Football

The making of the legend that is Joe Kernan

Crossmaglen and Armagh legend Joe Kernan 
Crossmaglen and Armagh legend Joe Kernan  Crossmaglen and Armagh legend Joe Kernan 

In a special two-part feature, Brendan Crossan meets up with former Armagh manager Joe Kernan and hears from Tony McEntee and Benny Tierney about the county's halcyon days under the charismatic Crossmaglen Rangers clubman...

MANY good men tread the fine lines of history. Some live to tell the tale; others drift into the ether. We almost never heard of Joe Kernan.

GAA anoraks might have been left with vague recollections of the swashbuckling forward fighting Dublin’s rising tide in the ’77 All-Ireland final, later claiming a couple of hard-earned Allstars in a county career that always had unforgiving gradient.

He took over the seniors at his club Crossmaglen Rangers in ’93. 

In those fledgling years 'Cross were rebuilding the senior team from their four-in-a-row U21 squad.

“Joe had served three years in management,” recalls Tony McEntee.

“At that stage Joe was almost not coming back in. The players met and discussed if he was still the right man.

“We’d won no county titles. We had a mixture of reasonably old and inexperienced players and a young crop potentially coming through.

“I do remember a meeting that we were involved in – as John [McEntee] and I had just joined the senior panel at that stage – and it was very much whether to give him another chance.

“The balance swung in Joe’s favour – the players decided: ‘Let’s give him another year because there’s something coming here.’”

Kernan’s situation wasn’t helped by the fact that Crossmaglen's neighbours Mullaghbawn won an Ulster title in 1995. 

Mullaghbawn had Benny Tierney, Enda and Justin McNulty, Shane Collins and Kieran McGeeney in their ranks.

Sunday July 14 1996 in Silverbridge was Crossmaglen’s moment of truth.

Lose to defending champions Mullaghbawn in the senior county championship and there wasn’t much road for big Joe to travel as 'Cross manager.

“That game was as tough and as hard as you’d get,” Kernan remembers.

“There was a lot of tension between the two clubs,” says McEntee, “which spilled over in League and Championship football, badly spilled over – on the field and into the crowd.”

In an ill-tempered encounter a melee broke out. Crossmaglen wing-back Joe Fitzpatrick and Shane Collins, Mullaghbawn’s tall midfielder, fell on their swords and were red-carded. 

Passions flared as Mullaghbawn manager Peter McDonnell and Rangers’ backroom team member Ollie McEntee were also sent to the line.   

It was the day, Kernan proclaims, the Crossmaglen players “became men”.

Joe Kernan's last managerial gig was with Irish International Rules team
Joe Kernan's last managerial gig was with Irish International Rules team Joe Kernan's last managerial gig was with Irish International Rules team

Crossmaglen finished with a flourish thanks to the dead-eyed accuracy of Oisin McConville.  

“We scored six or seven points without reply in the last five minutes – and that was the cornerstone for the future, that we were always able to finish strongly,” Kernan says.

Fine lines and history. McEntee went on to win three All-Ireland Club titles under Kernan. 

“That game was the making or breaking of Joe,” McEntee states.

“Had we lost to Mullaghbawn it would have been the end of Joe. No titles, no Armagh.

“After that, fortunes changed. We got a few breaks in Ulster and won the All-Ireland and the rest is history, as they say.

“But, between the end of the ’95 season, when Pearse Ogs beat us, and the start of the ’96 season there was a time that Joe Kernan may not have ever been the man that you see now.”

McEntee adds: “Joe turned it around in ’96. He had to make decisions and he probably became more ruthless. Hughie Daly was playing for us at the time and he dropped Hughie one time for disciplinary reasons – and that was a big, big decision. 

“It was a big statement. I think Joe knew he had to put his stamp on things. I don’t remember the Joe Kernan before that.”

Just imagine Armagh without Joe Kernan. There would have been no spiteful rivalry with Tyrone that elevated Gaelic football to a ridiculous height. 

La Manga may never have ventured into GAA vernacular. 

No bone-crunching hits that could be heard at the back of the Gerry Arthurs Stand. 

No Ulster finals at a crammed Croke Park. And perhaps no All-Ireland title for the Orchard County. 

Crossmaglen's county championship win over Ulster champions and neighbours Mullaghbawn in 1996 was pivotal in Joe Kernan's managerial career, according to Tony McEntee
Crossmaglen's county championship win over Ulster champions and neighbours Mullaghbawn in 1996 was pivotal in Joe Kernan's managerial career, according to Tony McEntee Crossmaglen's county championship win over Ulster champions and neighbours Mullaghbawn in 1996 was pivotal in Joe Kernan's managerial career, according to Tony McEntee

No little red book yarns for the media to feast upon. No skin-tight jerseys made in a v-shape. No summer bogey men to spook the blue-bloods of the south. For a good part of the ‘Noughties’, Armagh were the hottest ticket in town. 

Box Office every Championship Sunday. They made adrenaline junkies out of us all. They polarised a nation.  

