned into darkness. 

There was another place he’d go to and leave footprints in the sand and although they would disappear from sight in the tide, their imprint would be there for years to come. 

“Growing up, it was always Portnoo,” he says. “I would  the beach and get to the rocks. When you get to the rocks, you have this incredible view, across to Arranmore and over to Leitir. You stop and you look around. You take it in. 

“I always loved that. Ten years or so ago when I was first managing Donegal, a lot of the tactical stuff would’ve come into my mind during these runs. A lot of the plans came from there.”

Just under four years ago, with the pandemic gripping, the McGuinness family moved home. Their eldest of six children, daughter Toni Marie, was the only one in primary school when Sam Maguire came to the hills in 2012. 

Now she has finished up her transition year at Loreto Letterkenny. The family who had built at Mass, Kilkenny, outside of Glenties looking down the Gweebarra, now call Creeslough their home. It’s where McGuinness’s wife Yvonne is from. 

“The children, they’re all playing and training in football now, with St Michael’s,” McGuinness says. “It was almost beyond them the last time I was here as manager, they were so young. Toni Marie was six then, Mark was four and Jimmy was only a baby. There are three more now – twins Bonnie and Aoibh (10) and Saoirse (7). It’s a busy house. They’re all now at a brilliant age where they can understand what’s happening and they can enjoy it.”

The runs, he admits with a grin, are usually toned down to a walk these days, with the pet dog, Shep, his only company. 

As McGuinness focuses his mind, there’s an almost entirely new panel of players in his second coming as manager, a more condensed championship, expanded media to deal with, but the same fundamental ambition remains – to bring success to Donegal’s footballers and let the people county, wherever life has taken them, enjoy being a part of it. 

Looking back, he occasionally stops and breaks from the here and the now, just for a moment to let his mind wander and to reminisce.

 “Where we live now, we’re very fortunate,” McGuinness continues. “You’ve Ards, Marble Hill, Tramore and all the other beaches. I particularly like Tramore because you have to earn your reward, it’s two-and-a-half kilometres over the sand dunes to even get to the beach. Like in life, you have to earn that reward.”

He lets his mind wander back to the days when Donegal trained there. He can hear the craic. The one-liners. The groans as they’re told to go one last time. He can see Michael Murphy, then only 21 and captain, lead the line. He can see Neil Gallagher and Christy Toye and Ryan Bradley and Paul Durcan. Up and down the dunes. Fitter. Stronger. Faster. Donegal got their rewards. 

He can see Pat Shovelin, his second-cousin and goalkeeping coach, the very epitome of the type of positive person necessary to harness a productive group. Shovelin, whose smile never broke, passed away in 2017, aged just 41, following a battle with cancer. 

“We have a history there with the team as well,” he adds. “That’s where we trained them in those very early days. Every time you go out for that walk you can see those people – the players, the group, Pat Shovelin. You can stop for a second and recall those special memories. The people of Donegal are magic and the place is magic – it means everything to me.”