After years spent in Dublin as a joiner, taking part in football training with the other ex-pats when not driving up and down to Fermanagh, Maguire found enough work to secure his passage back. Today he is helping to renovate a derelict old Church of Ireland rectory across a courtyard from a small complex of houses. Among them is his own.
Around here people know him to the root. They admire him for the honesty and modesty that mark him as a man, and worship him as a footballer, but it is only a few days after Fermanagh have beaten Armagh and they need a moment to catch their breath. So, he has some peace.
It is a county in rapture. Their success this summer after a winter spent shedding a manager and a legion of their best players has made Fermanagh’s footballers the most absorbing story of the year, but sensations like this never appear out of nothing, like an exploding firecracker.
Seven years ago Maguire sat on the bench as Fermanagh won an All-Ireland B title. He was 19, and the celebrations as the players brought the trophy home were as good as anything they thought they would ever see. It was the summit of their ambition then, but they could feel things changing. It was time to start concentrating on beating Armagh and Tyrone, Derry and Down. This was their time.
Seven years passed, and summer after summer of opportunity with them. In 2001 they beat Donegal in Ulster, then tripped up against Monaghan and lost to Donegal in the qualifiers. In 2002 they reached the fourth round of the qualifiers against Kerry, and felt like they had finally arrived. Instead they were beaten by 15 points and sent north to think again.
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Last year they beat Meath and Mayo, and drew Tyrone in the All-Ireland quarter-final for their first ever championship game in Croke Park. History and Tyrone’s form stood firmly against them. Kerry was bad. This was worse.
“We were progressing nicely but never really making the cut,” he says. “We were winning a game or two in Ulster but when we got to a semi-final we weren’t taking the initiative. When the game was in the balance in the second half we didn’t take it. Last year we had a great run and we’d a great set-up under Dominic Corrigan and Martin McElkennon, but again we didn’t perform to our capabilities. They (Tyrone) just blew us off the field.
I was glad a number of players came back this year to carry the fight.”
Maguire thinks of the players they discovered and lost over the winter and wonders what strange alchemy sparked this run. Neither Eamon Maguire nor Mark Little were seriously considered senior players before this. Liam McBarron resisted all efforts to bring him back last year, yet returned when Fermanagh couldn’t do without him any more.
Niall Bogue has just turned 20. James Sherry has another few weeks to wait for his 20th birthday. One night they played Cork in a League game with just six players remaining from the previous year’s panel of 30.
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The start of the year was difficult. Maguire watched old faces leave and an array of strangers take their places. The Gallaghers were close friends. They relocated to Dublin and effectively retired. Paul Brewster was a leader during his entire life with Fermanagh, and he left too.
“The thing was a bit of a mess in all fairness. Dom didn’t take us this year and no one really wanted to. There was a number of defections from the team for one reason or another. There was trouble getting a squad together.
“I found it tough, especially with a lot of new players in. When you’ve been with a squad for seven or eight years and you’re used to the faces, you find it hard with a lot of new ones. It takes a while for things to gel. I was just sorry that some of the players weren’t present against Armagh for our win in Croke Park. They would’ve deserved it.”
They expected much from Maguire but he had things to prove to himself. Having made an impression when Tyrone trounced Fermanagh in the 1999 championship, he got his first start the following year against Armagh. In a light team, his physical strength and ability to run with the ball was a gift. Early on he threatened to tear Armagh apart. They were spooked, but found a way to manage him.
By the end three Armagh defenders were booked for fouls on Maguire but even when he wasn’t being allowed the room, or the protection, to score, he drew free after free. Armagh hung on by a point.
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He was a name now. Fermanagh sought him out at every opportunity and the opposition learnt. When Fermanagh played Donegal the following year they put an extra defender in front of Maguire to help his marker. He was almost held.
Fermanagh needed to find other avenues of approach, and Maguire’s form levelled out in turn. By the beginning of last year he needed a lift. During a League game against Down he was taken off, but in the following game against Laois he carried Fermanagh’s attack.
“I found a difference playing Ulster football and a team from down south. There’s a lot of negative stuff going on in Ulster football. There’s a lot of bodies around players and it can be difficult to express yourself and play football. We probably fare a way better playing teams down south.”
Now, when Fermanagh need him most, he is at his best. His freetaking has improved by a notch, his kicking too. Against Armagh he hit a sweet point off his significantly weaker left foot. Nothing felt beyond him, or his team.
Fermanagh’s uncluttered approach helped to replenish his belief and his appetite. At the beginning of the year, with no manager about, team sponsor Patsy Tracey asked an employee of his, Sylvester Mulrone, to train the team. Sean Reilly came in and helped put a panel together, and in the meantime the county board brought Charlie Mulgrew down from Letterkenny to manage. He sensed the mood and what the players needed. Keep it simple. Keep it enjoyable.
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“Charlie came in at the start of the League and it was very tough for him because he didn’t know any of the players. But he’s an honest fella and he gives you his honest opinion. Before matches he just says, ‘Go out and express yourselves, boys. Don’t have any pressure on your shoulders. Just let it happen.’
“This year we seem to be playing more freely and with less pressure on us. These last few years we had an experienced team together that was playing for six or seven years, and there was a right bit expected and we probably didn’t produce that.”
Everybody grew up and learned a little. When he thinks back to the Tyrone game last year, Maguire remembers how it felt like the team had flung in the towel once they went seven or eight points down. That wouldn’t happen this year. They’ve learned to trust each other and their gameplan, and from that stems the belief they need to win. They’re playing for respect too. People look at Fermanagh and still think lakes and fine pottery. Days like this can change perceptions and histories forever.
“We got a lot of respect after the Armagh match, but respect is strange. People have been saying you beat a poor Meath team, or a middling Cork team and you beat a Donegal team in turmoil. I played against those teams and they’re quality teams with quality players. It takes a huge effort from everyone to beat them. We probably didn’t get the credit we deserve, but that motivated us to go further.”
A wonderful journey goes on.