GROWING up in Sandymount in the heart of Dublin 4, Declan Darcy could easily have been another Ross O'Carroll-Kelly. But the fact that both his parents were from Leitrim meant his sporting world was round rather than oval and his immersion into club football came in Connacht rather than Leinster, though initially that move was shrouded in controversy.

"I was playing illegally with Aughawillian. I was not living or working there but I put my father's home place down as my address. Some people in other clubs didn't want me because I was giving Aughawillian an advantage but it was arranged by the club for me to play with Leitrim and that certainly made things easier. The great thing about playing with Aughawillian was that I found myself playing in big club tournaments at the age of 16 or 17, like playing in a final in Cavan against Navan O'Mahonys up against Joe Cassells, Finian Murtagh and David Beggy which was surreal for me."

A senior inter-county debut soon followed.

"I made my debut against Fermanagh wearing some ridiculous thing on my nose, having broken it just beforehand in a hockey match. I then played against Offaly. I started at wing-forward and was doing okay but then moved to centre-half-back. Every ball seemed to come to me then and I was the hero of the day and that was where I lined out from then on."

Darcy soon learned an important footballing lesson.

"I was marking Greg Blaney in a Railway Cup. I was just a nipper and because I respected him so much I was marking him very tightly and hanging on to him for dear life. Eventually he lifted me with an elbow and it was lights out. I couldn't see a thing. Greg is a dentist but he knocked out two or three of my back teeth! He remembers the incident well and we've often laughed about it since. It taught me an invaluable lesson that when you are marking a top player you can't be hanging out of him. Finbarr Cullen famously found out the same thing marking Paul Curran. I learned that day that you don't cross the line and the next time I played on Greg I marked him very differently."

Darcy's early years with Leitrim coincided with a significant upturn in the county's fortunes.

"Things started to roll when we beat red-hot favourites Mayo, managed by John O'Mahony, in a Connacht under-21 semi-final and then Galway in the Connacht final. Aughawillian were doing well and should have beaten Clann na Gael to win a Connacht title in the famous 'battle of the fog'. The bandwagon really developed when PJ Carroll took over the management of the county side. At one stage we were playing a league match in Antrim. A special train from Dublin was run for Leitrim fans and 10 or 12 coaches from the county came to the game. That level of support gave you energy when you went back to training the next Tuesday and created a great buzz. Looking back now, though we didn't realise it at the time, we were giving the county a great lift in the dark days of the early '90s. It was heart-warming stuff."

Things moved up another gear when John O'Mahony became county manager.

"The first thing was that he came. Before he did he had seen us play when he was Mayo boss and we beat them out the gate in Carrick-on-Shannon so he knew what we could do. When he agreed to manage us we knew that he was coming because he believed something was going to happen."

O'Mahony's midas touch worked its magic in 1994. One of the iconic images of the year was Darcy, as captain of the Connacht champions, holding the Nestor Cup with Tom Gannon who captained Leitrim to their only previous Connacht title in 1927. That was the start of an unforgettable adventure.

"I stayed in the Bush Hotel in Carrick the night after the game. The next morning the receptionist apologetically rang me and said she was being hounded by somebody who wanted to speak with me on the phone. I asked, 'who is it?'

'Pat Kenny.'

"I thought somebody was winding me up but sure enough it was Pat who came on the line and asked, 'where are you?'

'I'm in bed.'

'With who?'

'With the Nestor Cup.'

"After the interview I went out on the main street and was surprised at how quiet it was. I had expected a bit of a buzz. I went across the road to the pub and when I opened the door it was like a night club. The place was jammed and hyper and it was only 10.30 in the morning and Shannonside radio were broadcasting live in the corner.

"My abiding memory of the whole thing came that day in Ballinamore. When my father was asked where he was from he had always said 'west of the Shannon' rather than Leitrim. We did a tour of the county and it was very special. All the players went to their own clubs. The emotion was unbelievable but as someone who grew up in Dublin 4, I didn't have that local base. I found myself on the stage in Ballinamore not sure what to do when my father ran on, grabbed the cup and threw it in the air like a mad lunatic! It was raw and real. It was about passion and pride. It meant so much to him. It is an unbelievable memory that will stay with me forever."

