In ancient Rome, Ardara and Donegal’s hardy Paddy McGrath would have been a dark-eyed centurion, a gladiator who always grew tall in the heat of battle.
On this balmy evening in Ballybofey he sits on a stool, in all his rugged splendour, shoulders surely carved from the granite of his neighbouring sea cliffs of Slieve League.
Paddy, Neil McGee, Frank McGlynn, Michael Murphy, Patrick McBrearty and Paul Durcan all have an All-Ireland medal and three Ulster medals in their back pocket.
But Ardara’s smaller version of Arnold Schwarzenegger has come a long way from his baptism of fire against a rampant Armagh side in Crossmaglen in 2010-the team of “no-hopers” that Jim McGuinness built into All-Ireland champions a mere two years later - a story that could make a film.
And McGrath’s eyes light up when asked about the many young men of 20-23 that are in this panel.
Just for a second, you see that McGrath and the other grizzled warriors feel that greatness is not far away-especially now that the talismanic Patrick McBrearty, the much more consistent “Malcolm McDonald” of Tir Conaill is back and buzzing.
“We are excited to get the season under way against Fermanagh and I think we are ready for it and we have been waiting around now since the League final and we want to get on with it.”
McGrath is injury free and looking forward to pitting his wits against the Erne County and his old coach and manager Rory Gallagher.
“He knows us, and we know him and there is always rivalry with Fermanagh,'' he said.
“But it just adds to the occasion and Rory has his job to do and we have our job to do.”
But this is a much changed scenario for veteran McGrath and Donegal, was he ever tempted to say “that life could be a lot easier if I did not have to be running around the field after these young lads”- a question from the inimitable, eternally impish Micheal Clifford, of the Kerry brogue that would butter bread for a week.
“Sometimes you think, but you just get back and try your best,'' he replied.
“And even if I was not on the team or the squad, at least I would be pushing somebody else for a place.
“And that is what it is all about, the team is always bigger than any one individual and it is about pushing each other on to be better.”
So does McGrath sense that there is a real future for this side-and then you just know in his face, why he will fight through the pain for another shot at the stars: “Definitely, there are a lot of players who would not be here if they did not think that.
“We know we have players who can compete with the best players in Ireland.
“It is a different team from last year and we have lost a lot of players from last year, but the players who have come in have been fantastic.
“Just mention Oisin Gallen who was not around last year and it is great to see that fresh youth coming through in the team.
“It is what we need.”
So was McGrath tempted to go when his friends and the older generation that “you looked up to” going in 2015/2016?
He replied: “Every team goes through that transition and you have to try and get a new team going, but I think we transitioned well, and we got back to winning an Ulster title last year and hopefully we can push on to even greater things this year,” he stated.
“It is good win an Ulster title and a lot of our players now have an Ulster championship in their back pocket, and nobody can take that away from them.
“But you need to use that now, we are going into this game as Ulster champions.
“We played Fermanagh last year and won but this is a new year.”
So where will the main threats come from Fermanagh?
“We all know the way Fermanagh play, and they beat us in Letterkenny, and they are a dangerous team.
“I know we lost two men that day, but equally we could lose two men on Sunday.
“They beat Monaghan, who beat Tyrone in last year’s Ulster Championship, and we can’t take our eyes off that.
“We have to treat them with respect, and they will be very keen to meet us in Brewster and they will be ready and waiting for us.
“Rory knows us and he is going to do his very best to beat us and they will have the home crowd, so it will be some battle.”
Indeed.
