Fermanagh county football team


The Fermanagh county football team represents Fermanagh GAA, the county board of the Gaelic Athletic Association, in the Gaelic sport of football. The team competes in the three major annual inter-county competitions; the All-Ireland Senior Football Championship, the Ulster Senior Football Championship and the National Football League.
Fermanagh's home ground is Brewster Park, Enniskillen. The team's manager is Kieran Donnelly.
The team has never won the Ulster Senior Championship, the All-Ireland Senior Championship or the National League, the only county besides [Wicklow county Gaelic football|football team|Wicklow] never to have won its provincial championship.

History

Fermanagh is the only team in the province of Ulster to have never won the Ulster Senior Football Championship.
Fragments of a poem from 1806 describe a football match between Louth and Fermanagh at Inniskeen in County Monaghan.

20th century

Fermanagh defeated Cavan in the 1914 Ulster SFC semi-final and the Ulster Council nominated the county to play Wexford in the All-Ireland Senior Football Championship semi-final. Because the train schedules did not allow them to get back for Sunday night, and the Great Northern Railway Company refused to run a special train because they were opposed to sport on Sunday, Fermanagh had to abdicate the responsibility to Monaghan.
One of Ulster's great footballers, Armagh-born Jim McCullough, played for Fermanagh in the mid-1930s and helped them reach the 1935 Ulster SFC final and 1936 National League final.
Peter McGinnity was the outstanding player of the under-21 team which reached two All-Ireland finals and defeated Derry and Tyrone to reach the 1982 Ulster SFC final, Despite a Peter McGinnity goal that put Fermanagh into the lead with 20 minutes remaining, the county lost 0–10 to 1–4 to Armagh.
Under manager Pat King, the county achieved a hat-trick of successes in 1997 in the B Championship, Dr McKenna Cup and Division 4 of the National League.

21st century

Fermanagh was a beneficiary of the change to the GAA championship in the 2000s.
In 2003, the county defeated Donegal in the Ulster SFC, then Cavan, Meath and Mayo in All-Ireland SFC qualifiers to reach a first All-Ireland SFC quarter-final.
Charlie Mulgrew was appointed manager in January 2004.
The county went to a replayed All-Ireland SFC semi-final in 2004, defeating Meath, Cork and getting past Donegal with a one-point win after extra-time, Then, most memorably of all, Armagh in the All-Ireland SFC quarter-final, thanks to a late point by Tom Brewster. A loss to Mayo in the semi-final replay ended the county's season. In 2006, despite running All-Ireland SFC favourites Armagh close twice in the Ulster SFC, Fermanagh yet again ended the season without a trophy after losing to Donegal in the fourth round of the All-Ireland SFC qualifiers. 2007 brought the loss of the county's National League Division 1 status, having failed to register a single point from its seven match campaign. Fermanagh performed better in the Ulster SFC however, only losing by an injury-time point to Tyrone. The county then defeated Wexford in the first round of the All-Ireland SFC qualifiers. However, it was unable to record a third win in four seasons over Meath at Navan in July, losing narrowly by two points despite dominating the latter stages. Charlie Mulgrew, manager for four seasons, stood down after this match, to be succeeded by Malachy O'Rourke. O'Rourke's first season featured a first appearance in an Ulster SFC final for 26 years, lost eventually to Armagh in a replay. His time as manager ended in 2010, after Fermanagh were relegated to Division 4 of the National Football League and a heavy defeat to Monaghan in the 2010 Ulster SFC semi-final.
Peter Canavan served as manager for two years, achieving promotion to Division 3 and a win against Westmeath in the All-Ireland SFC qualifiers. Canavan departed in 2013, with the county board acknowledging that he had taken the helm "at a very difficult time" and his management team stating that "significant progress has been made. The senior footballers now representing their county are fully committed, unified and ambitious".
In an unexpected development, Pete McGrath was appointed as Canavan's successor in November 2013, seeing off the challenge of former player Peter McGinnity, Gerry Moane and Kevin McStay. He brought the team to the 2015 All-Ireland SFC quarter-final before the players forced him out in 2017, shortly after he had said he would like to continue for another season. The player heave against McGrath drew criticism from observers outside the county.
Ryan McMenamin's time in charge was affected by the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on Gaelic games. He departed as manager in August 2021. Former player Kieran Donnelly replaced him.

Support

A supporters' club, called Club Eirne, exists.

Management team

Managerial history

Fermanagh appointed an outside manager, Charlie Mulgrew from Donegal, to lead the team to the 2004 All-Ireland SFC semi-finals. Pat King and John Maughan had also been brought in, from Tyrone and Mayo respectively, for the 1996 and 2000 All-Ireland Senior B Football Championship titles. Other outside managers of Fermanagh include P. J. McGowan, Peter Canavan, Pete McGrath and Ryan McMenamin.
P. J. McGowan 1991–91
Huge McCabe 1991–94
Terry Ferguson 1994–96
Pa King 1996–00
John Maughan 2000–01
Dominic Crigan 2001–03
Charlie Mulgrew 2004–07
Malachy O'Rourke 2007–10
Peter Canavan 2010–13
Pete McGrath 2013–17
Rory Gallagher 2017–19
Ryan McMenamin 2019–21
Kieran Donnelly 2021–

Players

Notable players

Below is The Irish News 125 Fermanagh Player List:

Records

Most appearances

All Stars

Fermanagh has 4 All Stars, as of 2006. 3 different players have won, as of 2006. No player has won more than two All Stars.1982: Peter McGinnity2004: Barry Owens, Martin McGrath2006: Barry Owens2nd

Competitive record

Fermanagh has never won an All-Ireland Senior Football Championship title, although Charlie Mulgrew led the team to the 2004 All-Ireland SFC semi-finals.
Fermanagh has never won a National Football League title.
Fermanagh won two All-Ireland Senior B Football Championship titles, in 1996 and 2000.
Pat King managed the team to its first title in 1996. Below is the team that defeated Longford in the final.
Subs used: T. Callaghan for ?; Raymond Gallagher for ?
John Maughan managed the team to its second title in 2000. Below is the team that defeated Wicklow in the final.

Honours

National

Provincial