Joe McMahon at Croke Park
**By Brian Murphy **
In this week's 'My Club', we speak to Tyrone footballer Joe McMahon about his club, Omagh St Enda's.
Omagh St Enda's are based in the Tyrone county grounds, Healy Park, in the large town of Omagh in central Co. Tyrone. The county town, Omagh is the largest urban centre in Tyrone with a population of more than 20,000 people.
Although St Enda's was traditionally the only GAA club in Omagh, Killyclogher village and its GAA club have now been drawn into the town's outskirts, while Drumragh Sarsfields, who play in the outlying village of Clanabogan, are just five km outside Omagh.
Eight-time winners of the Tyrone SFC, Omagh St Enda's were a strong force in the county in the 1950s but have enjoyed sporadic success at senior level since.
After winning a seventh title in 1988, the club endured 26 years without county success until a side back-boned by a strong contingent of Tyrone senior players, including Joe McMahon and his brother Justin, led them to a famous victory over Carrickmore in 2014.
Joe McMahon, who works as a voluntary coaching officer with the club, is their most famous son, becoming the first Omagh man to win a Celtic Cross in 2005, before his younger brother, Justin, became the club's first All Star in 2008.
The McMahon name is synonymous with the club, the boys' father, Paddy, having played hurling and football with St Enda's for years, as well as winning an Ulster title with Tyrone in 1973.
Founded in 1932, the history of the club is detailed in a DVD, entitled 'The St Enda's Story', which was released to coincide with the club's 80th anniversary in 2012.
The production, which won a 2013 GAA MacNamme award in the best club project category, features over 20 different interviews, including a contribution from Joe McMahon, the club's first All-Ireland medal winner.
Although best known for their exploits on the football field, St Enda's have also won three Tyrone SHC titles, field strong Ladies football and camogie teams and have won multiple Tyrone, Ulster and All-Ireland Scór titles in various disciplines.
For more information on Omagh St Enda's GAA, log on to the club's official website.
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GAA.ie: Is Omagh St Enda’s GAA club located in the town of Omagh?
Joe McMahon: Yes. You have Omagh itself and then you have Killyclogher, Tattyreagh, Drumragh, which would be the more local clubs in and around the area. Omagh St Enda’s is situated around the town, although there can be some debate as to where the pitch itself is located but we’ll leave that for another day.
GAA.ie: Who are the club’s main rivals?
JM: Dromore and Killyclogher. Dromore is a rivalry that has built up over the years and perhaps Killyclogher moreso previous to that. We had great games with Carrickmore in 2013 and 2014, too. We are seen as the town team and there are a lot of teams surrounding Omagh and they would take great pleasure in beating us, but we take great pleasure out of beating them too!
GAA.ie: Where does the club draw its players from?
JM: Mainly from around the town. There are some players from outside the town as well. We have good numbers underage, but like any club some people might come from outside and they join us. We’re a town based team rather than a parish-based team.
GAA.ie: The club’s base is at the county grounds in Healy Park, right?
JM: Yes. Everything – pitch and clubhouse – is really based in Healy Park and they recently set up a ball wall and astro turf surface and they are converting an indoor hall, which is 30 by 15 metres and is going to be a good facility. Then, further into the town, you have a facility for the youth to be able to use. We have good access to pitches because we have so many teams operating at the one time.
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Healy Park home of Naomh Eanna an Omaigh
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GAA.ie: So, your home league and championship games are played in Tyrone’s county ground Healy Park itself?
JM: Yes. We get plenty of people down to watch us, particularly at championship time. When we went on a good run in the Tyrone SFC in 2014, we drew a huge support all the way to the Ulster final against Slaughtneil, which we unfortunately lost.
GAA.ie: How did you first get involved with the club?
JM: My father, Paddy, would have played for the club and for Tyrone as well. We would have been out quite often at games and also my Dad would have had us out on the pitch practicing. The underage was there at the time, but the structures weren’t built up to the extent that they are now. You can’t really compare, but that’s not to say that the work wasn’t going on. We trained once during the week and on a Saturday morning and it was always something I looked forward to. From there, I came up through the ranks and I have always been involved with the club as best as I can in terms of coaching and playing.
GAA.ie: Did your father enjoy much success with the club?
JM: Well, he won an Ulster title with Tyrone in the 1970s and he played hurling and football with the club throughout his career. The club itself provides much more than football: we have Scór, which we compete in every year and regularly win All-Irelands, then you have hurling, handball, rounders, Ladies football and camogie. We try to cover as many of the GAA codes as we can.
GAA.ie: Are you coaching in the club at the moment?
JM: Yes, I am the coaching officer. Basically, I am involved with the other coaches and guiding them in their roles and supporting them in providing information, workshops and coaching resources for them to be able to do their jobs. I’m there as a support for the coaches. It’s a voluntary role, which I do at the weekends and during holidays.
GAA.ie: How do you find the time to coach in the club and to play inter-county football at the same time?
JM: It’s a shared role with another fella, but we are able to work together and bounce ideas off each other. We have good structures in place with the coaches, who work well with the teams, and the children respond well to it. It helps towards building a senior team for the future, which I suppose is ultimately what you are building towards.
