WHAT a start to the year it was for Derrylin man, Malachy O’Rourke. In one of the most captivating All Ireland Club Finals in recent times, O’Rourke’s Glen men came from behind to beat St Brigid’s of Roscommon 2-10 to 1-12 to win their first-ever All Ireland club title.
It was redemption after the men of Watty Graham’s had lost last year’s decider to Kilmacud Crokes in the most controversial of circumstances when TV footage showed the Leinster champions had 16 men on the pitch in the dying seconds.
“Losing last year was funny in that there was so much extra emotion with the way the game finished and the controversy over it,” recalled O’Rourke.
“After it all died down, the feeling in the club was ‘right, let’s set our stall on getting back there’.”
On Sunday, January 21, the memories of the 2023 defeat were put to bed when Glen lifted the Andy Merrigan Cup.
“The way it happened made it all the more memorable,” said the Derrylin native, “sometimes you win a final and you win it by five or six points and you have a wee bit of time before the end of the game to process it. Whereas, the way the game went, a lot of the game and a lot of the second half, we felt we weren’t playing our best and you were nearly fearing the worst.
“When we got the goal and things happened so quick, it was a mixture of relief and euphoria and everything else, and it carried on a long time after.
“It was just brilliant and to see how much it meant to everybody in the club, the players obviously and everybody else, it was just brilliant to be involved in it.”
The All Ireland senior title for O’Rourke is a sweet one to add to his growing list of accomplishments, having already won five provincial crowns; two with Glen, two with Monaghan and one with the Loup in 2003.
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