Donegal senior hurlers can go to next level in 2025 says Liam Óg McKinney 

As success stories go, they don’t come any bigger in Donegal hurling than that of Liam Óg McKinney. 

For the past four years, McKinney has been in superb form for his club Burt and Donegal as the latter regained the Nickey Rackard Cup. 

And not only was McKinney named on the Championship 15, but was also selected as Nickey Rackard Cup Player of the Year. 

It was a great year too for his county when Donegal took a record breaking fourth Nickey Rackard Cup where a great second-half comeback yielded a 3-17 to 0-22 victory for Mickey McCann’s men. 

McKinney played a big role in that victory. His searing solo runs opening up gaps for others while also being a deadly marksman. 

But, by any standards, getting the Nickey Rackard Cup Player of the Year was a massive accolade for any player and even more remarkable when you consider that the Burt phenomenon is just 21 years old. 

And he would have been up against some older accomplished ash artists spread across the country.  

McKinney hit a jaw dropping 1-22 in the Nickey Rackard Cup campaign, but possibly an even prouder achievement was the role he played in Burt’s stunning win over old rivals Setanta in the Donegal county final on a score of 3-16 to 1-18 where he hit 1-11 in a Man of the Match performance last August. 

It is not just his accuracy from frees, but his pace and power to open up any defence while also being a great passer of the sliotar. 

Then in October, he guided the Burt U-21 hurlers to their third successive county title win over St Eunan’s on a score of 0-18 to 2-9 and once again, McKinney was the man. 

On his current form he would grace any team in the land, but remains grounded, modest, and focused. 

McKinney is a post graduate student in Accountancy in NUIG having gained his Primary degree at the early age of 20. 

These days he is training with the prestigious Fitzgibbon Cup panel and juggles this with training for McCann’s county senior squad. 

It all began for Liam Óg when he played U-8s under Marty McGrath at club - an unbroken link that exists today as Marty is the Burt senior hurling team manager and a perfect complement to the vocal Mickey McCann. 

“There is a proud tradition of hurling in Burt and when my friends and I were growing up we were very much aware that Burt was a hurling club that had a great record in winning Donegal county championships,” McKinney said. 

“We looked up to those lads. They were and are our heroes, and now it is great to be playing along with Christoper McDermott, Stephen Gillespie, and Dara Grant to name a few, and then we have Marty and Mickey McCann as managers. 

“My first big memory is of playing in the Feile down in Carlow in 2017 and we got to a final but were beaten by a Clare team. It was a wonderful experience for us as U-14s. 

“Before that we played an U-12 final against Buncrana and it controversially ended in a draw. We are still waiting on the replay to this day. 

“But we did manage to beat them at U-14 level and I am lucky that there are quite a few lads around my age on the current Burt senior team.” 

Asked about where his hurling prowess came from and he references his mother Cathy Hannigan who went to UCG and played Camogie in the Ashbourne Cup in the late 1980s and has an Ashbourne medal. 

Then came McKinney’s time and he made his senior debut for Burt at the start of 2021 when he was only 17. 

“I was playing with all the lads I looked up to and it was great to play alongside those boys and it is still great to play alongside them,” he said. 

Liam made his senior debut for Donegal in 2022 when he made a number of appearances off the bench. And a year later in 2023 he began to establish himself as a top player and also began hitting frees for the county along with Setanta’s Gerry Gilmore. 

“Conor Gartland is the same age as me and he would have been taking the frees in my first year with Burt, but he got injured and I started hitting them,” he added. “I started to practice them a lot more and stuck with them.” 

But if 2023 was a good year, this past year has been “out of this world”. 

Donegal got promoted to Division 2 of the NHL for the first time ever while also winning the Nickey Rackard Cup. 

Not only that, but Liam was picked as the Nickey Rackard Cup Player of the Year, following in the footsteps of Setanta duo Danny Cullen and Declan Coulter. 

“I was totally surprised, and I knew in advance that I was going to be on the Team of the Year and people were saying to me that I had a chance of being Player of the Year,” he said. 

“I never thought much of it at the time, but it was a great surprise when I got it when the awards were given out in October.” 

Overall, McKinney admits it had been a fabulous year for Donegal hurling after the disappointment of losing the Nickey Rackard Cup final to Wicklow last year. 

“We put a huge effort into last year, but we just fell short,” McKinney acknowledged. 

“But we put a bit more work into the off season for 2024 and that paid off in the end. 

“It came through in the final against Mayo as we did not play well in the first half and they were well on top. 

“We did not come to the fore in the final until the end and that was probably our fitness that came through. 

“Josh McGee Cronolly got the goals and it was a very intense game and it was frustrating for me in the first half as we missed a few scores, and I think we were a bit nervous as whether we liked it or not, we were the favourites. 

“We got it together in the second half and it was not my best day for shooting, but I was involved in a few plays and got a few scores. 

“But winning was the most important thing that day.” 

For Liam Óg, this was the pinnacle of his young hurling career. 

“This was a fantastic achievement, and it was a great feeling to be part of all the games the whole way through,” the Burt man claimed. 

But he was also to have great success last August when he hit 1-11 in 14-man Burt’s great victory over hot favourites Setanta in a wonderful county final. 

“This was my fourth year playing with them. Even though everyone was tipping Setanta, the management and players within our group had a belief going into the final that we had a great chance going man-to-man and not crowding the middle third, as everyone thought we needed to do that if we were to have any chance of winning. 

“But we knew we had very good backs and they had classy forwards. We knew that if we put the pressure on out the field that they would struggle to get scores and that is sort of how it went.” 

McKinney ended up being Man of the Match and his side were down to 14 men when Caolan McDermott was lined for a second yellow card early in the second half. 

“I don’t think we changed too much in that game,” McKinney said. 

“Our attitude stayed the same and we were able to close out their spare man at times, so they were not able to get handy scores.” 

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Liam added: “It was even better because nobody thought we could do it apart from ourselves.” 

In November Burt took their third title on the trot with McKinney scoring heavily again. 

“There are quite a few younger players like the Currans, Ciaran Porter, Kieran Brady, Conor Gartland, and Callum Purves coming on, and we’re all around the same age,” he added. 

“A lot of us had the experience of playing and losing against Setanta in the county final two years ago which was also a help, and we had the experience of playing for Donegal as well.” 

Donegal are in with Kerry, Kildare, Meath, Down, Derry, and Tyrone in the 2025 league. A tough gig but as McKinney puts it, it’s the level “we want to be at”. 

They are also in the Christy Ring Cup with Meath, Derry, London, and Wicklow. 

Mickey McCann has gone on record saying Donegal are capable of winning this trophy which would be another first for the county, and McKinney agrees with his manager’s belief. 

“I think we are capable of doing it and a lot of teams we have played in the league have been playing Christy Ring hurling and we are well able to compete with them,” McKinney said. 

“Donegal have a good balance and winning the Nickey Rackard should stand well to us. 

“It's been quite a year for me and it is only sinking in that I might never have another year like it.” 

A mighty player and a most modest one at that!