BY CHRIS MCNULTY

HIS is the flame that forever flickers, the light that never goes out.

Brian McEniff went to a club meeting of the Bundoran club on Monday night and came out of it finding himself looking forward to taking training on Tuesday.

Joe Keeney had stepped down as the team manager and Bundoran have a championship game against St Michael’s on Sunday.

In their hour of need they turned to McEniff.

He’s in his 71s year now, but McEniff couldn’t resist the lure.

“I’m currently looking at a pair of trainers, but they don’t look good and I have a Donegal jersey that pre-dates a lot of things so all I need now is a tracksuit,” he says, rummaging around the house looking somewhere for suitable attire.

“I’ll enjoy it again, but mind you we have a very hairy start, Lord bless us!”

He attends executive meetings at the club and has retained an active interest since his last station in management at underage level.

This week he reminds himself of that magical year in 2003 when, as a county chairman with no alternative, he took to managing the Donegal senior team and reached the All-Ireland semi-final.

“I remember the last day of January and being in Tuam saying to John O’Mahony: ‘What in under of God am I doing this for?’

Times have been difficult in Bundoran. Brandon and Reece Goodwin have gone to Australia, Michael McEniff is based now in Monaghan and there are a number of players injured.

“I said that I would help them out, it’s nothing more than that,” McEniff says. “There is no-one else to do it.

“I haven’t been completely out of the loop. I was working a lot at underage level. Our seniors have been having a difficult season so in a way I am looking forward to it.

“The draw has not been kind at all to us. We are in with Kilcar, Glenswilly and St Michael’s who are all serious about winning the Championship.

“We are at the bottom of Division 2 and are just trying to rise from there.

“I really enjoyed what did with the underage here, so hopefully I will do the same with the senior boys.”

They say that a busy man is the man to ask to do something. McEniff fits the bill. He was at the opening of Waterworld on Tuesday, was in Dublin to meet his accountant on Wednesday and was off for a hoteliers’ conference in Belfast on Thursday.

An All-Ireland winning manager with Donegal in 1992, he has turned water into wine before.

The former long-time manager of the Ireland international rules team did not foresee the day when he’d patrol the touchline again.

“I assure you, it’s only temporary,” he says, but you’re not quite sure whether to believe it.