BY RYAN FERRY

CONSIDERING St Eunan’s and Naomh Conaill have played out some tense and feisty championship matches over the last two decades, round-robin games don’t tend to acquire too much focus.

Quite often, they can be filed under the ‘shadow-boxing’ category.

When St Eunan’s defeated their rivals in Glenties in 2023 in a group game, they knew it wasn’t the end of their great rivals, and so it proved as Naomh Conaill prevailed when it really mattered in the semi-final.

Jim McGuinness had just been appointed as Donegal manager for a second time when he joined the sizeable crowd that went along to Davy Brennan Memorial Park to see that group tie.

And as McGuinness leaned against the clubhouse, it was the ‘fire-fighting tendencies’ of Moore that caught his attention.

“I saw the athlete in him but I also saw that he has a real natural tendency to sense danger. He understands where he needs to be on the pitch at that given moment.

“That’s something that is so often very difficult to coach. I mean some very good, excellent attacking players actually, sometimes don’t have that awareness and it really challenges a manager.

“But once you see someone that has that, and can make those recovery runs to get a hand in or whatever, it’s a serious starting point.”

Ciaran Moore on the ball against Naomh Conaill in 2023 in Glenties.

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Moore has gone on to become an integral part of the Donegal set-up.

He played in all but one game for the senior team in 2024.

And this season he has featured in every game McGuinness’s men have played.

While some regulars were rested towards the end of the league, Moore was still called upon.

It has been quite the rise to prominence for Moore who lives near Moorefield, just outside Ramelton.

It was at O’Donnell Park and with St Eunan’s that the journey began.

His uncles Jim and Paddy McLaughlin represented St Eunan’s with Jim part of the side that won the 1983 Championship.

With his brother Conor and first cousin Sean Ryan making their way with the black and amber, young Ciaran soon joined the ranks.

Naomh Muire senior manager Danny O’Donnell was coaching at St Eunan’s where his son Lorcan was part of the 2002 age group.

“Ciaran would have been very quiet when he was younger,” said O’Donnell, who was part of the coaching ticket with Anthony Farren, Decky O’Donnell, and Eunan Walsh.

“He didn’t join up until he was ten. I remember his mother bringing him down to training.

“She said that he didn’t have huge interest but his older brother Conor was playing and she felt it would be good for him.

“He was always very mannerly but he was probably a shy wee boy and maybe lacked a bit of confidence and possibly didn’t realise quite how good he was.

“I remember then we played in the Under 14 County Final against Termon in Convoy.

“Termon were winning all around them at that age with Jack Alcorn, Jamie Grant, Bobby McGettigan and the Blacks (Stephen and Conor) but we surprised them in the final.

“Ciaran was brilliant that day and I said to his parents (Laurence and Nuala) that he reminded me of Rory Kavanagh as he was able to cover the ground on the field.

“He was very good at athletics and played soccer with Ballyraine, Letterkenny Rovers and Finn Harps. He’s good at golf as well so he is a real sportsman.

“With St Eunan’s, there were others like Kieran Tobin and Eoin Dowling, who were called up to play a year out of their age group.

“That wouldn’t have really happened Ciaran until he was 16 or 17 when Joe Higgins would have called him up.

“Pauric Ryan knew him very well as his uncle and he would have called him into the Under 21s at a young age then.

“He always had a great attitude. There was a focus at St Eunan’s on making sure players could kick and hand-pass off both sides and you can see with his balance now on the pitch, he can go either way.”

After completing his primary school education at Woodlands NS, Moore then moved to Loreto Community School, Milford and helped them to enjoy their best ever spell on the Gaelic Football field.

Moore scored 2-1 as Moville CS were defeated in the Under 14 ‘B’ final in December 2015, and the prestigious Arthurs Cup was soon added to the collection.

Adrian Doherty was the Loreto manager and Moore quickly established himself as a leader.

“When we started to make a bit of a breakthrough in Ulster, Ciaran was one of our main players.

“He was very athletic and strong on the ball.

“I remember an Ulster semi-final against a Tyrone team that was played in the North.

“We weren’t fancied at all to beat them at all but we won it.