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Joe McMahon catches the ball in the 2014 Ulster final loss to Slaughtneil
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GAA.ie: How did your own underage days with the club go? Did your brother, Justin, play on the same team as you?
JM: Actually, Justin is three or four years younger than me and I am one of the elder statesmen on the senior team at the moment. My underage career with the club was pretty modest, but there was a great group that came through around the same time – Conor Clarke, Barry Tierney, Ronan O’Neill. They won more or less everything that was going at underage level with the club and now form the basis of the club’s senior team.
With my own team, we got to a couple of semi-finals, but we won nothing major. A lot of the underage work was put in after I came out of the grades and has borne fruit in the last five to eight years. There was a lot of work done before that too, but the success just didn’t come with it.
GAA.ie: Obviously you had your father to look up to, but were there other players at the club you wanted to emulate?
JM: There were quite a few of them at the time, players you would have been watching growing up. Ciaran McBride is the obvious one. Seánie Meyler, who is Conor Meyler’s father, would also have gone on to represent Tyrone too. Barry Eccles. They pushed me on and inspired me, and as a child I would have looked at them and said, ‘I want to grow up and play for Omagh and Tyrone’.
GAA.ie: Can you tell us about the Tyrone SFC win in 2014? Did that win come out of the blue or had the club been building towards something big?
JM: The pevious year we lost the semi-final to Carrickmore after a replay and we felt we left that behind. We always knew we were in a building process and we knew eventually something would happen, but the big bonus for the club that year, no doubt, was Tyrone going out early in the championship to Armagh. It was an opportunity for all the county players to get back playing with the club and really it was the first time in a long time that I had the opportunity personally to – and I can probably speak on behalf of the other boys – get back and give my focus fully to the club. Obviously, as the weeks went on, the more games we played and the more training we did together it gelled the team more. We had a wee bit of luck, but to go on and win the county title was just a wee bit of experience.
GAA.ie: Did the manner of the win – Ronan O’Neill scored the winning goal in added time – make it all the more special?
JM: It certainly did. At the time, when Carrickmore went a point up, I never once thought the game was over, and I don’t believe any of the boys thought that either. That was the sort of mentality we had all year in any game we played – ‘play to the end’ was the mantra. Likewise in the semi-final, we did the same against Dromore, we scored a last-minute goal there. Against Carrickmore it was just a case of continue on and play to the end, something they have actually done so often in the past. The last-minute goal was the icing on the cake.
The whole experience was amazing for me because it was my first medal ever at any level with the club. Some of the younger lads who have come through the ranks, their underage days were littered with medals, but to get my first-ever medal with the club in that manner was so sweet.
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Joe McMahon ahead of the 2014 Tyrone SFC final
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GAA.ie: Did the fact that the club hadn’t won a county title in 26 years prior to that put any additional pressure on the players?
JM: Not so much. I was nervous before the game, but I never really thought about it like that. The older boys would always have been passing comments on nights out and things like that, that they had won various medals with the club in the past, but I always knew it would come eventually.
GAA.ie: How many Omagh men are on the current Tyrone senior football panel?
JM: Myself, Justy, Barry Tierney, Ronan O’Neill, Conan Grugan and Conor Clarke. Those boys all grew up together and are the spine of the senior team now. Conor Meyler is now part of the senior squad, having played with Ciaran McLaughlin on the U21 team that won the All-Ireland last year. A lot of other boys have been in and out of Tyrone senior squads – Jason McAnulla, Cathal McCarron, Connor O’Donnell - so those boys have played at that level too and we have good strength in depth in the team.
GAA.ie: What was it like to bring to become the club's first All-Ireland medal winner in 2005?
JM: It was a massive honour. It was unbelievable because I was the first man to do it. It wasn’t for myself, it was more to bring an All-Ireland medal back to the club was a great experience. It was great for the club and the people of Omagh. I hope it inspired the younger boys and girls to push on as well.
The McMahon brothers with Sam in 2008
GAA.ie: It may be an unfair question, but how does the Tyrone SFC medal rank when compared to the two Celtic Crosses?
JM:
GAA.ie: You clearly have a very strong connection to your club...
JM: Huge. It’s the ultimate. It’s a cliche, but it really is going back to where it all began. At my age and in the job I was in previously (working for the Ulster Council as a Dept. Of Education Primary Schools coach), you see the benefits of working with young kids and developing them. You work with kids at summer and Easter camps and to see them coming through, developing in terms of their skills and as people too, is so important.
GAA.ie: At 33 and given the injury issues you've had to contend with, it's fair to say you're nearing the end of your inter-county career, but it must be comforting to to know that when you do decide to retire from Tyrone duty, you can give your full focus back to the club?
JM: Yes, it’s not retirement totally, I get to look forward to going back and playing with the lads. Certainly, a wee bit more free time from the point of view of no longer having training and weekends away with Tyrone would allow me to give more to the club, from a playing and coaching point of view.
**Joe McMahon was speaking to GAA.ie at the launch of Lá na gClubanna in Croke Park last Thursday. This special day dedicated to GAA clubs and club activities will take place on Sunday May 8. Click here for more details. **
