In February, Pete Meegan realised a dream when he was chairman of an All-Ireland winning club. The Inniskeen man spoke to the Monaghan Yearbook about the highs of the most extraordinary voyage in the Grattans' colourful history. Inniskeen's voyage to All-Ireland intermediate club championship glory, which culminated in a stunning victory in the national decider at Croke Park on February 19 2006, was one of the greatest achievements in the history of Monaghan GAA. By striking national gold, the Grattans became the first ever club in the county to glean an All-Ireland title and they were, quite rightly, the toast of the nation. Thus, eighteen months after suffering the bitter, bitter disappointment of demotion from senior ranks, Inniskeen were celebrating their greatest achievement ever. Football, as they say, is a funny old game. The mood in the camp at the end of 2004 was at an all-time low. But the players dragged themselves up by the bootlaces and vowed to bounce back. Nobody could have imagined the extent to which they would go on and vindicate themselves. After booking an instant return to the top table via the prime objective of winning the county IFC, Inniskeen went on to capture both the Ulster and All-Ireland intermediate club football championships. Absolutely unbelievable stuff! Thoroughly merited too, let it be noted for the record. Due to the phenomenal success, the 2006 calendar could hardly have begun in more dramatic fashion for Inniskeen Grattans. Needless to say, the celebratory Dinner Dance that took place on Easter Sunday night, April 16, was an occasion to behold. This was a red letter date in the history of one of Monaghan's best-known and most progressive clubs, as they gathered in the Nuremore Hotel, Carrickmacross to celebrate the historic achievements of their most productive season ever bar none. GAA president Sean Kelly was the guest of honour along with the chairman of Monaghan County Board, John Connolly. Both were fulsome in their praise of the achievements of Inniskeen on the playing fields of Monaghan, Ulster and beyond. At the presentation of three sets of medals, the Association President spoke of the great heritage and tradition that the club has created, referring in his remarks to people like the late Paddy O'Rourke, Jack Crawley and the poet Patrick Kavanagh. He spoke of his delight at the success that Inniskeen had reaped and of the satisfaction it gave him that the All-Ireland junior and intermediate club finals had been staged in Croke Park. To mark the occasion of his visit to the club's annual get-together, his last official engagement prior to Congress, Sean Kelly was presented with a copy of the collected poems of Patrick Kavanagh by club chairman Pete Meehan. County chairman, John Connolly, in congratulating Inniskeen on their phenomenal success, recalled some of their great achievements and the people who had been involved. He also had special words of praise for Paddy Meegan who has been acting as a referee in Monaghan for over 30 years. The club, he said, had also made a major contribution to hurling since the ancient game had been revived by the late Paddy O'Rourke and the chairman paid tribute to the players from Inniskeen who had helped Monaghan capture the 2005 Ulster U21 Shield. Special presentations were made by the All-Ireland winning players to team management in recognition of their efforts in helping the club achieve such remarkable success. Speaking on behalf of management, Gerry Sheridan gave all the credit to the players, whom he said had worked extremely hard over the entire season and he expressed the hope that Inniskeen could consolidate in senior football and move on from there in the years ahead. The occasion also saw the club acknowledge the 50th anniversary of Monaghan winning the All Ireland junior football championship in 1956 and special presentations were made to the club's three representatives on that team - Ollie O'Rourke, Joey Byrne and Ciaran Dooley (representing his late brother Matt). Speaking to the Monaghan Yearbook shortly after the annual Dinner Dance, Inniskeen chairman Pete Meegan reiterated that 2006 would be remembered as "the best year ever in the history of the club". It was an odyssey that nobody in the parish will ever forget: "To win the Monaghan and then the Ulster championships was one thing, but to go up to Croke Park and win an All-Ireland capped it all. It was unbelievable. Inniskeen had experienced nothing like that since 1888, when the club represented Monaghan and Ulster in an All-Ireland semi-final." After finishing top of the pile in Monaghan and Ulster, Inniskeen booked their place in the All-Ireland final with a gruelling 0-12 to 0-9 defeat of Cork and Munster champions Carbery Rangers at Portlaoise on Sunday January 29. Midfielder Michael Lennon was a colossus throughout and duly received the Ulster GAA Writers Award for January. Caherlistrane (Galway) provided opposition in the All-Ireland final at Croke Park on Sunday February 19. Full forward and scoring machine Paul Meegan weighed in with 1-6 and, when sub Gary Lynch fired a second late goal it completed a wonderful comeback to give the south Monaghan outfit a thrilling 2-10 to 1-11 victory. Did the club even dare dream at the start of the 2005 campaign - as they sought to restore lost pride - that they might go on to win an All-Ireland title? "We concentrated on the Monaghan intermediate championship first and foremost. We really had to win that and we couldn't look any further. We had been relegated in very difficult circumstances the year before but we brought in a new manager and the boys knuckled down. They went on to win the intermediate championship and we were delighted with that. "We knew the All-Ireland final was taking place in Croke