WHEELING away in celebration after bagging a goal for Ballycran against Portaferry wasn’t a scenario Paul Sheehan could have countenanced until life’s uncanny ability to toss up curveballs left him standing at a crossroads.
The Sheehan name has been synonymous with Newry Shamrocks since Paul’s late grandfather Jerry Sheehan imbued the entire clan with a love for the caman code. Uncle Ronan, the current Down manager, is another dyed-in-the-wool Shamrocks man while brothers Dara and Conall still don the white and green.
Paul never imagined anything other than lining out alongside them but, after transferring to Ballycran, will instead find himself going toe-to-toe with his siblings when the Shamrocks host Michael Ennis’s men in their final Down SHC round-robin game on September 24.
“It’ll be some fun with your brother marking you,” he said with a wry smile, referring to defender Dara.
“Look, to be brutally honest, yes they’re my brothers, but they’re two of my best friends too. There’s been a bit of slagging here and there… mummy will maybe be panicking when the day comes, but daddy will let us cut lumps out of each other.”
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Sheehan was keen to avoid any fuss about the move - a situation borne of circumstance rather than anything else. It is coming up on three years since he and fiancée Claire, sister of Down team-mate Stephen Keith, bought their house in the peninsula, with the wedding taking place next year.
The Covid-19 pandemic changed his working circumstances with Newry-based First Derivatives, and it became inevitable that his hurling situation would follow suit at some point in the future.
“Truth be told, it was purely logistical,” said the 32-year-old.
“I’ve been living here for three years this Christmas, since Covid I’m not required to be in the office… to be brutally honest travelling to Newry three or four times a week for training, it doesn’t be long adding up.
“We’re getting married, I’m settled here, it was a no brainer. I’m so thankful and so grateful that Shamrocks never batted an eyelid, they understood, so I was nearly let go with the greatest respect. They wished me all the best thankfully.”
Yet it was far from an easy call, with the Shamrocks’ intermediate championship triumph in 2021 pushing the transfer further down the line as Sheehan’s commitment to the cause remained resolute.
“Of course it was difficult. When you think of clubs over here, you think of the Coulters in Ballygalget, the Keiths here, the Sands’s in Portaferry, Newry was always the Sheehans, and I’m very aware of that.
“It made the decision the hardest thing I’ve ever had to do… I love Newry Shamrocks, but I had to do it for myself.
“Winning that intermediate probably delayed this move by a year. When I was playing with Newry our ambition was always to get up and compete – me and Ronan are close, but we’re hard on one another too.
“The work that man does in Newry, honestly it’s second to none. The ambition that group had to win that intermediate championship, and to finally get up and play senior hurling, it was brilliant. It was like the weight of the world off our shoulders.
“It’s still probably the proudest day of my life.”
Equally though, the transition to Ballycran has been seamless both on and off the field. On Sunday he bagged the late goal that put a bit of extra daylight between them and Portaferry, while friends and familiar faces have made him feel welcome from day one.
“I’m settled here, some of my best friends are here - the likes of ‘Woodsy’ [Conor Woods] and ‘Viper’ [Keith] are two of my best mates. James Coyle, me and ‘Mutley’ [Michael Hughes] have been in the same county squads from we were U12, Gerard Hughes, Liam, Phelim [Savage]… the whole lot of them, to be honest.
“It would probably be harder moving to a club where you maybe don’t know people, but I’ve been a member of the gym here for the last three years, I was in and out the whole time.
“I couldn’t thank them enough for how welcoming they’ve been, and that goes for both clubs. The transition was so easy - I never wanted a big deal made of it, I haven’t said a word to anybody. I just want to play hurling.”
