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06 Sept 2025
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06 Sept 2025
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Ciaran Mullan in action during Drumsurn's semi-final with Foreglen. 'Banty' was the team mascot in 1991 when Drumsurn last won an Intermediate championship. Pic by Mary K Burke.
It’s 31 years since Drumsurn last got their hands on championship silver. When Tiarnán Woods leads the side out this weekend, it will bring back memories for the men of ’91.
Rockstar Bryan Adam's held the number one slot in the UK charts on that September day with his Robin Hood theme tune, and the symmetry of it's title rings true to the modern day Drumsurn story.
There always has be a team that puts its head up and give generations something to follow.
Almost half of the team that saw off Desertmartin all those years ago have sons putting their shoulder to the latest wheel of hope.
As the 1980s came to a conclusion, training wasn’t the norm. But Drumsurn began to find the core of a team.
They found another spark with the opening of their hall and new ‘Prunty’ pitch in 1988. The current team are training here there and everywhere thanks to the generosity of other clubs, with Billy Doran Park getting a facelift.
But back in the 1988, it was a boost to a team on the rise with facilities the envy of the county. The senior team was moving up the leagues without being serious contenders at the beginning of the 1991 season.
When Eddie O’Connor took over as manager, be brought Terence McWilliams in as trainer. Gary Moore stepped out of the Derry minor team to become captain at 18 years of age.
Drumsurn's 1991 championship winning team with Ciaran 'Banty' Mullan sitting as team mascot. Mullan will play in Sunday's final against Glenullin.
Other young stars Anthony Moore and Eunan McGilligan came in to bolster a squad that had Richard Ferris, Eunan Rafferty and Joe Irwin with county senior experience.
McWilliams’ training was something they had never experienced. Like the current team, with increased fitness levels came league results and they gained promotion to the top flight in second place, behind champions Faughanvale.
It was also a season then they ran eventual senior champions Dungiven close in the Dr Kerlin Cup.
“They only beat us by three or four points in the final,” Eunan Rafferty recalls. “Geoffrey (McGonigle) was playing and Liam McElhinney scored three or four points.
“That was psychologically big for us and it was played between the quarter-final and semi-final of the championship. We felt we were going places and we did, we won the championship and got promotion.”
The sides also met in the James O’Hagan Cup, which proved Drumsurn could mix it with the best.
The following year they were on the wrong side of a two-point defeat at the hands of beaten finalists Ballinascreen in the last eight of the Senior Football Championship, a team that were on the coattails of Bellaghy and Lavey for the best part of five years.
Drumsurn’s 1991 championship odyssey began with a comfortable and controlled win over Ballymaguigan who had Seamus Doyle and Eamon Cassidy at the heart of their team.
After losing to Faughanvale in the league, their championship quarter-final was always going to pose a challenge. With the ‘Vale 0-7 to 0-2 ahead, well into the second half, Drumsurn were hanging on. But hang on they did.
“It was Eunan McGilligan who got the goal us that that day,” Rafferty recalls of Drumsurn’s 1-6 without reply that steered them clear of the exit door.
Just like this season, Foreglen were the semi-final opponents. Christy Grieve and Damien O’Connor where the key men for the O’Brien’s, but Drumsurn were in no mood to be caught and ran out 2-14 to 0-4 winners.
The final brought excitement. Shorts, slacks and club ties were arranged. It was a journey to Glen by bus on final day and a chance to make history.
Drumsurn’s 17 wins from 20 league games, as opposed to mid-table Desertmartin’s half a dozen wins, made the St Matthew’s side favourites.
“My father was all into it,” Rafferty recalls. “I am looking at this year more differently than the one we were in.”
With Declan Kidd at full back and the McElhennon brothers – Brian and Jimmy – Desertmartin had a handy side, with Tony Scullion and Martin Kelly providing the firepower in attack.
Drumsurn got off to the best start when Richard Ferris saw his cross flicked to the net by John Irwin. Anthony Moore and Eunan Rafferty tagged on points for a 1-2 to 0-1 lead.
Rather than pushing on, Drumsurn disappeared as Desertmartin took a hold of the game and led 2-6 to 1-4 by half time with Martin Kelly and Tony Scullion finding the net.
It was simple. Drumsurn needed to get grip of the middle third and meet the fight head on, or their hopes would trickle away in minutes.
With Rafferty and Irwin leaving their imprint at midfield, Richard Ferris began to get a run on Desertmartin. Collectively, every man upped their game considerably. They had to.
“The big thing for us was that seven different men scored for us,” Rafferty recalled of a second performance that saw Desertmartin register a single point in a 1-14 to 2-7 Drumsurn win.
Gary Woods became the youngest ever winning captain and it was a proud day as Derry Chairman, Drumsurn man Harry Chivers, presented him with the cup.
It was up the Glenshane Pass and into the Grey Gables to begin the celebrations that moved to the hall and into the wee small hours.
“It was a big catalyst for us and got up in the first division,” Rafferty said, but after a few years the panel wasn’t strong enough to sustain life at the top table.
“The celebration of winning that with the club is special and will remain special,” said Rafferty, who played at both county and school level.
“A lot of those past players are on the committee now; putting up bunting and flags…that’s what it is about. It is a catalyst and this team can see if they can get up in the first division.”
As the days head towards the final, the class of 1991 are hoping Sunday brings a new chapter in the history books.
There are the direct links. Seamus and Gerard Mullan have sons involved. Goalkeeper John Harkin, John Irwin, Dermot, Aidan and Eunan Rafferty as well.
From being inside the bubble in 1991, they will have the rosary beads out, their fingers crossed and hoping Sunday is the day they are no longer the last championship winners.
Back then, Ciaran ‘Banty’ Mullan was the mascot, looking on as his father Gerard landed two points from centre back.
Now as the spiritual leader and conductor of the attack, he’ll be hoping the class of 1991 can go one further than the class of 2002 and bring home the title.
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