Park and it was something we wanted to participate in. Who wouldn't? They sat down and said they'd give Ulster a proper go. The lads put an awful lot into it. The commitment we had from the players was nothing short of extraordinary and they deserve everything they got. They put themselves into it 100%. They will always be remembered as the first Monaghan club team to win an All-Ireland final and nobody can ever take that away from them." The Dinner Dance on Easter Sunday was a special night. Pete recalls: "A total of 480 people attended and it was a brilliant occasion. Everybody associated with the team was there and we were also honoured by the attendance of Sean Kelly, John Connolly and JP Graham. A great night was had by all." Indeed, nothing like feasting on the fruits of one's labours! Has the All-Ireland put Inniskeen back on the map? "In fairness, we were never off the map," insists the club chairman. "We're a very famous club, even though we haven't won the senior championship since 1948. We appeared in three finals since but lost them all, so it was great to win a few major finals in 2005/06." Interestingly, the other clubs in Monaghan were quick to recognise and salute Inniskeen's breakthrough: "The win was really well-received by all the clubs in the county and we appreciate that. The recognition we got was very encouraging. There are a lot of keen rivalries, but those were forgotten and the All-Ireland win went down well. "It's a major boost for Monaghan football in general. The inferiority complex should be gone now. Other clubs in the county will look at what we've achieved and they'll fancy their chances of doing something similar. "Of course, it won't be easy. I can't stress enough how much hard work and dedication went into this. The players worked their socks off for twelve months solid. They believed in themselves and, at the end of the day, it was all worth it. Caherlistrane hadn't been beaten in 15 months and were a great team but our lads never gave up. They battled to the end and got two goals in the last ten minutes to turn the game on its head. The timing was perfect and it's very hard to come back from that. "After winning the All-Ireland, we had players who hadn't played for years coming back to play 'B' football. It lifted the whole club and the entire community. Inniskeen is a different parish. We have people talking about football who never knew what football was. The additional support and goodwill we have picked up is unbelievable and it's all a knock-on from winning the All-Ireland. Inniskeen has been transformed." To win an All-Ireland final in Croke Park is the dream of every footballer. To actually achieve it is something else. "We will never forget this as long as we live," Pete concludes. "To be chairman of a club that wins an All-Ireland is a dream come true for me personally. There are an awful lot of people here who will never forget what the team achieved." Inniskeen maestro One of the stars of Inniskeen's glorious odyssey to the 2006 All-Ireland club title was top-scorer Paul Meegan. He's hoping for more of the same in '07. For Paul Meegan, the memory of playing at Croke Park and winning an All-Ireland medal with Inniskeen is still very fresh. Almost a year on, he is convinced though that it is time for the Farneysiders to kick on and write another chapter in the glorious history of the Grattans. And nothing short of a senior championship medal will begin to equate with the achievement of beating the best of the rest in the country on that fateful February day 2006. Hindsight is a real big crutch but what possessed us not to put the deeds of the house on the bold Paul getting the 2005 Intermediate Player of the Year award? Maybe the local turf accountants refused to open a book. Maybe the odds were as short as betting on a windy St. Patrick's Day. For the record, Paul's citation read: "for his dedication to seeing his club achieve the goal of promotion back to senior ranks, a task he set about with a passion that is reserved for the very few. "Leading by example, it was his ability as a playmaker, score maker and most importantly a score taker that he helped his club fulfill their ambition by winning the intermediate football championship and thereby moving back up to senior ranks for this year (2006). "His ability to score points from a range of distances and angles was a key feature of his team's progress and even when they moved onto the provincial stage, he was still out there leading from the front and in the process demonstrating that intermediate football in Monaghan was on par with the best and better than most in the province of Ulster." For our man Meegan though, being singled out among his peers was a great honour but it was the collective joy which enveloped Inniskeen Grattans in 2006 by dint of their all-conquering escapades which gave him most satisfaction of all. "It's always nice to get personal recognition and an award but winning an All-Ireland medal with your club and playing at Croke Park was the best of all." If the trip to Croker and being crowned the best intermediate team in the country were the highlights of '06, promotion to senior ranks was a close second, one imagines. "After being relegated the previous year, definitely promotion through either the league or championship was our ambition at the start of 2005 and I definitely thought that we had a great chance of winning the intermediate championship," Paul affirms. And according to the hugely talented dual player, the momentum in Inniskeen just kept growing and growing from January onwards. The club's subsequent IFC success left the script looking real tidy and neat. However the script that unfolded thereafter was nothing short of unbelievable and Steven Spielberg-like. Inniskeen