“The manager came over to me afterwards and said that he was really disappointed that they got beat and then he asked ‘who is that player?’ and it was Ciaran Moore.

“He said he was unreal and he was. At that 15/16 age he really came to prominence for us.”

A semi-final defeat in the MacLarnon Cup was disappointing for Loreto but Moore could hold his own in any company during his teenage years.

Ciaran Moore on the ball for Loreto Milford against Pobalscoil Ghaoth Dobhair.

Doherty said: “He won a Future Stars award from Queen’s University. That was the equivalent of the Schools All-Stars at Under 16 level.

“The top universities were all keeping an eye out for the players that were selected on that team.

“I remember then that we sent Ciaran up for the All-Star trials a year early when he was in fifth year along with Rory O’Donnell and Johnny McGroddy.

“Rory and Shane O’Donnell got All Stars that year and Ciaran didn’t but we weren’t too disappointed as he had another year at the school.

“But then Covid hit and there was no All Stars in Ciaran’s final year and he didn’t even get to kick a ball for the school that season.

“Maybe he didn’t get the recognition he possibly could have got if it wasn’t for Covid but he definitely didn’t come out of nowhere.

“He was very academic but in PE, no matter which sport we played, Ciaran could play it and be the best at it.

“He always wanted to learn and never missed training whether it was early in the morning or after school.

“He didn’t think he knew it all. He wanted to be coached.”

Buncrana clubman Gary Duffy was Moore’s manager at minor and Under 20 level with Donegal:

“When I first came across Ciaran, he would have been doing athletics, and I think he was an Ulster 200 metres champion.

“He was able to use his natural athleticism then when he came in with the minors.

“I remember Martin McHugh asking me one day which of the minors would make it through to senior football and I said Shane O’Donnell and Ciaran Moore with his engine would be in with a real chance.

“He would have mainly played wing-back or in midfield for us then.

“I had him then with the Under 20s for two years. He was in college in Belfast and he would come up and down on the one night for training. That’s how dedicated he was to county football.

“He lives and breathes it.”

When St Eunan’s won the Senior Championship in 2021, Moore was a sub for the club’s reserve side that made light work of Ardara in the Senior ‘B’ decider.

While others of his age group were established with their senior club teams at that stage, Duffy understood that players at the top teams like St Eunan’s had to bide their time.

Moore was very much in Duffy’s thoughts for the Under 20 championship in 2022, and Donegal lost an epic Ulster semi-final after extra-time to eventual All-Ireland champions, Tyrone.

“You just knew he had the ingredients.

“St Eunan’s were one of the top teams in the county and there was a lot of competition but we knew he would eventually make it.

“He was an important player for our team and when he did make it through with St Eunan’s, it wasn’t long before people were saying he should be up with the county.

“I always felt he was a Jim McGuinness type player.

“He gets the ball and he brings you up the field. He had Karl Lacey, David Walsh, and Ryan Bradley doing that during 2012.

“When you have players with an engine like those men had and Ciaran has, you won’t stop them.”

Urris clubman Doherty has really enjoyed following Donegal’s campaign this season, and is thrilled that his past student has played such an important role.

“We are delighted that he has come through our school and has gone on to such great things.

“I met him after the Ulster Final and I hadn’t seen him in a few years and it was great just to catch up with him.

“He stood and talked to my kids and he’s just so humble and down to earth.

“I couldn’t say enough good things about him.”

Moore did pick up his first senior championship medal with St Eunan’s last year, and he will lead their charge for the Dr Maguire Cup in the autumn.

However, the hope is that it will be another fortnight before he’s pointing the car for club training once again.

Danny O’Donnell said: “The talent was always there and he looks after himself off the field.

“You can see how he has kicked on athletically and when he gets going, very few can stay with him.

“You have to remember that he would have only been ten when Donegal won the All-Ireland in 2012. Now he’s playing alongside (Michael) Murphy) and Patrick (McBrearty).

“I think the belief McGuinness has shown in him has been massive as well. I don’t know if it definitely would have happened if someone else was in charge.

“It was a case of the right man at the right time, and Ciaran’s showing everyone now just how good of a footballer he is.”