As his Coolera-Strandhill team-mates celebrated their Sligo SFC triumph on the first Sunday in November, full-back Seán Taylor was undertaking what has become a familiar trip back to London. On the road to creating history, everybody’s journey is different.
Taylor recently tallied up the figures; since August he reckons there have been 17 flights, two ferries and somewhere in the region of 42,000 kilometres travelled for the cause of Coolera-Strandhill, commuting over and back from the UK pretty much every weekend.
Few outside of the Coolera-Strandhill dressingroom, and possibly even some within it, would have believed the club on Ireland’s western seaboard would still be playing football at this stage of the competition.
Yet here they are, All-Ireland club semi-finalists, having won a maiden provincial title – and the first Sligo club in 41 years to be crowned Connacht kings. Such unprecedented success must make Taylor’s criss-crossing of the Irish Sea worthwhile.
“Even if we lost it would have been worthwhile,” he says. “Because the bond we have between lads is so strong.”
[ Coolera-Strandhill become first Sligo club to win Connacht title in over 40 yearsOpens in new window ]
Last summer Taylor moved to London to start a new job with Harlequins rugby club. The 25-year-old is the lead strength and conditioning coach for the club’s Academy Colleges & Education (ACE) programme. He is also the athletic development coach at Gordon’s School, Surrey, one of the feeder schools to Quins.
His weekly schedule has revolved around making it back to Sligo for training or a match every Sunday.
Saturday mornings tend to involve a pitch session with the ACE team at Gordon’s School followed by a gym session from 10-11. As soon as the gym session finishes, Taylor immediately hops in a waiting taxi to Heathrow for a lunchtime flight to Ireland.
He trains with Coolera-Strandhill on Sunday morning and usually flies from Knock to Stanstead on Sunday afternoon. Match days tend to mean later flights back to London.
For the night of the Sligo county final in late October, win or lose, Taylor had arranged to stay over and fly back to England on the Monday. Inevitably, the game finished as a draw. The replay took place seven days later but he thought better of calling in another Monday off and returned home that same night.
The rugby players going through his hands in London have become aware of Coolera-Strandhill’s odyssey in the club championship.
“I have introduced a few Gaelic football games and drills to some of their training sessions, as a bit of fun, more for a mental break than anything.
“I stick our games on the TV in the gym too. The boys would be looking at it going, ‘What’s that?’ Is that you?’ You have these lads from Brixton and Basingstoke asking about Niall Murphy’s free-taking technique.
“It makes me feel a sense of pride, knowing I wear the GAA badge. The boys would be asking me now on Monday mornings how the game had gone.”
Quite well, has been the stock response of late – culminating in Coolera-Strandhill’s historic extra-time Connacht final win over Pádraig Pearses.
“It was a special day for everybody involved in the club,” says Taylor, who chipped in with a point on the day.
And yet it’s not Taylor’s home club – rather, it’s one that has become a home. Originally from Ballyshannon, he played for the Aodh Ruadh club, winning a Donegal intermediate title in 2020. A former Donegal minor goalkeeper, he was the county’s netminder at that grade in 2017 on a team that also included Oisín Gallen and Peadar Mogan.
But after moving to Sligo for college and subsequently getting work there, Taylor eventually decided to play his club football in the Yeats County and transferred to Coolera-Strandhill.
“A couple of mates of mine were playing with Strandhill, so I went down to train with them. After that first training session, I just left feeling I had found a new home.
“It was the culture the boys had within themselves, it was lighthearted fun but the standard of football was really high, the coaching – Enda Mitchell, John McPartland – I had never seen anything like it before.
“The way they were able to talk with the lads and adapt a training session on their feet. They were so welcoming too. There was no rush or panic from them for me to sign – it was a case if I wanted to train, I could train.”
On moving to Coolera-Strandhill, initially the plan was to look at playing in goal but with a strong goalkeeper in Keelan Harte already in situ, Taylor instead tried his luck out the field.
And yet his goalkeeping abilities did not go unnoticed in Sligo. Former Donegal number one Paul Durcan is part of Tony McEntee’s back-room team with the Yeats County senior footballers and on his recommendation Taylor was invited and joined the squad as an option between the posts in 2022.
He was busy off the field at that time too, working as a strength and conditioning coach with the Sligo minor and under-20 football teams, and also the Sligo senior women’s side, so in advance of 2023 he had to take a step back from the goalkeeping role with the Yeats County.
On the field, there have been very few backward steps taken by Coolera-Strandhill over the past 12 months. And yet not many pundits or bookmakers are giving them much chance of beating Cuala on Sunday.
[ Luke Keating’s late point gives Cuala the Leinster club titleOpens in new window ]
The Dublin champions will arrive to Breffni with the likes of Con O’Callaghan and Michael Fitzsimons leading their charge. Taylor is likely to mark O’Callaghan.
“That has been said to me a few times since the Connacht final, if it happens, it happens,” he says.
“For me, I’d be excited by that prospect, not nervous; I’d embrace it. I marked Evan Regan [Ballina Stephenites], I marked Paul Carey [Pádraig Pearses] – Regan got one point from play, Carey didn’t score. For me I would embrace that one-on-one battle.”
Nonetheless, the task ahead for the back-to-back Sligo champions is steep.
“But what a challenge,” says Taylor. “To be in the top four in Ireland, to put Coolera-Strandhill on the map, to put Sligo football back on the map. So much good football is played in Sligo but it kind of goes under the radar.
“Cuala have some stalwart players and we obviously have to look after a couple of men, but we are going with the perspective that they are going to have to come play us as well and look after some of our players. They don’t fear us, we don’t fear them.
“We embrace the challenge – since the Connacht final we haven’t been counting down the days, we’ve been counting down the hours. We can’t wait.”
Having a Dub among their ranks won’t do Coolera-Strandhill any harm either. Centre back Ross O’Carroll’s home club is Kilmacud Crokes, southside neighbours and rivals of Cuala.
O’Carroll has been playing his club football in Sligo since 2021. His brother, Rory, continues to play for Crokes.
“Yeah, Ross would know the Cuala lads from playing against them with Kilmacud. He’s a great character, has great instinct and is a really strong player. We help each other and it’s great having him there.”
Before the Connacht final, Taylor asked his bosses in London if cover could be arranged for the Monday afterwards. He wanted to be there, just in case.
“I just told them it was a once in a lifetime opportunity.”
It was an opportunity Coolera-Strandhill took. Over in London, they have started to wonder when Seán Taylor will be finished with all of this madcap traversing of the Irish Sea just to play sport.
“I’ll be finished when we stop winning, I tell them.”
A couple more weeks yet so, if all goes to plan.
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