If they were around today they would be a pay wall’s dream for the suits at Sky. 

For better or worse, they were the ultimate drama givers. 

There was no theatre without Armagh. There was no theatre without Joe Kernan…


“Once there’s hurt there is always room for more” – Joe Kernan


IT’S a crisp Friday morning in Newry. Staff at the Canal Court Hotel are preparing for the regular lunch-time rush. 

In a couple of hours’ time the main lobby area will be scented by carvery cuisine and a queue will snake around the downstairs dining area.

Joe sits on a high stool in a quiet room. He’s arrived early for this interview. Joe being Joe, his mobile phone is glued to his ear. 

He’s dipped in and out of the media’s radar since he stepped away from the Armagh job in 2007. 

He encored for a year with the Galway footballers in 2010 before leaving the inter-county stage.   

He’s enjoyed a couple of managerial gigs with the International Rules teams and Inter-Pros. 

Now 63-years-old, Joe doesn’t look a great deal different from the halcyon days when Paul Grimley and him commanded the Armagh sideline like two fearsome doormen back in the ‘Noughties’. 

He’s shed a decent amount of weight since then and goes to the gym most mornings. 

He’s undergone shoulder and wrist surgery in recent times and points to a bothersome knee. 

But it won’t stop him from spending more time on the golf course this year. 

And then there are his business interests, what his sons are doing and the thousand ideas he must kick around his head every day.  

Joe Kernan is full of energy on the day we meet. 

He’s looking forward to a family holiday to Italy and being surrounded by his ever-growing number of grandchildren – six at the last count. 


“You think about waking up in 12 months time and we’ve won an All-Ireland and you’re not part of it.” - Joe Kernan in conversation with Benny Tierney


HE doesn’t look in his rear view often but scratch the surface and he’ll flick through the mind’s archives and enjoy doing so. 

After establishing Crossmaglen’s supremacy on the county, provincial and national stage, the Armagh job seemed pre-ordained. Brian Canavan and Brian McAlinden re-established Armagh as a force on the national stage again but their gallantry could only bring them to two All-Ireland semi-finals. 

After losing to Galway by a point in a 2001 All-Ireland Qualifier – the debut year of the back door – the two Brians had brought their native county as far as they could. 

“I was ready for the Armagh job,” says Kernan. “In the three previous seasons, the team that beat them won the All-Ireland. We were a kick of a ball away on so many days. 

“You had players who had been through the mill. They had quality and, most important of all, you had players that were hurting from the few years previous. Once there’s hurt there is always room for more.” 

Benny Tierney made up his mind up that 2001 was his last season playing for Armagh. He was 32 and had lost the goalkeeping jersey to the up and coming Paul Hearty of Crossmaglen.

Joe Kernan believed he could get Armagh over the line after the side had lost two All-Ireland semi-finals in 1999 and 2000
Joe Kernan believed he could get Armagh over the line after the side had lost two All-Ireland semi-finals in 1999 and 2000 Joe Kernan believed he could get Armagh over the line after the side had lost two All-Ireland semi-finals in 1999 and 2000

But when Kernan took the job he rang Tierney about staying on.  

“I thought he was asking me back out of courtesy,” Tierney says. “He came to the house and spoke to me and he told me he’d big plans for the team. We’d been on the cusp and he felt he could get the team across the line. At 32, you’ve heard most managers trotting out the lines.

“Joe said to me: ‘You think about waking up in 12 months time and we’ve won an All-Ireland and you’re not part of it.’

Tierney adds: “I’d already told my wife that I was throwing in the towel. I was happy enough with my decision. I wasn’t waiting for Joe Kernan to come to me. I just assumed that [Paul] Hearty was going to take over, or I had resigned myself to that fact.

“Joe said: ‘Look, don’t make a decision today. I’ll ring you next week.’

“But he didn’t ring me next week. He rang me the next morning at half-eight because he knew if I dwelled on it and if I got talking to anybody they would have said: ‘Catch yourself on, Benny. You’ve had your run.’

“I was knackered and I answered the phone. He says: ‘Joe Kernan here, Benny. I need an answer in the next 30 seconds. I’m drawing up a panel here and I have to send it off.’

“He caught me unawares – which I think was his plan, like any good businessman – and I said: ‘Aye, alright.’ I came off the phone thinking: ‘What have you done?’” 

Beyond the jokes and banter, Tierney was as competitive as the next man

“I was playing for 13 years. I didn’t want to be sitting on the subs bench. Paul [Hearty] got injured midway through the League, damaging his shoulder and that obviously helped me because I got a run in goals.”

The Crossmaglen contingent were delighted Kernan took the Armagh job. They’d scaled many mountains with him at the helm and felt he could do the same at county level. 

“Joe is very much a salesman,” says McEntee. “It’s the way he does things. You don’t get the option of saying ‘no’ to him because he is a genuine bloke with a lot of passion. You would end up saying: ‘Okay, Joe, I’ll do it.’

