Ballinderry map out title route

Ian O'Riordantalks to Brian McIver who was manager of the Ballinderry side that collected the All-Ireland club football title in 2002

Take out the largest map of Ireland you can find, preferably the foldable type with a detailed index, and try to locate the parish of Ballinderry. Not easily done, not least because it straddles the Derry-Tyrone border, numbers around 300 households, and sits along the fairly isolated western shores of Lough Neagh.

This is the home of Ballinderry Shamrocks, one of the most successful GAA clubs in Derry, and almost as successful in Ulster.

This Sunday they chase a third Ulster club football title, following their provincial titles in 1981 and 2001, when they meet Armagh's Crossmaglen Rangers - arguably the most successful football club of the modern era.

Crossmaglen are chasing their fifth Ulster title in 10 years - during which time they also won three All-Ireland titles - but Ballinderry have nothing to fear. They reached the summit in 2002 when they won the All-Ireland title, played in Semple Stadium, beating six-time winners Nemo Rangers. That day every inhabitant of the parish relocated to the birthplace of the GAA to witness their own special moment in football history.

Brian McIver is well placed to explain how that moment came about, and also the slightly confusing details of the club's location. Better known right now as manager of the Donegal senior footballers, McIver was Ballinderry manager when they collected that All-Ireland title in 2002, and lives in "the second-last house in Ballinderry", but which is "actually in Tyrone".

Although also associated with the nearby parish and club of Ardboe, which sits solely in Tyrone, McIver has equally close ties with Ballinderry, with one of his sons currently playing underage for the club. "I was first involved as club manager in 1995," he explains, "when the club also won the county title. I came back again in 2001 but had always done some coaching with the club in the years in between.

"Obviously we had a very good squad that season, and that was a great success for the club, to win an All-Ireland. But throughout the 1990s the club had been doing very well at underage level. There were some excellent coaching programmes put in place, and that paid off with a lot of underage success, including a couple of All-Ireland Feile na Ógs. In fact one of the things that was often said at the time was that it was a pity all the underage success couldn't be transferred to senior level.

"Looking back now, though, there's no way I can say we went into that 2001 season expecting to win the All-Ireland. The club had lost two or three Derry finals in the years before, but it was still no question of us being All-Ireland contenders. I can still remember the first round of the Derry championship that year, played on a very wet day in May. We could easily have been beaten that day. So like every club in the country our first and only priority was to take each game as it came, and not think about winning the county title. Which thankfully we did.

"I also remember our first round of the Ulster championship against St Gall's of Antrim. We needed a late goal to draw, which again we could easily have lost. But we improved with every game and built up a bit of momentum. Which is the way it goes with any All-Ireland winning club. Again this year no one was talking about winning the All-Ireland."

McIver was on board again as manager in 2004, but for a while Ballinderry found it hard to maintain their success rate: "Well I wouldn't say they were lean years. Obviously to win an All-Ireland was a massive achievement, and it's hard to lift it again the year after. But more than that, I think it spurred on a lot of other clubs to beat us, and do the same. I mean the club football in Derry is very, very competitive. Clubs like the Loup, Bellaghy obviously, and even Slaughtneil more recently, all produce very good sides. So the problem really is it's very difficult to come out of Derry, not that we had any lean years. And there's no doubt about it, this part of the country has produced some excellent footballers."

The current team is still laced with their All-Ireland winning talents such as Derry county campaigners Enda Muldoon and Conleth Gilligan, along with the fresher talents such as Raymond Wilkinson. McIver believes the team is well balanced, especially with equally strong defenders such as Kevin McGuckin, Niall McCusker and Paul Wilson.

"A few younger lads have come in this year, and that has made the team a little stronger again, but most people were pointing to Ballinderry and Crossmaglen making the final this year. Crossmaglen are going to be a very hard team to beat, but I expect we'll have a cracking Ulster final on Sunday and that's the main thing."