BY MATTHEW WILSON

DOWNINGS midfielder Cian McBride is enjoying his time in the county since transferring from Meath for this year’s Donegal Senior Football Championship.

At 24-years-old, the Royal native has had an impressive career to date. McBride was a Leinster Minor Championship winner in 2018 before heading Down Under at the back end of 2019 for AFL trials where he was swooped up by Melbourne based club Essendon.

Following four years with The Bombers, McBride, pictured right, moved back to the Emerald Isle at the end of 2023 where he linked up with the Meath senior football side and was on the bench when Donegal defeated Robbie Brennan’s outfit in the All-Ireland semi-final.

Cian’s father Brian is a Donegal native, hailing from Downings. McBride stated that he comes up to visit the area as much as he possibly can to visit family and expressed that it has always been in his plans to move to the county and line out for his father’s club for a campaign and this year he’s done just that.

McBride transferred to the club from St Ultan’s in Meath and lined out for the first time in their narrow championship defeat to Dessie Gallagher’s Dungloe last Saturday.

“It’s something that I set my sights on when I was 15 or 16. I wanted to come up and play at least a championship season here for dad’s club.

“It’s great that I have so many cousins up here and there’s a handful of them still playing now so I said to myself that there’s no point in waiting until it’s too late. I just thought what better time than now when my own personal circumstances allow it so it’s great to make the move up here and to start playing.

“It’s great. It’s hard to base everything off one game but I like it up here. It’s one of them things, I try to get up here as often as I can to see my aunties, uncles and cousins. It’s a great part of the world, especially with weather like this when the sun is splitting the stones.”

Downings have a tough assignment this Sunday as they travel to Towney to take on Kilcar and they will need McBride on form in the middle of the field.