A week after observing his first All-Ireland senior final as Uachtaráin – a breathless classic that showcased everything that is good about hurling – Burns oversaw his first All-Ireland senior football decider.
It wasn’t a ‘great’ game, we get that. But what a great end if you’re an Armagh man or woman. Or more especially a president who doubles as a son of Armagh, hearing the final whistle blow with that precious piece of leather in the possession of your actual son.
Right in front of the Hogan Stand.
As Jarly Óg made a beeline for his proud father, an Orange wall of sound echoed all the way to Crossmaglen.
It would take a strong man to lift Kieran McGeeney into the air. Two brave namesakes managed it here: Kieran Donaghy and Ciarán McKeever.
Kieran McGeeney – a senior county football manager for 16 years, six with Kildare and now ten with his native Armagh, without getting his hands on a single, solitary provincial title – has just gone and shredded his own “unlucky general” stereotype.
Why bother with Leinster or Ulster when you can bring Sam home for the first time since you, as captain, lifted that elusive cannister 22 years ago?
Meanwhile, back in the Ard Chomhairle seats, Jarly Óg was giving Jarly Mór a bear hug. He literally didn’t drop the ball – some achievement – but he did knock his father’s glasses askew.
On a day when the efficiency of Armagh’s shooting compared to Galway’s scattergun execution was the biggest differential, the winners were entitled to lose their composure in the mayhem, but the president quickly recovered his to do what he does best: deliver a speech that captures the moment.
“If you were a parent who’s put up a set of GAA posts in your back garden, this belongs to you!” this proud parent began.
“To Galway,” he added, “the Armagh people know how you’re feeling. We have felt that too often in the recent past. Losing heartbreakingly, on penalties, in this stadium, in Clones twice.”
But then the killer line: “Today belongs to Ard Mhacha!”
As the foundations shuddered, Burns continued: “Today belongs to a man who lifted the cup here in 2002, and stuck with this team for the last ten years and is now manager, Kieran McGeeney – Geezer.”
And so, the most indefatigable of GAA managers has finally crossed the Rubicon. Twenty-two years ago, he too had the ball in his hand when the final whistle sounded on a day of All-Ireland history for his county. Now he has joined a select band of legends (Kevin Heffernan, Billy Morgan, Tony Hanahoe, Páidí Ó Sé and Brian Dooher) to captain and then manage his county to the Sam Maguire summit.
The day belonged to Geezer. His perseverance – and the patience of Armagh GAA chiefs where another county board might have succumbed to outside noises or twitchy fingers – has finally been rewarded. His first championship match with Kildare, over 16 years ago, ended in inglorious defeat to Wicklow. With Armagh, he had to wait until year five for even his first win in Ulster. He has watched his team fall on the wrong side of four penalty shootouts. What could this possibly mean to him?
“You know, it feels quiet. It’s like wearing a pair of ear muffs for a change, quietens all the noise,” he deadpanned.
“To be honest,” he expanded, “I’m just delighted for these boys. Back when we were playing, we got a couple of carrots to keep us going. Ulster championship [wins]. We had a couple of knockbacks, but these fellas have got knockback after knockback after knockback, and they just keep coming.
“Penalty shootouts, everybody telling them they can’t win tight games, can’t beat teams above them … [cue a pregnant pause for dramatic effect] … gave them a perfect answer. All-Ireland champions 2024. Delighted for them, absolutely over the moon.”
For veterans like Aidan Forker, emulating his manager as an All-Ireland winning captain in his 13th season, this was the ultimate deliverance. “Let today be a lesson to anyone anywhere who has a dream in life. With faith and hard work and belief, anything is possible,” he declared from the podium.
Emotion was everywhere you looked. Forker’s team-mate, Niall Grimley, lost his brother Patrick in a car accident last November. “I’ve been through a lot this past eight and a half months,” the midfielder reflected. “I lost my brother and there’s not a minute goes by where I don’t think about him. That was for him and I just wish he was here to see it.”
This Armagh team, so long unheralded, has been through more than most.
“Sometimes your strongest steel is forged in fire,” their manager concluded. “In those moments that we lost on penalties and those moments where we sat in there with our heads in our hands, did that have an impact on the last five minutes? Definitely.
“When they refused to be beaten – even though we were trying our best to beat ourselves in that five or six minutes – there was fellas like Ben [Crealey], everybody, throwing their bodies at the line.”
Victories like this can change you, McGeeney ventured. It can give you a bounce. “I hope this county does. But they’ll have a week to celebrate first.”
Only a week?
