With Derry travelling to Leeside this weekend to play Cork, we take a look at the career of one of Derry’s finest with strong connections to the Rebel County.
Derry U21 All-Ireland Football Champions 1968: Former Nemo Rangers star, Mickey Niblock, is fourth from right, front row. Adrian McGuckin is centre back row, standing.
From Magherafelt to New York to Leeside, Mickey Niblock was a uniquely talented Gaelic footballer.
Every generation leaves its mark. There was the generation of Derry men who took Sam Maguire into the Oak Grove for the first time in 1993. There were also the generations who made them.
Let's flick back a few pages and pick up the lesser-told story of the trailblazers of the late 60's. They were the young Turks in a decade in which popular music went global – the first Derry All-Ireland minor and u21 winning teams of '65 and '68 – and like many of their generation, they knew no fear.
"We thought we were unbeatable at one stage," laughs Adrian McGuckin, the legendary coach and Ballinderry Shamrocks clubman.
It's not hard to understand a young McGuckin's thinking when you consider a list of his peers. Sean O'Connell, Colm P Mullan, Tommy Diamond and Eamon Coleman are all household names in the history of Derry GAA. They brought Derry football into new terrain and it felt good.
However, for many, the epitome of the swagger of the era, and of those Derry teams, was McGuckin's friend and team-mate, Mickey Niblock.
If the surname is familiar to Cork folk, that's hardly surprising. A winner of Cork County, Munster and All-Ireland football titles with Nemo Rangers, Niblock's connection with the Rebel County is a long one that spans generations – his son David also representing the county at the top level.
"Mickey was a class footballer. He was way before his time in many ways; had great ball control, vision and a real determination," explains McGuckin.
One year after helping his county to their first minor All-Ireland, Niblock made his senior debut for Derry. He was still 18 but made the transition with the same consummate ease with which he cut through many defences. With minor and u21 All-Ireland medals pocketed, Niblock, McGuckin and company went on to collect the Ulster senior title in 1970.
Prompted for his unique memory of playing alongside Niblock, Adrian McGuckin offers up a fascinating insight into the team, and the era. He takes up the story:
"In the National League of '69 – the year after we won the under-21 All-Ireland – I remember we played Mayo in challenge game. We won well and Mickey was simply brilliant. I remember that game for that reason and for the fact that a few months later we played them again in the semi-final of the national league."
"We lost by a point but it was controversial to say the least. I suppose it wouldn't be Derry if the game didn't end with a disputed score! There have been so many. We were a point down and Sean O'Connell had just struck the equalising point when the referee blew the final whistle. Afterwards, he explained that the end of the game had come between the times the ball left Sean's boot until the ball went over the bar. Anyway, the score didn't count and we lost."
"It's a good story but I suppose there's a serious side to it as well. It was the first outing in Croke Park at senior level for our group and that winning feeling in Croke Park is very important to all successful teams. Had we went onto the final and won it, as Mayo did, it would have been a great boost for us at the time."
We may never truly know if it was a factor or not but that winning feeling in Croke Park was not to be repeated in 1970 following the Ulster triumph; Kerry the victors at the All-Ireland semi-final stage.
Niblock was undeterred and it was business as usual as he registered a record breaking 2-04 from play in the following year's Ulster final defeat to Down. It was a feat later surpassed by Tyrone's Frank McGuigan, and just like McGuigan would do the following decade, Magherafelt's young trailblazer forged a path to the USA. Whilst he did later return in the '72-73 season to play in the League semi-final verses Kerry, it was to be his last in the red and white of Derry.
"When Mickey left to go to America it was a massive loss to the team which was really starting to mature at that point," says McGuckin.
Niblock returned from the US in 1978 settling in Youghal with wife, Dolores. Although playing his football with Douglas at the time, the Magherafelt man returned 'home' to help his club to the county football title – the club's first in 29 years. Whilst the indiscretion was to prevent him ever playing with Cork, Niblock is on record as having 'no regrets'.
Ulster senior glory returned to Derry in the intervening years of 1975 and 1976 but the team of starlets who made history in '65 had started to scatter – a new generation emerging who would inspire others to even greater heights.
"There was a romance and flamboyance about those teams of the seventies. They caught our imagination," said Henry Downey, All-Ireland Senior winning captain of 1993 speaking in May 2013.
Every generation leaves a mark.
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