Leitrim's 1994 Connacht SFC triumph still has impact for Declan Darcy

Thirty years have passed in the blink of an eye but what Leitrim achieved in winning the Connacht Senior Championship title in 1994 and his grounding in the ethos of Aughawillan GAA still inspires Declan Darcy to this day.

Only the second Leitrim captain to lift the Nestor Cup, Declan’s incredible achievements with Leitrim, Aughawillan and latterly Dublin and Leinster Rugby saw him join the pantheon of Leitrim greats last Saturday in the Lough Rynn Castle Estate & Gardens Hotel when he was inducted into the Leitrim Sports Star Awards Hall of Fame.

It was an honour Declan admits he struggles to come to terms with! “I didn’t think I was in that range yet in my career but obviously very special and I think there has been some phenomenal people before so very lucky in a very special group of people.”

But Declan, speaking to the Observer before the event, stressed that he was representing the team in collecting the award and talked about the special bond that drove John O’Mahony’s side to achieve history: “But I’m also representing a group of people, a team - I suppose it is unfair that I’m here, representing the group that I was very lucky to be part of so I’m here on behalf of the team.

“I think the camaraderie of the team is probably the thing that stands out for me. There were special moments that stand when we won things but for us as a group, the hard nights that we trained in Strandhill, in Kells, in Leitrim, there were very tough nights that we bonded when no-one was looking and we worked exceptionally hard.

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“Those were the nights when we kind of looked in each other’s eyes and you knew you were at the bottom of the barrel, that you were fighting your corner with someone - I just always really enjoyed the camaraderie of that group, it was special.”

Among those special moments is one that has gone down in folklore and that was the image of Declan lifting the Nestor Cup with Tom Gannon, the only other Leitrim man to do so when the Green & Gold triumphed back in 1927. It is an image that still resonates as Declan remarks that people still talk to him about all these years later.

“You have to thank Tommy Moran for that inspiration to have Tom there - again, it is a photograph of GAA legacy and everywhere I go, people talk about Tom and myself and the photograph. It was a unique moment that was captured and what a fantastic way to capture it. 

“I think that image captured an awful lot - the distance between the two teams who had won and Tom being there was an unbelievable picture and it resonates well with a lot of GAA people across the country. It was nice for Tom to be there even though he was a good old age, I don’t expect to be there the next time - I won’t be doing what Tom did!” joked Declan.

The passage of time hasn’t dimmed what Leitrim’s victory did for the county, not just in a sporting context but socially too: “It is hard to think it has gone 30 years now but it is still fresh in the mind and lucky enough with social media and stuff, there is relevance to keeping it alive. 

“It brings back great memories for a lot of people, a wide range of different types of people and the impact it had, not alone from a footballing context but overall social contest for the county was incredible. I’m delighted that it still holds dear for a lot of people in their hearts.”

That link for Leitrim people was forged for Declan in Aughawillan which extended into his playing career with Leitrim, Dublin and then helped him forge bonds with Dublin’s historic six in a row team: “There is uniqueness to different aspects and cultural dynamics that are unbelievable and I was very lucky to have experienced the passion of Aughawillan people which transcended into Leitrim people and a cultural understanding of what it means to them to play the games.

“Having that aspect was brilliant to bring that into a broader context in which people think in different ways. It gave me a bigger lens and a better optic of how to view things but I think being involved with Aughawillan is an experience that has always stood me well - the character and the way they carried themselves, the effort, the determination, the pride they had in themselves.

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“It wasn’t that they expected to win but they had a passion and a drive for themselves, they  didn’t shirk any obstacles or battles, didn’t think better of anybody else than themselves and it was an unbelievable psychological thing to learn and understand. There were some key characters, obviously Mickey Quinn who was the driving force in the whole group.

“Mickey set standards that were incredibly high and he didn’t back off from anybody, no matter who you were or what county you were from, he had that in his psyche. He passed that on to the rest of us. I remember  all those traits you learn as a young person, people that you were lucky enough to be involved with, it gave me unbelievable traits that I could pass on to others so it is brilliant for me.”