Seamus Mulligan has probably the letters GAA printed on his bones and a Hall of Fame award is the least he deserves for service rendered to club and county, Kevin Carney agrees. Seamus Mulligan's love affair with Gaelic football continues unabated. While the Seans' stalwart stands on the cusp of retiring from the labour force, there's no sign of a sabbatical, football-wise, around the corner. Mulligan's curtain call, as far as his involvement in the native game is concerned, seems as far away as an All-Ireland SFC title for the Cats. Fresh-faced and fresh from the receipt of his 2002 Monaghan GAA Hall of Fame Award, Seamus talks about the game he loves with the same eloquence and passion that he brought to bear when starring for club and county so many moons ago. For GAA folk in Monaghan who weren't in the land of the living at the time of Neil Armstrong's walk on the moon; the Beatles' visit to Dublin or the toppling of Nelson's Pillar, the name Seamus Mulligan mightn't ring too many bells. However for the truly enlightened gael in the Farney County and further afield, Mulligan is noted as a former wizard on the football field, a nuisance for defenders to cope with, a nightmare to keep track of at midfield and simply an unshakeable irritant for forwards to overcome. As for the aforementioned award itself, the man himself appears to have been genuinely surprised to have been singled out among the multitudes. Not that the bookies' could have been so surprised - had they opened a book in the first place. Given that he was the first player in Monaghan to represent his county at minor, junior and senior grades in the same year (1956), the local turf accountants would surely have made the amiable Seamus a short-odds favourite for the prestigious award. Needless to say, Seamus looks back at 1956 with the sort of fondness men in their mid-sixties normally reserve for their first grandchild. Seamus understandably and perhaps all to predictably cites '56 as the most memorable year in a career that saw him ply his skills on the field of play from the 'fifties through to the early 'eighties. "You'd have to say it was the highlight. It's not every year that an All-Ireland medal comes along. "It was terrific to win the junior that year but, like everyone else that ever won an All-Ireland, you think that there'll be more to collect down the road." There weren't anymore such honours collected of course but, perhaps, therein lies one of the reasons why men like Seamus Mulligan are thought so highly of and respected in their own land. A player from yesteryear who was, what was known in the vernacular back then as a 'good mixer' i.e. a well-rounded footballer who had a lot of strings to his bow. Certainly Seamus was, by all accounts, a player whose speed, strength, skill and bravery would make him an excellent candidate to transport 'Doctor Who'- like into the modern game, Seamus grabbed the Monaghan public's imagination (and admiration) before, during, and after '56. "You had to be as good a mixer as you could back in those days to make an impression. "You definitely had to have the strength as well as the speed because when you got a wallop, you had to be able to take it. "There was no good in being a fast and skilful player if you lay down," a team-mate of the bold Mulligan confirms. Either way, the fact that Seamus had yet to turn 18 in '56 served to make him out as a 'boy wonder' even before business end of the competition came into focus. But as things panned out, the naturally talented Mulligan went onto establish himself as one of the main men on the Monaghan team that pummelled the life out of so many top-class sides in the mid-fifties. That never-to-be forgotten year of '56 saw Monaghan whip Cavan by 0-10 to 0-2 in the Ulster junior final, Kerry thereafter in the All-Ireland semi-final (when Seamus cracked in a gem of a goal), Kildare (home final) and then London to underpin their claim to be the best in the land. But in reflecting on those joyous days, Seamus is as quick to hand out the bouquets as he was, back then, in garnering possession. "There were some tremendously gifted footballers around Monaghan back then. "Fellas like John Rice, Seamus McElroy, Jimmy Sherry, Sean Morgan, Francie Treanor and Malachy Clerkin were as good as you'd get in the whole of Ulster. "The standard of club football in the county was very high and that was borne out by how the county team fared against the rest of Ireland," Seamus insists. Torrid battles with Down and Cavan come flooding back to Seamus as his memories of the great games of yore illuminate the conversation like streak of lightning across a dank and dim skyline. 1956 forms the core of his most pleasant recollections But, course, the effervescent Mulligan didn't stop collecting silverware in 1956. All told, he played a part in the annexing of 14 county titles on the club scene, including a Intermediate league and championship double with Threemilehouse in '56, just 12 months after helping his native club to a first-ever blue riband junior title. Back then, Seamus tells us, player pools or panels, had much more to do with substance than style and, more significantly, more to do with quality than quantity. "We made the best of the numbers we had, which wasn't a lot. "Back in the mid-fifties, we'd mostly have just one sub. Although there wasn't anything else to do around the area but play football, the amount of players we had was nothing compared to what the club has nowadays." And, of course, it wasn't as if a bevy of young gasuns were nursed up through the ranks from underage level before being shifted off the assembly line onto the adult echelon of football. "There was no such thing as coaching back then. The first time you ever came together as a team would have been at minor level - there wasn't any competitive games organised before that age." Seamus et al had to make do with the traditional catch and kick-style for years but then came the seventies a bit of 'blackboard' tactics became de rigeur. "We had a system in play that worked well with Eddie Coyle, our goalkeeper at the time, at the heart of it. "It was about playing a certain way and finding your own man with the ball and it worked well for years without other teams being really able to counteract it," Seamus explains. Indeed the very same system helped steer Seans to a Junior league and championship double. The modus operandi of Mulligan and co. reaped even more success. Threemilehouse arguably proved themselves to be the team of the sixties in Monaghan by scooping three Dr. Ward Cup titles in 1967, '68 (when he captained the side) and '69 (when the team added the championship title for good measure too). But such victories were all that the totally-dedicated Mulligan deserved. A non-smoker, non-drinker, a dream machine for any manager - then and especially now - the versatile Seans' man struggles to think of any cloud on the silver lining that was his football career. "Maybe the fact that I got the eye trouble at 24 was a negative thing. It (his eye problem) went against me as far as the football was concerned but I never dwelt on it," he acknowledges. And, incredibly, despite the obvious temptation to remain anchored to the glory days of the past, Seamus seems quite anxious to keep his mind focussed on the here and now. In this respect, he appears to garner almost as much satisfaction and pride from chipping in from the sidelines now at Seans as he did when chipping in with a point or six, yet another block or a storming run from midfield in support of his frontmen. As Sean McDermotts' groundsman, Seamus is to the manor born. Unlike a lord, he maintains, he gets plenty of help from those around him in looking after the 'estate'. It's obvious that looking after home of Sean McDermotts, helping out at the weekly Bingo session etc etc represents a veritable labour of love for the ageless former county star. Formerly treasurer of the club and currently President, Seamus has, for many years, given back - tenfold - what he got from the game he graced for so long. A mighty clubman, Seamus is delighted with the way things are going for his beloved club right now. "Football has never been going so well around here," he declares. "When you consider how well the club did in the Ulster intermediate championship and the way all three teams, senior, our junior Bs and our third team are doing, you have to be optimistic for the future. "The amount of work that has been done at juvenile level over the last 20 years or so has got us where we are today and that's to the credit of everyone who has helped out at bringing the young talent through." And what of the potential of Seans' premier football team? "I think there's great potential there when you consider how well they did in the Ulster intermediate club championship and the fact that they beat 'Blayney in the league during the year. "But the biggest thing is that I think there's more to come from the present panel. "The interest is definitely there among the players. "There's a passion for football in the area. "There's a great tradition here and the players appreciate that. "I'm very optimistic that the club can go on and get even stronger in the years to come." Now if only the rest of the clubs in Monaghan could bottle such optimism! Tweet

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