were set up to reach for the stars but nobody in the club really felt that a national title was in the pipeline. The club knew the route that had to be taken to get to the highest stage of all of course. Back in 2001, Inniskeen had dipped their feet in the waters of the provincial club scene but lost to Derry dynamos Craigbane. With just about a half-dozen survivors from that loss still on board in 2005, there wasn't a whole lot of expection. Ambition yes, but not a whole lot of expectation. Victory over arch rivals Donaghmoyne in the IFC semi-final whetted appetites and increased confidence while underpinning a surging degree of expectation. Still aggrieved at having been relegated the year before, Inniskeen approached the county decider with a vengeance and a belief that they were better than co-finalists Doohamlet. "We had only lost one or two games in the league so we knew there wasn't too many better than us and after beating Donaghmoyne, I knew we would be there or thereabouts in the championship," Paul explains. "It wasn't easy in the final and we were a bit lucky in the end because they fought back well but we deserved to win." The Ulster club championship now beckoned on the back of Inniskeen's 1-13 to 2-9 county final win with Paul amassing an amazing 1-7 of the winners' tally - his goal coming six minutes into the second half. It too was to be a magical mystery tour for Meegan and Co in the provincial competition. A one point win over Cavan representatives Cuchullains was followed by a similarly narrow 0-8 to 0-5 victory over the Erne County's Ederney (would-be 2006 Fermanagh SFC finalists) despite the fact that Inniskeen finished with 13 players. The Ulster final saw Inniskeen effect an archetypal 'smash and grab' victory over Donegal champions Glenswilly with a goal from Pearse McSkeane some 90 seconds into injury time deciding the issue in a torrid affair in Enniskillen. "That was as good a team performance as I've ever seen," Paul remembers. "Each of the 20 lads used that day played their part with everyone putting their shoulder to the wheel. It was a brillant win." Even a subsequent tired defeat to Donaghmoyne (0-11 to 1-11) in the intermediate league final couldn't tarnish Inniskeen's achievements in winning the Packie McCully Cup. "Donaghmoyne deserved to win on the day but I think if we had been given another week's rest we'd have been a different proposition," Paul opines. "So many matches on heavy ground was taking its toll but Donaghmoyne were determined to win promotion - we had already got promotion - and they were the better team." Under the stewardship of Tallanstown native Gerry Sheridan, Inniskeen had gone where very few pundits had believed they could have gone. With Sheridan committed to travelling to Australia thereafter though, the Inniskeen club pulled a master stroke by bringing in former stalwart Gerry Hoey. A trip to Liverpool helped create an even bigger buzz in the camp and even defeat for Paul, his brother Ronan and the two Lennons, Niall and Michael plus supporting cast, in the senior hurling league final (replay) at the tail end of December couldn't burst the Inniskeen balloon. Paul had the dissapointment though of being jettisoned from the county panel just prior to Christmas. Did he feel all the club football and hurling worked against his efforts to be part of the county panel? "I wouldn't blame my commitments to the club. I still have a lot of things to improve about my game but being part of the 2007 panel has made up for not making it last year." By late January Paul's focus was placed firmly on making it to Croke Park and an All-Ireland final. Crack Cork side and defending champions Carbery Rangers stood in their way in a semi-final which would be played in Portloaise. "To get to play in Croke Park was a hell of an incentive for us all," says the Queens University-based 22 year old Civil Engineering student. "That was a huge motivating factor for us. I don't think it would have been the same had the final been fixed for anywhere else." Once again it was a close call with the Monaghan and Ulster champions skipping to a 0-12 to 0-9 win. "In fairness, I think the final scoreline flattered them a bit. We missed a couple of goal chances and their 'keeper saved well on a couple of occasions." Could he really believe that Croker was next up and that the team stood on the cusp of being the first Monaghan club to lift an All-Ireland club title? "No, not really and I don't think too many people in the rest of Monaghan could take it in either. "I think a lot of clubs in the county underestimated our ability but over the past year they have come to acknowledge and appreciate just how far we went." Paul says Inniskeen got better and better the further they went in the championship in 2005 but he doesn't believe that the Grattans' name was actually on the cup or that they were destined to make history. "The team we played in the final, Caherlistrane from Galway, were the best football team we played all year and we had to play our best game of the year to beat them because they had some fantastic footballers." By beating the Tribesmen by 2-10 to 1-11, Inniskeen's finest wrote themselves into the annals of Monaghan GAA with a display full of courage, character, opportunism and no little skill. A goal from, who else but, Paul in the 19th minute of the second half helped reel in the Galway team's 1-6 to 0-5 interval lead and propel Inniskeen up several gears. The Grattans increased the tempo of the game significantly from there to the finish, striking for a crucial goal three minutes from the end of normal time courtesy of a fine effort from sub. Gary Lynch. "We couldn't have timed our run at them any better," Paul recalls. Gary's goal put us in front for only the second time