No tradition and no fear

All-Ireland SFC Semi-final Fermanagh v MayoSeán Moran talks to two men who transformed Fermanagh's fortunes and a son of the county who helped plan the stadium they will play in

For a long time Peter Quinn was the most famous GAA person from Fermanagh. He had an at times turbulent presidency of the association during which he unveiled the plans for redeveloping Croke Park, a project he continued to guide and advise on for most of the 10 years since his term of office ended.

In that time he has chaired two of the GAA's seminal committees, on amateur status and strategic review. Otherwise he is a successful business consultant based in Enniskillen and a member of Northern Ireland's Parades Commission.

But for the past few weeks he has been like every other Fermanagh GAA person, transported and enthralled by the county's progress to tomorrow's All-Ireland semi-final against Mayo. His conversation spins off weightier topics into animated discussion of the team and light-hearted reminiscence about his playing days with Teemore and his spell on the county panel.

One memory, though, sums up the experience of being a Fermanagh devotee. On the way back from a pitch opening one Sunday, Quinn was outside Thurles when he heard northern journalist Mícheál McGeary on the radio saying Fermanagh were leading Armagh by 11 points with 10 minutes left.

Around Birr he heard the final report and how Armagh had scored three goals in four minutes. That defeat dealt a mortal blow to Hugh McCabe's team.

"We had a team manager who had new ideas," says Quinn of McCabe. "That was a setback to him and the county."

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Absolute zero. Take that as Fermanagh's starting point - seriously. With Westmeath's first Leinster win last month, Fermanagh and Wicklow are the only counties not to have scaled the preliminary peak of a provincial championship.

They've no tradition. Last year was the first time the county reached the last eight of the All-Ireland championship, thanks to the new qualifier system and some eye-catching wins against Meath and Mayo. Yet even that terminated in their hitting the rocks with a 19-point defeat by Tyrone.

No tradition and last autumn little contemporary relief, as manager Dominic Corrigan, frustrated at what he felt to be the county board's lack of commitment, walked away from the job and in his wake followed half of the team that started last August's quarter-final.

Into this unpromising scenario - no past and apparently no future - came Charlie Mulgrew, the former Donegal player and selector. His only previous management experience was with St Eunan's in Letterkenny.

Despite some plucky performances, Fermanagh's young team were relegated and the GAA world averted its gaze as they got ready to take on Tyrone in the championship. But a strange thing happened. They lost by only four points. Explanations followed when Tyrone lost their next match to Donegal and Fermanagh headed for the qualifiers. The rest we know well at this stage.

Big wins followed over Meath and Donegal and in between, the first championship success at Croke Park - a blistering display of point scoring against Cork.

But only when All-Ireland favourites Armagh were toppled did the world pay unconditional attention to the confidence of the team, its fast, attractive football and ability to survive close finishes. That youthful abandon, that lack of inhibition - where did it come from?

"Charlie will claim that he's not responsible for that but somebody's doing something right," says Peter Quinn.

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At the start of it all, there were doubts. One Fermanagh player gloomily recalled swapping notes with a Tyrone counterpart. While he had been doing traditional runs and shuttles with Mulgrew's trainer Syl Mulrone, the champions had been having their hamstrings measured by a scientist down from a laboratory in Queens.

The Fermanagh man concluded his team was going nowhere. Yet this summer they have been fit enough to play a pounding game at pace.

"I'd been involved with Eunan's and with Declan Bonner as a mentor," says Mulgrew, explaining his background. "You get a want - maybe not a want I don't know what it is - to be involved in management. It's the closest thing to playing. If you have a bit of ambition, which fortunately or unfortunately I had, the next step is county management.

"I got a call asking me would I be interested and said, 'give me half an hour'. I was back in five minutes: 'yes'. I'm honoured to manage any county. The GAA's a big part of my life. You try to build a team that's from Fermanagh, of Fermanagh and part of Fermanagh. Obviously you want success but I wanted to work at that level.

"The players made a commitment at the start of the year that they wanted to play for Fermanagh. There were certain difficulties initially because of the introductory factor. I had to get to know the fellas; they had to get to know me. We're different types of people so it took a wee while to get to know each other, to trust each other."

Shane McDermott, the team captain who's having a colossal championship at centre back, bears witness to how successful the new manager has been.

"Charlie assessed the situation and tried to work with it. Things were down and out before Charlie came. He came in at a bad time and didn't have long to prepare for any of the games. He was strict in wanting us all to work hard and the players seemed to group together and work hard for him. That was good enough for me."

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Dominic Corrigan has the consolation of having helped to wind the clock. Under his management the county broke new ground last year and he says that he has no regrets about walking away last autumn.

