THE last three two years have been a rollercoaster for Donegal club Naomh Pádraig Uisce Chaoin, who after a meteoric rise will play in the 2027 Senior Football Championship.
Two years after reaching an All-Ireland Junior final, they are now Intermediate champions and get their provincial campaign underway against Kinawley on Sunday in Brewster Park.
“It has been some journey, probably something that you would never imagine,” said their captain Darragh McIntyre at last week’s Ulster launch in Cookstown.
“It took us a good few years to get out of Junior and you always were thinking, can we get there?
“To go into senior football, it’s crazy, it’s something that we’ve all dreamed of all our life and it’s just hard to put into words.”
After losing the 2025 All-Ireland final to An Cheathrú Rua, Naomh Pádraig consolidated their place in the intermediate championship before coming back to win it this season.
Peter Murphy, an intermediate winner as a player with his native Claudy in Derry, came in as manager and McIntyre highlight’s Murphy’s positive impact.
“I think everyone knew in the squad that we’re not far off,” McInytre said. “We knew if everyone stuck together, that we could win a championship.
“The whole year, the boys have been just,unreal – the intensity at training and pushing everyone on. It’s a good squad and the number of players we used over the league and championship campaign was crazy.”
There was a local feel to their four round robin championship games with three of them against fellow Inishowen clubs. They also played Burt and Carndonagh in the semi-final and final respectively.
“Any game’s hard, but when it’s an Inishowen derby, you need that extra bit,” McIntyre commented.
“It doesn’t matter how good you are as a team, it’s going to be on the day. It’s all about who wants it more, who can be more dogged and get more breaking ball.”
McIntyre puts the upward curve of Inishowen football down to the exposure it been getting after years away from the spotlight. He points to the impact that Caolan McColgan, Caolan McGonagle and Conor O’Donnell have had on the Donegal senior county team.
“They’re massive role models,” McIntyre added. “That shows to everyone in Inishowen that anyone can push on and go as far as possible.
“Those boys have paved the way for it and the underage coming through is always fairly good as well. We’re just eventually reaping the rewards after a lot of work.”
From their own club’s point of view, McInytre feels the experience of getting to an All-Ireland final has helped Uisce Chaoin push on. Looking ahead to this weekend, they have a trip to Brewster Park to contend with.
“They (Kinawley) scored 4-17 in the final and 23 points in the semi, so it’s definitely going to be a tough test,” he said of this weekend’s opponents.
“It would be nice to go that step further from two years ago. I’m sure the sky’s the limit for us, so hopefully we can push on as far as we can.”