in the whole match but it was a great time to get the goal and go in front. It didn't give them enough time to recover." So what did it feel like to play in Croker AND win an All-Ireland medal? "Unbelievable, just brillant. It's something none of us will ever forget." Paul assures us that the win over Caherlistrane and the odyssey up to that point has been well and truly put to the back of the players' minds since though. He says the team's 1-14 to 0-14 win in the first round of last year's SFC augured well for the team's 2006 blue riband campaign but defeats to 'Blayney and Truagh thereafter knocked the bottom out of their season. "Let's say we took a year out in 2006 after our exertions in the All-Ireland club," Paul quips. "We''ll have learned from last year's results and we'll be a much tougher prospect this coming year." Clontibret, Latton, Magheracloone, 'Blayney et al, ye have been warned! The Grattans Road to History 2005-2006 By James Meegan When the Grattans set out on the Championship campaign they defeated Currin and Eire Og in respective judging by the way they performed in these games to be Champions was their incentive. Their next game it was the semi-final versus their great rivals the Fontenoys This was to be the contest that would segregate the men from the boys. On the day Donaghmoyne did not figure to the frustration of their fans and to quote a racing phrase they joined the also rans. Next it was the County final against the O'Neills of Doohamlet They were by far the best team that the Grattans to date had met. This game was classed as a thriller one scribe penned it as a spectacle but two late goals by the O'Neills made the final score look respectable. At the Celebrations in the Village that night the players were unusually confined It was obvious that these young Grattans had much greater things on their minds. They set their sights firmly on Ulster they weren't going to settle for less their aim was to challenge the big guns and prove that they were the best. They next set out for Breffni Park on a bleak November day this was the first round of the Ulster the Cavan Champions Cuchullains to play. This game it was a close encounter each player gave his best when the Ref called a halt to proceedings with honours they passed the test. Once more they headed back to Breffni in the semi-final the Fermanagh Champions to meet and although reduced to thirteen once more they avoided defeat. The St. Jospeh's fans were in a argumentative mood they insisted that the Ref was to blame but when common sense prevailed the outcome remained the same. Next it was the Ulster Final in Enniskillen against Glenswilly from Donegal this is the one the experts predicted that the Grattans would finally fall. Defeat was not on their Agenda they performed with might and with main and at the end of a titanic struggle the Ulster Champions were the men from the Fane. The Glenswilly players were devastated their game plan had come unstuck they reckoned the Grattans super sub should be named Mr. Luck Next was the All-Ireland semi-final in Portlaoise following their great win over Glenswilly their opponents were Munster and All-Ireland Champs Carberry Rangers from the Lee. The odds were stacked against the Grattans they compared to the Lee and the Fane but when the final whistle sounded they were victorious once again On the day the Grattans were superior it was obvious for everybody to see they also put a stop to their singing the banks of my own Lovely Lee. Next it was the All-Ireland Final in Croke Park against Caherlistrane, the Connacht Champs from the West this was the game that would prove who was All-Ireland best. This game it was a real thriller from the throw in right to the end you could hear the chant Grattans, Grattans from Croke Park right out to Ringsend. At the end the fans invaded the pitch they were on their knees on the hallowed sod the young ones were inhaling a sweet victory the old timers were just thanking God. So far I have refrained from individualism as this rhyme is about a great team that's why they became triple champions the wearers of the ref and green. Meegans, Lennons, Callans, Fitzpatrick, Duffy, Dooley O'Rourke all great names of Grattan tradition no little wonder that they have achieved what at the outset was their ambition Lynch, Loftus, Rice, McSkeane, Mulholland, Boylan, Dowdall,McKenna more names of Grattan fame they will forever be remembered as Heroes in the Parish on the banks of the Fane. The Merry Grattan by Owen Joe McGahon Sung to the air of The Merry Ploughboy Well I am A Merry Grattan I come from Inniskeen And strangers stop to ask me why It's painted Red and Green Since the day that we were born And we're off to pay the All-Ireland And we're off tomorrow morn CHORUS We're all off to Dublin In the Red and Green With banners glisten' in the sun We're off to see the Grattans play In Croke Park in Dublin Town I will leave aside my level and trowel I will leave aside my cow I will leave aside my saw and pen For I'll not need them now And when the game is over And points we have won by three We will run onto that famous park And rejoice in victory CHORUS We're all off to Dublin In the Red and the Green With the banners glisten' in the sun We're off to see the Grattans play And beat the boys from Caherlistrane And going up on the Hogan Stand Amongst all the dignitaries To receive the cup from Sean Kelly Will be our captain Mickey Fitzy And when the cup is lifted high By the Boys in Red and Green We will spare a thought for former Grattans Who have played for Inniskeen CHORUS We're all off to Dublin In the Red and Green With banners glisten' in the sun We're off to see the Grattans play And to win the All Ireland Tweet

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