"I certainly would have stayed on had circumstances been different. But I moved on and the team moved on. There are a number of players who could be there and aren't there. It doesn't matter anymore. Everyone's rallying behind the team and as a Fermanagh man you'd have to be proud of what's been done."

He can feel doubly proud in that his college St Michael's of Enniskillen has been the finishing school for nearly all of the Fermanagh players. As the main football academy in the county the school is already a lodestone for footballers who pass their eleven-plus examinations.

Others have to wait until they complete their O Levels in the vocational schools' system before migrating to St Michael's to study for A Levels. The school won three McRory Cups (Ulster schools) in the four years from 1999-2002. Thirteen of tomorrow's starting line-up have been through the school.

"I'd pay tribute to the club coaching structures and the schools from St Michael's to the vocational schools who work with players from the age of 11 to 16," says Corrigan. "Everyone involved in the development of football in Fermanagh should feel very proud and take credit."

He is aware of the perceived differences between his meticulous, technical approach and the play-for-fun reputation the team currently has but is keen to point out that his regime was not exactly one of Calvinist repression.

"Looking at the way Charlie has them playing is a joy to behold. If the preparation was complicated, rocket science stuff everyone would want to know about it. But the simple, straightforward approach is making a great impact on the team.

"There have been some comments about the great freedom they're playing with but the performance last year against Meath was as good as I've seen and there were no shackles or leashes then. One difference I would accept is that the young players don't have the baggage. They weren't there last year. They've just no fears."

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The common shorthand for Fermanagh's demographic strictures is one of a small population further reduced by the sectarian head count. But this weekend the interest and sense of involvement is universal, according to Peter Quinn.

"It's not just the football community. It's affected the entire community and the interesting thing is the amount of support - it's not unanimous - that has come from the Protestant community. It has given everyone an increased confidence and morale is very high in the county. It would be a good time to start a business.

"We have had Protestants wearing the county jersey over the past 10 years but they're very much in a minority and exceptions and it doesn't get talked about to avoid a reaction in their own community. They're very welcome in the GAA but the fact that games are played on a Sunday is a factor and the fact that we used to have a ban was a factor in keeping them away.

"There would be definitely a loosening now but there are some involved in politics who would certainly not support the GAA and make their opposition very clear.

"But among the general population at the present time it's very clear that there's at least an interest and moral support for - I'm not sure it's for the GAA so much as for - the Fermanagh team among the Protestant community."

Dealing with the challenges posed by a population of 58,000 stripped back to 30,000 for practical purposes is exacerbated by the general demographics of the county.

"This can be a platform," says Quinn. "Our underage structures are good. Our coaching structures have improved over the last decade. One quarter of the GAA population supports one club, Enniskillen. Ten clubs have a catchment of less than 800. Teemore won the league last season with a population of 500, 18 per cent of whom are Protestant.

"With clubs on those population bases we don't have enough strong clubs to give good quality competition within the county. That militates against players coming through to be good, solid county players. They're not being tested at club level."

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So far the county team has overcome these difficulties. The latest hurdle for Charlie Mulgrew is the growing interest of the media. Having advanced by stealth - their opponents' inadequacies consuming almost as much attention as their achievement - Fermanagh are now a last-four team.

At the media conference specially convened in Donagh for the semi-final the Fermanagh manager has a bemused air. He shrugs expressively at questions and spreads his hands in resignation.

"You've got to understand that this is all new to us. We didn't plan to be in an All-Ireland semi-final and we didn't plan not to be. What we planned for was that each game that came along, we would try and improve our performance on the previous game. That's the way we've worked all along and that's the way we'll continue to work for this game.

"There's no great master plan. We worked on a game plan and we train ourselves to improve on how we implement that game plan. You have to work the ball out of defence and get it into a bit of space so that you can kick the ball into your forwards. That's what every team does.

"Obviously it's how quickly you do it because teams now reorganise very quickly and get their defences very tight. We have to get the ball into the forwards quicker than they can get their defenders back."

"With five minutes to go against Armagh I was sort of thinking: 'we deserve this.' Don't let anything happen for us not to win this game because we had the game won and it just needed for us to push on and that's the most difficult thing to do. You need spirit and I think that's the key to this team."

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Tomorrow in Croke Park Mulgrew will fret at every twist and turn the match takes, hoping his players will continue to play with no inhibitions and extend their unlikely journey to the ultimate stage.

Dominic Corrigan's mind may wander to when he first saw those players, many of them as gawky youngsters untroubled by the county's threadbare history, filled with the optimism of kids.

And in the stadium he helped raise from the rubble of the old ground Peter Quinn will have no eyes for the sweeping architecture, as he watches his county travel into history and maybe beyond.

For everyone in Fermanagh tomorrow is it: the only day on which they will ever play their first-ever senior All-Ireland semi-final.