The match night ritual was always the same for the young Ciaran Gallagher.
A boyhood Finn Harps fan, he was taken to games by his father, Aidan, and they’d click through the turnstiles and hour before kick-off to take up a position on the Town End terrace.
They were only coming from Raphoe, but the early entry enabled the budding goalkeeper to watch and learn.
The Harps goalkeepers warm up in the Town End goals and Gallagher would attentively look on at their pre-match routines and take a mental note.
Now, he’s one of the men being warmed up by Paddy Hannigan, the Harps goalkeeping coach, in that same goalmouth.
He has accumulated 178 appearances since coming on to replace Gavin Cullen in April 2009 in a game against Sporting Fingal, just two days after he turned 17.
Finn Park might well be a relic from a past era and falling rapidly out of date, but Gallagher still feels a certain magic in the old place.
“We’ve been lucky in the last couple of seasons to play in front of a couple of big crowds here,” he says at the dawn of another season.
“It’s something special to play in Finn Park when it’s like that: the place full and the crowd buzzing.
“People say things like that all the time and it sounds like a cliché, but it’s so true. The fans really react at Finn Park.
“We’re in this together so we need to show it; making Finn Park a bit of a fortress could keep us up.”
Gallagher had a season away from Harps, in 2014, when he went to Derry City, but he counts last season as his first ‘proper’ term in the Premier Division.
He and Richard Brush – who has since left for Ballinamallard – shared the goalkeeping duties last season and he’ll have competition from Harry Doherty this time around.
“It’s something special to play in Finn Park when it’s like that: the place full and the crowd buzzing.
Gallagher says: “I got a slight taste of the Premier Division in Derry, but I didn’t play too much so last year was my first proper year of it. It’s the level any player wants to be at.
“Any wee lapse in concentration is punished massively and you just have to be on the toes all the time.
“There are certain wee things you’ll get away with in the First Division, but no way will you get away with it in the Premier. You have to be at eight out of ten every single week.”
Gallagher has shared the stage with some of the top players in the world in his time.
Back in 2008, he played for the Republic of Ireland Under-16s in a game against Germany at O’Shea Park in Blarney.
Abu-Bakarr Kargbo scored the winner for Germany in a 1-0 success on a day that saw Gallagher in opposite number to Marc-André ter Stege, now the goalkeeper at Barcelona, while Mario Götze also featured.
Ciaran Gallagher makes a save for the Republic of Ireland Under-16s against Germany in 2008. Mario Gotze (10) looks on.
He has played at Under-16, Under-17 and Under-18 levels for Ireland and is now well enough versed to know what it will take for Harps to once again keep their head above water.
The line was raised lately when the League of Ireland confirmed its plans to revert to a ten-team Premier Division for the 2018 campaign, meaning three teams will fall through the trapdoor this year.
Gallagher says: “The task was going to be tough anyway, but it’s only got tougher with three teams being relegated.
“The overall standard of the Premier will be better anyway, I think. The two teams that have come up, Limerick and Drogheda, will be better equipped than Longford and Wexford.
“They seem to have signed quality players and will put it up to a lot of teams in there. It leaves us with an uphill task.
“There are going to be days this season when things are going to get hard and we might hit a bad patch of form.
“We have to stick together, dig deep and just win as many points as we possibly can. We will be well prepared, well drilled and we just have to make ourselves hard to beat.”
Gallagher kept 19 clean sheets in 2015, when Harps finally reached the Promised Land again, but there were some trying moments in 2016, not least the moment Daryl Horgan, then of Dundalk and now of Preston, beat him with an audacious effort on a night that saw Harps beaten 7-0.
The Harps number 1 says: “The Premier is very tough. You get a lot more moments of individual brilliance.
“At times last year, we found the going really hard. We still managed to show that we can compete. We got some very good results. Now, we just have to improve and get better all over.”
Ciaran Gallagher says Finn Harps fans can make Finn Park a ‘fortress’
Harps arrested a mid-season slump to stay ahead of Wexford Youths and Gallagher performed heroics in Wexford for a 0-0 draw on the penultimate week of the season.
It was a result that left Wexford seeking a miracle that wouldn’t happen and, though it was hardly needed, gave another outline of Gallagher’s worth.
He says: “The Wexford game near the end of the season was massive. It didn’t completely seal our safety, but you could see that night that Wexford were gone – the stuffing was knocked out of them completely.
“It was great to keep a clean sheet in such a big game.”
These are good times for Harps goalkeepers.
Gallagher himself played regularly with Ireland and in the last few weeks all of Doherty, Lee McCarron and Jamie Bell have been called into international squads.
Gallagher says: “The young fellas are seeing the benefit of hard work now.
“Paddy Hannigan has been brilliant for me and for all of the young keepers coming through. His coaching is top quality. It’s great to see the young goalkeepers get the recognition.”
As he recalls his own exploits for Ireland and examines the difference between his path and that of Barca’s multi-millionaire ter Stegen, he draws a simple conclusion.
He says: “There is a huge difference. I was playing with Castlefin Celtic at the time, training one night a week whereas these German boys were in full-time training.
“With us it was a case of just giving the ball to the best player and away you go. In Ireland, there’s a crazy emphasis on winning; it’s too much. It’s more about winning than it is developing players.”
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