By John Harrington

If there was an All-Star award for the most loyal GAA supporter in the country, then Mick McDonagh would be dusting down a tuxedo every year.

The name might not be familiar to you, but there’s a very good chance you know Mick to see him. He’s the man who has earned a very GAA sort of fame for being spotted at all times of the year, and at all venues in the country, perched on the same spot on the terrace wearing an Offaly jersey.

This might not be so noteworthy were he in the habit of simply attending Offaly matches in his county colours, but McDonagh is just as likely to turn up wearing his Offaly geansai for a match that doesn’t involve his native county. This tends to make him stand out from the crowd and has earned him a mild notoriety. So much so, that he has even earned his own hash-tag on Twitter – #OffalyDude.

Cameras now so frequently zoom in on McDonagh standing on his usual spot on the terrace, and he pops up so regularly in the background of post-match TV interviews, that it has become a sport for some to pause their TV, take a picture, and upload it to the growing trove of #OffalyDude imagery online.

McDonagh is well aware of his status as Ireland’s most recognisable GAA supporter, and he’s quite fond of it. He’s a little bemused by it too though, because it’s a gig he fell into quite by accident. For years he went to matches up and down the country as anonymously as any other die-hard GAA fan, but that all changed the day he decided to attend the 2002 Leinster Hurling Final between Kilkenny and Wexford wearing his Offaly jersey.

“I was down in Limerick one night a number of years ago,” explained McDonagh to GAA.ie. “Back then I used to only wear the Offaly jersey on and off at games. The footballers lost to Limerick that night in the qualifiers, and it was the night before the Leinster Hurling Final in Croke Park between Kilkenny and Wexford.

“I was fierce disappointed with the result the previous night but I just said, 'feck it, I'll leave the Offaly jersey on regardless because I'm a proud Offaly man'. By God, I never got as much attention before as I got in Croke Park that day! I got a bit of slagging but I love the banter and the slagging. I give and take it. I enjoyed it so much that day, I've worn an Offaly jersey to every match I've gone to ever since regardless of who's playing.”

McDonagh’s walk to and from county grounds on match-days is not the straightforward procedure it once was. He is recognised by so many now that he has to run a gauntlet of salutations and selfies. Not that he’s complaining. The genial 48-year-old is very much a people person, so the fact that so many are now emboldened to approach him is a blessing rather than a curse.

“People say this, that and the other about the GAA, but I have made so many friends through the GAA both north and south of the border,” says McDonagh. “They come up to me and tell me they saw me on TV the previous week and they take photos with me. They all know me and I really love talking to people.

“Sometimes I might go for a drink after a game, for example if we were playing the Dubs. We've lost to the Dubs more times than I care to remember and a lot of people would say this and that about the Dubs. But I have yet to meet one bad Dublin supporter. The Dubs have always been good to me and have nothing but respect for me. They've always come over to talk to me and have always looked after me.

“I know the Dubs can be a little bit loud at times, but, look it, that's all part and parcel of the game. Maybe sometimes I might get a little bit loud myself every now and then! When the game is on and when Offaly are playing, you might have noticed that I get really, really involved in it. I'd be shouting and roaring. The first half I'd be shouting and roaring at the Offaly backs to tighten up, and in the second-half I'd be shouting and roaring at the Offaly forwards. But I shout and roar in a nice way. I'd be telling them to mark tighter or to be ready for the breaking ball, all stuff like that.

“I can get quite carried away during the game, but as soon as it's over I calm down there and then. I believe what goes on in a game is then left in the game. I'll go out to the players, win, lose or draw, and have a word with them or whatever. I just love going to the games, I totally enjoy them.”

McDonagh goes to one or two games every weekend and sometimes three or four if at all possible. What makes his dedication even more impressive is that he doesn’t drive, so he has traveled the length and breadth of the country by thumbing lifts.

“I've learned some tricks of the trade down through the years, and what I do is I put on the Offaly jersey,” he says. “And when the people see me thumbing with the Offaly jersey they'd have a fair idea that I'm going to a game and that I'm a genuine person. For example, I was going down to Newcastlewest a few weeks back. Offaly were playing Limerick down there. I left my place at twenty-five past six that morning to thumb to Portlaoise to get the train at ten past nine. I got into Portlaoise at twenty to eight. So it took me no length to get a lift.

“I do an awful lot of thumbing. For example, two or three years back Dublin and Wexford were playing in the Leinster Hurling Championship down in Wexford Park. The game started at seven o'clock that Saturday evening and I went down at the last minute because I knew I had no way out of Wexford. So I got the train to Dublin and the bus down to Wexford. I then got the bus from Wexford back to Dublin at two o'clock in the morning and I got back into Dublin around twenty to five that morning as daylight was breaking on the Sunday. Then I got the train from Dublin down to Tullamore and I went to the Offaly and Kilkenny game later on that day in Tullamore.

“Another day, approximately ten years ago, the Offaly footballers were playing Tyrone in the League up in Omagh. I was out of bed at four o'clock that morning and was on the road by half past and thumbed from Tullamore to Dublin. It took me two lifts to get to Dublin. Then I got the bus from Dublin to Omagh, and after the match I thumbed home to Tullamore from Omagh. I'd thumb to Thurles on and off. I've thumbed down to New Ross three times inside the last couple of years. 

“I'd get lifts off various people and some of them would be great characters altogether. On and off I'd get lifts from players from other counties like a Westmeath or Tipperary footballer, and I'd get lifts too off ex-county players as well who'd recognise me. They love picking me up because they'd know me to see and love talking about the GAA. They know I'd talk about GAA until I'd drop dead on my two feet.”

