Conor McGraynor’s footballing story is an unusual one. He has not only lined out alongside his four brothers but also his father at different stages in his career. Originating in a small club in Avondale in Wicklow, Conor has exceeded all expectations set upon him. Making his Wicklow senior football debut at eighteen, competing in Ireland’s Fittest Family in 2016 and travelling to America to play with New York in 2017. The highlight of his sporting career for him however has been scoring the winning point in the Sigerson Cup Final in 2015 for Dublin City University, capping off a roller-coaster season.
Conor began in DCU pursuing an undergraduate degree in biotechnology – or as he described, a “nerdy, science-y course”.
After commuting for the first two years of his degree, he decided to take a year out. Working in a local hotel to save up enough to live in Dublin. With a scholarship and College Park accommodation.
Conor’s return to DCU saw his establishment on the DCU Sigerson Cup squad: “A number of elements were going on outside of the GAA club in DCU around that time. There was a little bit of a movement to remove Niall Moyna as manager of the team. We had an AGM and a player meeting and so I ended up being the DCU chairman for the club, and we managed to keep Nial Moyna in seat as the manager – players wanted to back him,” Connor explained. “He brought in Sean Boylan; he had Mick Bohan who was over the Dublin ladies, to name a few, so the coaching team was brilliant and the group of players was just phenomenal. When you go down through the list of the players involved and what they have done since it is probably one of DCU’s most successful teams.”
DCU’s sporting success has not always been a given.
Conor paints an underdog story: wins over unbackable favourites, last gasp scores, and game-winning moments lost to time. He began with: “We won the league in Armagh against St. Mary’s and then went straight into the Sigerson. It was one of those fairy-tale stories. We knocked out Ulster University Jordanstown in the first round that had Cillian O’Connor, Patrick McBrearty. It was a star studded UUJ team that were highly fancied, and we went up to Jordanstown and beat them on their home soil.”
He continued: “ Then we moved through the stages and were doing well, and then in the quarterfinal we had to go up to St. Mary’s and they brought us to an old girl’s school pitch. I still remember there were these red brick houses all around it and it was like being in someone’s back garden. We got a last-minute leveller from Donie Smyth to go to extra time and we went on and won it in extra time. I think Donal Ryn from Leitrim got a goal that day.”
McGraynor went on to tell of his journey to the top.
“The same happened in the Semi-final. In that Sigerson weekend we were up against it, against UCD and we started really well and they kind of came back at us and got a goal in the second half and then Jack Barry got a point to put them ahead. Then it was into the last couple of minutes and it was do or die and Mickey Quinn kicked a long ball into the square and I jumped up and caught it. I was mauled down in the square and we got a penalty. Enda Smyth actually had the penalty saved but got the rebound and kicked it in. I hadn’t started a Sigerson game all season, but Mick Bohan came up to me and said ‘look you’re a bit fresher than some of the lads, we are going to give you the opportunity to start in the Sigerson Final’.”
“By all means I probably had a quite enough Sigerson Final, UCD were a very good team. The game had so much in it there were goals at both ends and it came into extra time and I always remember Mick Bohan grabbed me by the neck and said now is your time, show them what you’re able to do the lad from Wicklow. He kind of gave me that bit of inspiration, show us why the guy from a small club in Wicklow should be out there with all these top players. I was lucky to get up and fetch a kick out, run on and pop it to Mickey Quinn, he gave it back to me in the pocket and that was the winning score and the rest is history.”
Finishing the story, he describes those that kept him strong.
“It was a fairy-tale year; we made our own luck but we made our own luck because we were such a close-knit team. I bump into the lads of that squad still today and it’s nearly ten years since the day we won that league and nine and a half years since we won that Sigerson and we just pick up the conversation like we were only playing last week together and that is kind of what it was. That friends for life, that bound that social aspect, that kind of football togetherness, and to be part of that was an amazing, amazing experience. It nearly cast a shadow over everything else I have done in my football after that, because that probably was the highest point and probably still is the highest point in what I did in football and it’s ten years ago now. It should have been a catalyst to have a stronger career with Wicklow and with my club but those were the best days surrounded by the best footballers and I suppose I felt like I shone in those situations,” he said.
Conor would then finish his degree a year later. Having met his wife in DCU while he was in final year. Now 32, Conor is still playing football in Westport in Mayo.
As I finished up from our interview, the past DCU sports legend was on the way to the airport for a week holiday with his wife in Grand Canaria.