<p>Michael and Paul McGinley</p>
Christmas and the New Year are a time for celebration and future planning, but for many, it’s also bittersweet as we remember those who are no longer with us and take time to cherish those fleeting family moments.
The 2025 season was a memorable one for Michael Bannon, for all that Rory McIlroy achieved on the golf course. But the year will also be tinged with sadness for him and his family following the sad passing of his mother, Maura, on December 16.
Seeing our children grow up happy and healthy is all any parent could wish for, and gentle parental encouragement is often at the heart of our great sporting success stories.
Where would McIlroy be without the support of his parents, Gerry and Rosie? Or Pádraig Harrington without his late father Paddy, who sowed the seeds of a golfing love affair for him at Stackstown?
Where would Paul McGinley be without the guidance of his late father, Michael Snr?
On Friday, he wil will lay his father to rest alongside his late mother Julia at Kilmashogue Cemetery in the foothills of the Dublin Mountains, just a stone’s throw from Grange, where he learned to plot his way through the trees and hone the ball-shaping skills that made him a top-20-in-the-world player and Ryder Cup legend.
Michael Snr passed away on December 28 after a long battle with dementia, but his love of golf, GAA, and his native Donegal lives on in his children, Paul, Mary, Karen, Michael, and Suzanne, and his many grandchildren.
A former captain and president of Dunfanaghy Golf Club in his native county, where Paul unveiled the McGinley Academy in 2024, Mick McGinley was a significant figure in Irish golf.
According to Michael McHugh in the Donegal Democrat in 1996, he was born in Main Street, Dunfanaghy, where his parents owned a shop, and was a boarder in St Eunan's College, where Gaelic football played a major part in his life.
<img alt="" height="1243" src="https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/52780078e4b0782c048f31cb/98dd46ee-de01-4802-8541-4dbb9f6a5503/D70e_f1XkAAeIFD.jpeg?format=1000w" width="1605" />
“He played on the Donegal minor team and was on that team of 1956 that brought the first minor title to the county. During the summer holidays from St Eunan's, he spent a lot of his time caddying on the golf course in Dunfanaghy and playing football with St. Michael's, a new club then formed primarily with the help of Morgan Ferriter, Sean's father.”
He went on to play senior football for Donegal from 1959 to 1961, but after his Leaving Certificate, he got a call to Atlantic College in Dublin and after three years there, he was awarded his radio officer’s certificate.
“He spent five years with the Merchant Navy, touring the world, and was one of the very few who brought golf clubs to sea because wherever the ship docked, he always tried to get a game of golf. But by 1965, he found himself on terra firma when he married Julia Sheridan from Rathmullan.”
Work took the family to Dublin, where Michael Snr was with Phillips for 20 years before going on to set up Sigma Wireless Communications, the Irish distributor of Motorola products, and Sigma Wireless Technologies, which remains a major international player, delivering critical communications systems to clients worldwide.
And yet he remained deeply involved in golf, playing the championship and scratch cup circuit, where Paul later admitted he learned the nuts and bolts of what makes players tick in the heat of battle.
He had the distinction of reaching the All-Ireland finals of the Barton Shield with Naas in 1985, the year he was captain of Dunfanaghy.
<img alt="" height="1762" src="https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/52780078e4b0782c048f31cb/aa7f7956-cadb-4d99-862d-5da6bfd65369/Donegal_1956-1767008355982.jpg?format=1000w" width="1920" />
<p>Picture via <a href="https://www.donegallive.ie/news/local-news/1976824/the-late-mick-mcginley-mourned-in-both-donegal-and-dublin.html" rel="noreferrer" target="_blank">donegallive.ie</a></p>
“Having defeated Tullamore in the Leinster final at Carlow, Naas went on to outscore a formidable Cork team in the national semi-finals at Kilkenny,” wrote Dermot Gilleece in 2004. “And the key performance in that particular match was by the partnership of Mick McGinley and Turlough Boylan, who beat Hugh Mackeown and Denis O'Sullivan. But as things turned out, the All-Ireland pennant went to Shandon Park.”
Paul was a European Tour winner when Michael Jnr, who captured the North of Ireland Championship in 1996, matched his father's Barton Shield achievement in 1998, when Grange won the Leinster pennant.
For all their successes, Michael Snr was most proud that he’d simply passed on his love of the game to his sons.
“I never really get nervous watching himself or Michael play,” he said in 2004. “I suppose that's because I have confidence in both of them as good players, while being a little envious, I could never hit the ball the way they do, especially off the tee and with their long irons.
"I've often found myself thinking 'if only I could do that,' but my forte was the short game. On a broader level, I took pride in having gotten them into golf as a pastime early in their lives.
“My biggest thrill would be to stand behind the tee and watch their drives fly like arrows down the middle of the fairway. That would sometimes give me a greater buzz than any honours they might achieve.”
Michael McGinley’s Funeral Mass will take place on Friday (2nd Jan) at 13.00 pm in the Church of the Annunciation, Rathfarnham (D14 E803) followed by burial in Kilmashogue Cemetery.
Ar dheis Dé go raibh a anam
Article Link: Michael McGinley: "My biggest thrill would be to watch their drives fly like arrows down the middle" - News - Irish Golf Desk