You should be pleased to hear that McDonagh’s impressive loyalty to the Offaly cause has earned him some very well deserved perks. The Offaly County Board set aside a ticket for the All-Ireland hurling and football finals for him every year, something McDonagh is hugely appreciative of, and the high regard the county’s footballers and hurlers hold him in has also occasionally made his match-day commute a little more straight-forward.

“I was down in Athleague in Roscommon one Saturday nine or ten years,” recalls McDonagh. “The Offaly hurlers were playing Roscommon in a League game and we won by nearly 40 points. The following day, I thumbed over to Mullingar and I got a train from Mullingar to Sligo. Then I thumbed from Sligo out to Ballyshannon because the Offaly footballers were playing Donegal in a League game and we won that game by two or three points. 

“Fair play to the Offaly players, I met them around after the game and they asked me was I okay for a lift. I said, no, I had no lift back to Tullamore, so they told me to jump on the team bus and they brought me home. Offaly teams have given me lifts a few times, because they have great respect for me and I would have great respect for them. The boys would know who the true supporters are.”

McDonagh certainly falls into the ‘true supporter’ bracket so he has earned the right to be scathing of those Offaly GAA fans who don’t. The Faithful County are at a low ebb now in both codes compared to the halcyon days of yore, but McDonagh has little time for those firing pot-shots at the county teams from the comfort of their own armchairs.

“I don't mind people talking about our team and giving out about our players and so on as long as they're attending the games,” he says. “But I do not like these armchair supporters who do not go to games run our management and players down. It upsets me big-time. If they do not go to the games, they should keep their mouths shut. Because the only person that I will listen to is the person who gets up and goes to the games day in, day out. These armchair supporters have no right whatsoever to run a team down when they don't even attend a game.

“At the moment Offaly are going through bad times, very bad times. And instead of all of these people running Offaly down, they should be out supporting their county. I know it's difficult, but now is the time for Offaly supporters to rally around their teams. Because our teams need that support now more than ever. It's easy to follow your team through the good times, but it takes a great supporter to follow the team through the bad times.”

The rewards for Offaly supporters might not be as great now as they once were, but McDonagh is still nourished by the memories of some great days. It’s no surprise to hear that the 1982 All-Ireland Football Final win over Kerry and the 1994 All-Ireland Hurling Final victory over Limerick are among his fondest, but a less likely match holds pride of place in his heart.

“My favourite of all was the 2000 Leinster Football Quarter-Final between Offaly and Meath,” he says. “Meath were the defending All-Ireland Champions and Offaly lost to Louth in the Division Two League Final earlier that year. According to the media and a lot of people, even Offaly's own supporters, Offaly would have been better off staying away than playing that match.

“The night that the draw was made for the 2000 Leinster Championship and we were drawn against Meath, I went to bed that night and someone appeared to me in my dreams, a stranger. It was a man of about 60 years old. He said to me, 'Mick, not to worry, Offaly will beat Meath'. I woke up the following morning and I was beginning to believe in my dream. And what happened? Offaly went and beat Meath!”

McDonagh’s most prized possession is the match program from that match, and it’s just one of countless many others that he owns. At every match he goes to he picks up a few programs, one for himself and others for gifts or trade. The Tullamore man is a major player in the very active GAA sub-culture peopled by those who collect match programs and other GAA literature.

“One of my best friends in the GAA, and you can put this into your report, is a man by the name of John English,” says McDonagh. “A Limerick man living down in Mitchelstown. Myself and this John English would swap programs and magazines and so on. I'm always meeting people because they'd be getting stuff that I wouldn't and I'd be getting stuff that they wouldn't be getting.

“I've some programs going back to the 1950s, both club and county. I've a lot of County Final programmes. I also collect autographs from players and ex-county players. My favourite autograph is from a Tullamore man who's dead now, a man by the name of Noel McGee.

“He was the captain of the Offaly team that won the O'Byrne Cup in 1954. He was the first man ever to lift the O'Byrne Cup, and the first Offaly man to lift a trophy in Croke Park. He captained both the Offaly footballers and hurlers in 1959. He was a barber in Tullamore and he died a few years back and when he died I took it pretty bad. Because he was a great man, and one of the greatest GAA people who ever lived.

“I also have the autograph of the great Jimmy Murray from Knockcroghery in Roscommon. He captained Roscommon in 1943 and 1944 when they won the All-Irelands. He was one of the most amazing people I ever met. His mind and his memory was incredible.”

McDonagh’s own recall is impressive too. When he talks about the matches he’s seen, he rattles off the venue and score-lines as if they reside permanently on the tip of his tongue. He’s a walking GAA encyclopedia, and loves nothing more than sharing his knowledge.

If you’d care to hear his thoughts or simply fancy a selfie with the #OffalyDude, it won’t come as much of a shock to hear he’ll be at the Offaly-Longford Leinster SFC match in his home-town of Tullamore on Sunday. That’ll be his shortest commute to a game all summer, but he has plans for a significantly bigger journey in the future that will require more than his Offaly jersey and an upraised thumb to get there.

“New York is one venue I really want to get to,” he says. “I'm working at the moment in Tullamore as a cleaner and if I put a few pounds aside each week, whatever I can afford, for two or three years without touching it, I should be able to afford a trip to New York. I really want to go there someday to visit the Gaelic Park. In two or three years I'll get there.”

He'll be easily spotted when he does.