Peter McGinnity

Peter McGinnity (born October 1953), is a former Gaelic footballer and manager who hails from Roslea in County Fermanagh.

Manager/Coach

Peter McGinnity from Roslea played for Fermanagh for the best part of twenty years. He captained Ulster to two Railway Cups and also won two others. He won three SFCs with his native Roslea as well as three (in three years!) in Antrim with St John’s, Belfast. With the latter, he won an Ulster club championship and played in an All-Ireland club final.

He played for his county at under 21 level for five years, winning two Ulster championships and contesting back-to-back All-Ireland finals. He also played in two Ulster minor deciders.

October 1953: Peter McGinnity is born in Roslea, County Fermanagh.

Fast-forward almost 45 years to autumn 1998: he plays his last game of football, helping his club win an intermediate championship final . . . an incredible 30 years after first donning the colours of the south county club.

Peter was only 14 when he broke onto the Roslea first team in 1968. He spent virtually his entire club career with the Shamrocks, apart from three years in Belfast with St John’s, 1976-79.

The IFC garnered in ’98 was McGinnity’s second, his first adult success with Roslea arriving a quarter of a century earlier in 1973 when an intermediate league and championship double was plucked. Outside the adult team, Peter also collected two county U21 championships and a Fermanagh minor league memento.

During the ’80s, Roslea really came to the fore and senior championship successes were recorded in 1982, ’84 and ’86. Peter also played in the county finals of ’83, ’87 and ’89 and was on the Roslea side that clinched six successive senior league titles.

Nineteen-eighty-four stood out as a landmark year, as the Shamrocks marked the Association’s 100th birthday in fine style.

Meanwhile, with Fermanagh, Peter won an Ulster minor league in 1970 and featured on the sides beaten by Derry and Tyrone respectively in the Ulster MFC finals of ’70 and ’71.

In those same two years, however, the Erne County had more luck at under 21 level, collecting both Ulster titles en route to successive All-Ireland final appearances against mighty Cork.

He played for the county at all levels in 1970, breaking onto the senior side for the national league in autumn.

He played his last game for the county seniors in the national league against Laois in 1991, under PJ McGowan. By all accounts, that was something of an isolated appearance in the green jersey as McGinnity had missed a couple of years prior to then with knee and hip injuries.

But he had been a regular with Fermanagh right through from 1970 until 1988/89.

The highlight was 1982 when Fermanagh got to the Ulster final for the first time since 1945. They came closer than they’ve ever done to winning the Anglo-Celt Cup too, losing to Armagh by a mere three points, 0-10 to 1-4.

...
Wikipedia