Jim McGuinness' mum hails Donegal boss' ‘drive to do better' in rare TV interview ahead of All-Ireland final vs Kerry

The Irish Sun

4 days ago

JIM McGUINNESS' mum gave a rare interview to RTE to speak of her pride in her son on the eve of the All-Ireland football final.
The 52-year-old will look to lead the Tir Chonaill to Sam Maguire once again
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Jim McGuinness, right, will look to lead Donegal to victory in the All-Ireland final against Kerry
Credit: Ramsey Cardy/Sportsfile
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His mum was interviewed by RTE
He was at the helm when they last won it in 2012 and can toast his second tenure in style by doing it again at the expense of the Kingdom.
With anticipation reaching a fever pitch in his hometown of Glenties,
film
a segment for Friday's Six One
News
.
This included going to
Jim's Cafe
which is run by the McGuinness
family
, including his mum Maureen.
And speaking to RTE, she said: "He had a great passion always for the Gaelic and then he went to soccer for a while as well.
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"I would say he always say he had a bit of drive in him always and to do better always."
Jim McGuinness made his sensational return to the
football
championship
for his efforts.
However, it
Paddy McBrearty admitted: 'We didn't know what to expect. We knew Jim would either welcome us or there would be another response.
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'When you door-step someone . . . if it was me, I probably would have told him to clear it.
'We hadn't seen each other in a long time but we had a good chat about where Donegal football was.
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'But he never said no, which kept the thing alive. If he said no, that would have been fine.
'There wasn't just one conversation. There were a few conversations and it kept the pressure on.
'Thankfully he came back because god knows where it would be if he didn't.'
That 2014 All-Ireland final defeat to Kerry remains a
They had just produced a blistering surprise win over reigning champions
That seismic result was Jim Gavin's sole Championship defeat in charge of the
Sky
Blues as the greatest team the game has seen went on to win the
next
six on the bounce.
But that year's title was not won by McGuinness' Donegal either — they were all set to finish the job against
McGuinness went to the banquet that night at the CityWest Hotel with no idea what happened and would quit as boss.
He said: 'I would say until I got back involved, there wasn't a day I didn't think about it.
'I can remember walking about the hotel after we lost, in a daze.
'I didn't know what happened, didn't know where I was, didn't know what actually had gone wrong there, and taking a step back from that and trying to
work
that out . . . it's very, very painful.
"You're in a banquet and there's 1,200 people and you don't want to see anybody. That's not a
nice
place to be.
'All of that factors into it but I think when you get back on the horse, then you're not thinking about the past, you're thinking about what you need to do.
'You're thinking about moving forward and we have moved forward and we've created this opportunity.
'If everything works well and everything goes to plan, the only thing that it guarantees you is to be competitive. That's the only thing that it guarantees you.
'But if we're competitive in this All-Ireland, I'll be happy. I'll be really, really happy. That's all we're looking for, is to go in, show our true colours and be competitive. The focus has to be there.'