It turns out that only two people call Christopher McKaigue by his full first name; his mother and his manager. To everyone else, the Derry football captain is simply Chrissy.
“The boys laugh that our relationship is more open and honest than most of the players,” smiled McKaigue, revealing the unique bond that exists between him and Rory Gallagher. “We’d have a go at each other at times but we’re very, very close and probably in many ways share similar personality traits.”
Truth be told, McKaigue’s inter-county career was in danger of petering out until Gallagher came along in late 2019. Derry operated out of Division 4 that season. In the Championship, they lost a Round 2 qualifier at home to Laois. The perception of a group of players going nowhere quickly was strong.
“When Rory came in, and I think he’d laugh about it now, but I don’t think he realised just how bad a place Derry were in,” said McKaigue, reflecting from the summit of Ulster after becoming the first Derry skipper in 24 years to raise the Anglo Celt Cup.
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“He was probably caught unawares in the first year. We were in a really bad place. Tactically we had no idea, culturally we were in a bad place in terms of the environment needed to compete with the top teams.
“Covid came at a good time for us because we were in disarray to a fair extent. It gave us a bit of time to fix where we were at, what we needed to change.
“Last year was when we started to see performances, albeit in Division 3. You could see that there was something to work with.”
Now, as McKaigue notes, even if Derry were to lose Saturday’s All-Ireland quarter-final to Clare, the season would still go down as a historic one.
“Not only did we beat Donegal, we beat Monaghan, we beat Tyrone,” he smiled.
To think he was contemplating retirement at one stage.
“Certainly, certainly,” nodded the Slaughtneil dual player. “Very soon I am still going to have to make a decision regarding some facet of hurling and football, county football, whatever it is, but we will make them decisions when they come along. Ach, as long as I am still able to compete with the better players I am going to try to hang around.”
McKaigue first joined the Derry set-up in 2008, after their league title win that season. He played in the 2009 league final too before taking up an AFL contract with the Sydney Swans and returning two years later. There was another Division 1 final in 2014 before things went south for Derry, and quickly.
One of the explanations tossed around for Derry’s difficulties was that the players were more interested in emptying themselves for their clubs than their county.
[ Derry plant a mighty Oak back at the summit of Ulster footballOpens in new window ]
McKaigue admits there’s some truth to it but says there were other issues too.
“I don’t think it was because anyone was trying to do wrong or whatever, you just need that expertise,” he said. “Stephen Barker has come in now as the head of operations in the county, he’s been an unbelievable man and Rory too. Timing in life is a big thing and the curves have all met. Underage and grassroots, it’s all come together but there’s not one reason.
“You need all of that and more. You still need a signature win, like the Ulster final, to announce yourself and that’s the reality of it. You still need that one big day to hang everything on, to say, ‘This is possible at senior level’. The value of that is huge.”
