All through late morning and early afternoon of fanfare on the Ravenhill pitch, Paddy Jackson quietly worked through the solitary routine which an elite outhalf must endure. Every possible kick emptied his bag of balls time and again until, finally, Donegal's man of footballing deliverance Brian McEniff strolled over to shake hands with the Ireland international.
Of the same province, seemingly worlds apart, instantly bonded by sport.
"We have at many occasions in our past been divided in this part of the world," said Ulster rugby's chief executive Shane Logan, who lost his mother to Motor Neurone Disease in 2007. "Those divisions are healing – but there are still some divisions – but sport, charity and illness still have the ability to move our community, bring all of us together to a better place.
“It is all of our imperative as rugby, as the GAA, as soccer and indeed everybody in Ulster involved in sport to pull together to move away from the past and to focus on what is right and what is good.”
That will happen briefly on November 15th when the Dublin footballers end a 20-year hiatus from Belfast playing fields when they play the Ulster All Stars at the rebranded Kingspan stadium.
True story; up until 1924, before the inaugural Ulster versus Leinster rugby match in Belfast, Ravenhill was a GAA pitch. So it will be again.
Jim McGuinness is unable to oversee Ulster so All-Ireland winning managers Joe Kernan (Armagh 2002) and Brian McEniff (Donegal's deliverer of Sam Maguire in 1992) deputise for the sports psychologist.
Terminal disease
This unique gathering’s chief architect is former Antrim footballer
Anto Finnegan
, who was diagnosed with the terminal disease in 2012. He is 41 and has two young children.
“I am humbled by the gesture that Ulster GAA and Ulster Rugby have made to support my cause to raise awareness of MND,” said Finnegan.
“With the closure of Casement Park (for redevelopment) we wanted to make sure it was going to be unique, which matches the condition itself and the reality of it.
“When we approached Ulster Rugby about it, they said yes straight away. All we needed to do was come up with dates and times to make sure everything tied together.”
Occurring in the middle of both rugby and Gaelic football’s international seasons, Ireland’s Test match against Georgia is the following day at the Aviva stadium while the International Rules series will take several leading players to Perth, Australia a week later.
Unfortunately Logan would not speak to the media, other than during the formalities, as Ulster are at a crucial stage in the recruitment of a new director of rugby and head coach.
Both will be confirmed next week with current assistant coach Neil Doak favourite to take the latter position.
“We have one magnificent facility (in Antrim),” Logan did add, “and are on the verge of having two others.”
Northern Ireland sports minister Carál Ní Chuilín was also present yesterday as partial funding to modernise Ravenhill, Casement Park and Windsor Park comes from British government grants.
Long time
Tickets for the game are on sale (€12.86 for adults and €6.43 for children) with Jim Gavin adamant Dublin will field their strongest possible side. He said:
“We’re going to bring our ‘A’ team up the road to Belfast.”
They will be welcomed by a decent Ulster XV and a wise Donegal football elder who strolled onto the pristine grass in east Belfast yesterday to meet Ulster’s 22-year-old outhalf.
“I go back a long time and I would be a fan of all sports and watched Ulster winning the European title in 1999,” said McEniff. “I enjoyed the craic and a few years previously had been doing UTV and a few people would have recognised me and said, ‘You’re the Gaelic man!’ I came under the notice of some people in the association because I voted for the opening of Croke Park.
“I was always involved in some sort of a contentious issue but I love coming to Belfast, my daughter has a house and is living in Ravenhill Road.”
