Monaghan manager Gabriel Bannigan speaks to his players after the Allianz Football League Division 2 match between Cavan and Monaghan at Kingspan Breffni in Cavan. Photo by Ben McShane/Sportsfile.
By John Harrington
Saturday, May 23rd, 2014 was meant to be a great day for the Bannigan family.
At the age of just 15, Micheál Bannigan was set to make his championship debut for the Monaghan minors against Tyrone in the Ulster championship.
His proud father Owen had arranged tickets for family members including Micheál’s uncle Gabriel who was living down in Dublin.
Tragically, on Friday May 22nd, Owen died suddenly when he suffered a brain haemorrhage. His brother Gabriel is still haunted by the memory of hearing the terrible news.
“It's a phone call I'll never forget on the Friday,” says Bannigan. “They said that Owen was after being taken away to the hospital and to get on the road and I got on the road, and when I was driving, my brother Paudie rang me to tell me that that that Owen was dead.
“It's something that obviously I'll never forget. It took me years to get over it.
“Football definitely helped me get over it, and I'm sure it's helped Micheál get over it too.”
Gabriel and Micheál will both be key figures for Monaghan when they play Roscommon in today’s Allianz Football League Division 2 Final. Gabriel as team manager, Micheál as team captain.
Monaghan manager Gabriel Bannigan, left, and selector Andy Moran before the Allianz Football League Division 2 match between Roscommon and Monaghan at King & Mofatt Dr Hyde Park in Roscommon. Photo by Stephen Marken/Sportsfile.
They’re both hugely passionate Aughnammullen and Monaghan men, traits that were passed down to them by Owen.
“He was my hero as a kid growing up,” says Gabriel. “Owen was a brilliant footballer, very, very similar style to Micheál.
“He was small and fast and explosive, great lad, great carrying ball, deadly accurate. He got a very bad knee injury when he was when he was 30 years of age.
"I have absolutely no doubt cost us at least one, if not a couple of senior championships, because we lost our best player at a time when we had our best team.
“Owen did huge work in the club as well.
“He was the main driving force behind the development of the of the building of the stand, and the development of the club rooms, the social centre that was opened.
“He was the driving force behind all of that.
“Aughnamullen was in his blood, it was in his bones, it was everything, it was his life.
“Me and him spoke every day on the phone, except when Leeds knocked Man United on the FA Cup, he being a Man United fan, me being a Leeds fan, and he didn't answer the phone to me for 3 weeks!
“He was my hero and role model from a footballing point of view. I just wanted to grow up and be like Owen.”
Were it not for Owen, it’s unlikely that Gabriel would be manager of Monaghan now.
The road that led him here began in 2014 when Owen asked Gabriel to help him coach the Aughnamullen U-16 team that Micheál played on.
Gabriel drove up from Dublin one evening a week to take them for a session and the team went on to win a double in Monaghan that year.
Monaghan manager Gabriel Bannigan celebrates with family after the Allianz Football League Division 2 match between Louth and Monaghan at Integral GAA Grounds in Drogheda, Louth. Photo by Ben McShane/Sportsfile.
Six years later Gabriel, now no longer working in Bank of Ireland in Dublin, was asked to manage the Aughnamullen senior team.
He jumped at the opportunity, particularly as by now the panel was heavily populated with graduates of that U-16 team he had formed such a bond with five years previously and also because Owen had always been keen for him to come home to manage the senior team.
They’d been relegated to Junior the year previous but in two years Gabriel steered them to back-to-back promotions and into the senior championship for the first time since his own playing days.
“That was nice to be able to do that, obviously, from a sporting perspective and a competitive perspective, but it was even more personal to me to do it, because for me it was a nice legacy goal,” he says.
“It's nice having family connection with the team and Micheál as a player there. Like, I mean, that's a nice dynamic.”
Bannigan’s success with his home club brought him onto the radar of the then recently appointed Monaghan manager, Vinny Corey, who invited him to be part of his management team.
"We were after beating Castleblayney in the championship and I was actually in the clubhouse drinking a pint and I got a text from Vinny to say, ‘Well done, would you be able to meet me before you go back up the road?’
“So, I rang him and I said, ‘Yeah, I'll meet you anywhere, and I said, I'm still here.’
“He gave me his eircode for his house and I drove to his house and half an hour in the kitchen with him and shook hands, and that was it.
“It was an honour for me to get involved with Vinny, and to be involved with Monaghan, and I fully expected Vinny to stay on for at least another year.
“But Vinny made the decision that, it wasn't for him to stay on for a year and then it came around to thinking, ‘well, am I going to give it a rattle or not?
“A number of the players had approached me to see would I go for it and I spoke to a few other people and particularly family. I decided that, you know, I'm no spring chicken anymore, it was now or never for me, so I was either going to go and have a go at it, or it was probably never gonna happen.
“It's interesting how life, how something that changes in your life, can lead you then on onto a different journey, and I'm so happy that it's worked out that way, you know.”
Mícheál Bannigan of Monaghan poses for a portrait before a media conference at Bective Stud in Balgil, Navan, Meath, ahead of the upcoming Allianz Football League Division 2 match between Meath and Monaghan on Sunday, March 16th. Photo by Piaras Ó Mídheach/Sportsfile
Sharing that journey with his nephew Micheál has made it all the more special.
“I'm incredibly proud of Micheál, he's like a son to me,” says Bannigan.
“He's a real leader in that group. He drives standards in every training session and every match.
“I mean the mentality he has and that sort of meets this whole Monaghan team, there's just no fear of anyone really; that when you go out like, that's what it seems.
“I think the Monaghan psychology really is we've probably been used to being the underdogs and, taking on the bigger names and the bigger teams.
“We certainly have a lot of respect for the teams who go out and play, but, you try to build a mentality and forge a mentality within the group. That if we prepare well enough to get them to believe in the talent we have in our within our squad.
“We're well able to go out and give anyone a game, you know.”