“We [in ‘Cross] saw him as a good man-manager. In our eyes he could do no wrong, and he was going into an Armagh team that had a lot of success but not enough under the two Brians.

“We were delighted he got the job because throughout the entire time we were with ‘Cross, we were in conflict with Armagh.

“We didn’t play for Armagh during that time because of our club commitments. We were the club that wouldn’t play with the county and we openly and actively fought with Armagh and the two Brians over not attending training and matches. 

“We prioritised our club because we were winning All-Irelands. They wanted us to be involved in National League matches and we were preparing to play on St Patrick’s Day in Croke Park. They didn’t understand that because their picture was bigger..”


“You think you’re f***ing tough – I’m every bit as tough.”


A TEAM can consider itself fortunate to have three or four genuine leaders in its ranks at any one time. The Armagh panel of the late 1990s and early 2000s was blessed with at least a dozen. 

The leadership qualities of Paul McGrane and Kieran McGeeney are well known. 

But there were different kinds of leaders in the group. Benny Tierney, in his own inimitable way, was a leader in the Armagh changing room.  

Francie Bellew never said a word but led by his actions. 

Only those who played alongside John Toal can really appreciate his magnificence.

The McEntees were big personalities. And nobody lived the pressure moments in big games quite like Oisin. 

Stevie McDonnell had incredible heart and hands like “vice-grips”. You had the McNultys. The assuredness of Aidan O’Rourke. 

Armagh also had the indefatigable Diarmaid Marsden - a bull of a man, unbreakable.   

Looking back, Kernan laughs at his own misconceptions of the Clann na nGael forward. 

“I initially thought Diarmaid Marsden was maybe a bit soft, and that’s the opinion I would have had as ‘Cross manager. I was wrong.

“I remember one night in Callanbridge, Dairmaid and ‘Geezer’ going for a ball and I thought ‘F***’. Diarmaid picked up speed and the two of them met head on. They were like two bulls. I thought then that there were two boys that would go anywhere. You don’t want chaos… but neither of them took a backward step… They got up, grunted at each other and got on. It was like one saying to the other: ‘You think you’re f***ing tough – I’m every bit as tough.’”


“It’s Lourdes you should have gone to.”


LA Manga ended Benny Tierney’s inter-county career. In 2002, nobody in the GAA did sunny pre-Championship training camps. 

“You think of the gamble Joe took – the first Gaelic team to go to La Manga,” says Tierney. 

“You might think it was a Jolly Boys outing – and I might have hoped it was a Jolly Boys outing – but I can tell you it finished my career. 

“I thought I couldn’t go through that again. We ate, slept and drank football the whole time we were there. Not a beer. We were treated like professional soccer players. It was hard, hard work. 

“We adopted a professional approach but a professional approach only comes from the top. It can only filter down. The amount of money that was spent on us. These people thought the world of us. It takes 30 to 40 things to work to win an All-Ireland – maybe 20 of those things other managers wouldn’t have thought about. But Joe did.”

John McCloskey, Armagh’s team trainer and one of Kernan’s trusted lieutenants, felt he needed more time with the players to prepare them for their first Championship campaign under the new managerial team. 

“La Manga was unbelievable,” says Kernan. “Two sessions per day for three or four days, and one half-day off.

“The boys came a couple of times and asked: ‘Any chance of a drink?’ And I said: ‘Boys, there will be none of us drinking.’ I love my wine but if we had one drink – one drink – word would spread the Armagh boys were out there on a drinking session. “I said to them: ‘You will know with five minutes to go in a game that you did everything right.’” 

Kernan was ahead of his time on so many levels. When Armagh were staying in the CityWest Hotel, Kerry were still taking the train up to Dublin.   

“That was part of Joe’s attraction,” says McEntee. “La Manga was brilliant; it was just a fabulous experience for us as a team – the amount of work we got in... It was different and new – and I also think Joe tried different stuff on the field, tactically, that wasn’t so commonplace at the time. The third midfielder and the rotation of it. He had a good head on him for what he wanted to do and he was willing to take those risks.”

Clones, May 19 2002. Summer was beginning to reveal itself. Armagh faced the toughest of Championship openers against a young, vibrant Tyrone team. 

The Armagh players warmed up on a rickety old pitch within walking distance of St Tiernach’s Park. The short walk back up to the ground left them exposed to the jocular nature of the Tyrone supporters. 

“Their supporters were having some laugh,” remembers Tierney. “One fella was shouting over: ‘It’s Lourdes you should have gone to!’”

Joe recalls: “I heard one comment: ‘Ah, boys, youse have some sun tan on youse.’ I never said a word. I grunted. But I was thinking: ‘Thank you very much.’ I said to the boys: ‘Did you hear that? They think you were on holiday?’”

Nobody wore game-faces quite like Armagh. They marched impassively towards the ground. 

The determined clatter of a thousand football studs on the hard, stony surface drowned out the wise cracks. 

A glorious, unforgettable rivalry was about to unfurl…