Kids might have been the most excited fans … but it would have been a close contest.
Up Donegal! If we heard it once, we heard it a thousand times, and it never got tired. On a Tuesday night when a lot of kids otherwise would have been home getting ready for bed, they were instead decked out in their bright yellow Donegal jerseys and running around the Philadelphia Irish Center like children possessed.
And possessed they were, perhaps, by the presence of the shiny Sam Maguire Cup, brought to Philadelphia by three incredibly proud representatives of the 2012 All-Ireland Football champion team from Donegal: coach Jim McGuinness, along with all-stars Mark McHugh and Michael Murphy.
When the kids weren’t setting land-speed records running from one end of the Irish Center ballroom to the other, they were standing in line with their parents, relatively patiently, waiting for the chance to get their pictures taken with cup and players.
And yes, the place was jammed with ecstatic adult fans, too, including dozens of Donegal natives, and sons and daughters of natives, celebrating the county’s first All-Ireland championship in 20 years. (And they were just as eager to get their picture taken, too.)
After a couple of hours smiling and posing, McGuinness and his players adjourned to the ballroom, where they accepted presentations from the Philadelphia Donegal Association, along with local Gaelic Athletic Association representatives, the Philadelphia Irish Center, state lawmakers Kevin and Brendan Boyle, and many others.
For the Donegal footballers, it had been a long day, but they showed no evidence of tiring. Player Mark McHugh, son of legend Martin McHugh, was still a little wound up—or maybe just jet-lagged—as he spoke about his Philadelphia welcome, and the rigors of the tightly coordinated U.S. victory lap.
“We just got in this morning,” he said. “We flew into New York, and we just drove down. We’re flying off to Chicago at 9 o’clock in the morning, and back to New York on Thursday. It’s just a full-time job, but it’s a good complaint to have. If we hadn’t won the All-Irelands, we wouldn’t be here.
“It’s so good to see all the American kids wearing the Donegal jersey. That’s one of our main reasons for coming over, to promote the GAA, to get young kids involved. And as they get older, maybe their kids will get involved. You never know what could happen.”
Addressing the many fans who have waited a long time to see the cup return to Donegal, McGuinness thanked his hosts for the wildly enthusiastic turnout.
“It’s a great honor for us to be here tonight,” he said. “And along with the honor goes a lot of pride. We’re very happy to bring the Sam Maguire Cup to Philadelphia and the United States. There’s obviously a lot of people in the room tonight who have very, very strong connections to Donegal who were not able to make the journey home for the final, and that’s why I feel it’s very special to take the cup across the water and let the people who were not fortunate enough to be there on the day get their hands on the cup and pretend you’re Michael Murphy.”
McGuinness also recalled his brief time playing football in Philadelphia in the summer of 1999. “I made a lot of very good friends here that I still have to this day. It’s fantastic to be back amongst everybody tonight. I just hope it won’t be 20 years before we’re back with the cup.”
We have many photos from the night’s celebration. Check out our photo essay, above.
