Under Malachy O’Rourke two Ulster titles followed in the space of three years, ending a wait going back to 1988. The last decade, though, has been unlike anything before.Īnd to think Monaghan began 2013 in Division Three, the glamour of away days in Killarney and Castlebar never further from view as the Farneymen battled it out with the likes of Sligo and Wicklow.īut that proved the gateway to high times ahead. “With the county, around 20,” he says, “I got to do both, and it was brilliant.” From no age he imagined what it must be like behind the scenes at an Ulster final, or in the corridors below Croke Park. Michael McKenna didn’t play football – “apart from 10 minutes U14, that’s as far as I got” – but, for as long as he can remember, life has revolved around following the fortunes of club and county.įor a spell straddling the reigns of Colm Coyle and Seamus McEnaney first time around, McKenna was brought into the inner sanctum as Monaghan kitman. I haven’t missed a Monaghan game in a long time…” “It’s big at the minute now, scrapbooks as well. “I’d have all the programmes from every game I was at… ’68 was my first county final, my father brought me, Clontibret against Scotstown, unfortunately we lost by a point. He never returns home empty-handed either. In 50-plus years of following Monaghan’s fortunes - first with his own father, then his children - there is barely a ground in the country McKenna hasn’t visited. “I was in Clones for the game against Tyrone last week, I don’t live that far away, but we were in two hours before the game – just to get parked, get settled in. “The son and daughter mightn’t like it,” he says, “but I get away early. Daughter Paula, and possibly son Macartan, make up the travelling party for the almost three hour trip out west from Scotstown, just as they have so many times before. NOT long after 8am on Sunday morning, breakfast in the belly, Michael McKenna will pack up his car and hit the road for Castlebar.

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