Although the team lost the All Ireland semi-final to Dublin, for Leitrim people just to be in Croke Park one day in their lives was a dream come true.

"We didn't do ourselves justice in the semi-final and the next year we left the game against Galway behind us in the Connacht championship. If we had won I believe we would have retained the Connacht final and given a much better showing in the All Ireland semi-final. I know Armagh's Enda McNulty and he often says that they should have won more than one All Ireland. I tell him that they were lucky to win one because it is so hard to make a breakthrough when you have no tradition of winning."

When John O'Mahony stepped down as Leitrim manager in 1996 it was obvious that things were on a downward spiral. What was it about O'Mahony that made him achieve success with Leitrim?

"One thing is his man management and the belief that he gives you. He was very good at talking to players. In 1994 he told me that he didn't want to see me in a chipper, not that I was into that anyway. After we won the Connacht final he told me he didn't want to see me drinking because I was the public face of the team and had to project the right image for the lads," explains Darcy.

"I remember a very tight game against Galway in Carrick-on-Shannon and we got a potentially-decisive free about 40 yards out. Two or three of our lads ran over to take it but John came running to the sideline and roared at the top of his voice: 'Dec, I want you to take it.' He believed in me to score this vital kick and because he believed in me I had confidence that I would. To an outsider it looked a pressure kick but I felt totally calm because of what Johnno had said. It was very emotional when John left – both for us and for Johnno."

• • •

Some of the same fans who were throwing bouquets at Darcy in 1994 were swinging cleavers when he decided to transfer to Dublin, though many of his friends and Leitrim fans wished him well.

"Once the offer was made, I had to give it serious thought. At the time the '94 Leitrim side were disintegrating. The changes weren't to my liking. One little incident encapsulated it for me. The day before we played a Connacht championship match we were having lunch and were given steaks. In pretty much his last championship game Mickey Quinn said he wouldn't eat steak, he would only eat chicken because it was the best meal for the match the next day. Here was this Leitrim legend on his last legs worrying about his diet but when I went out of the hotel I saw two of the new players, very talented guys, smoking. That was their way of preparing for the biggest game of their lives. To be honest, if Mickey was going to continue playing, I wouldn't have been able to walk away from Leitrim because I looked up to him so much and so admired his great commitment to the county.

"The hardest thing for me was leaving Aughawillian. I had played in seven county finals, two Connacht finals and won a three-in-a-row with them. Some of the people there were like a second family to me. The easy thing for me to have done would have been to stay in Leitrim where I would always be a hero because of '94. I wanted to win an All Ireland, not a popularity contest. Part of me had always been curious about whether I would have been good enough to win my place on the Dublin side, particularly when they won the All Ireland in 1995. I remember meeting Paul Bealin and he said to me, 'I'll give you balls for doing it alone.' I wanted to test myself and if I failed at least I had given it a go."

Darcy is no Edith Piaf. He has some regrets about his time with Dublin.

"I had a good first year or two with Dublin but I made a big mistake when I came into the dressing room first and didn't say to players like Keith Barr, 'get the finger out of your arse and start playing.' They were all experienced and gifted players and part of me thought who was I to be telling them what to do. I should have let loose but Dublin is a closed shop and I wanted to make friends.

"Mickey Whelan was the trainer in my first year and I felt his training was very advanced but it needed the players to take some of the responsibility themselves but they were letting him down. I felt I was a newcomer and held my tongue. Towards the end I did say what I felt I ought be done but I should have done that so much earlier.

"In '95 I picked up a back injury in my Leitrim days. We were due to play Dublin in Croke Park in the league and there was no way I was going to miss out on that. After the match, though, I was in agony and needed surgery. My surgeon Stephen Young told me, 'you'll never play football to the level you played before again.' I said, 'you are having a laugh. I'll defy you.' I was only 25 but looking back, it was the start of a whole series of injuries that stopped me from putting together a run of top performances.

"We came very close in 2002 when Ray Cosgrove almost equalised against Armagh but to be honest, I believe Tommy Carr had a better team. John Bailey, then the county chairman, told us after the drawn game against Kerry in the All Ireland quarter-final in 2001 that no matter what happened, Tommy Carr would be staying for the next year. He actually cried with emotion as he said that but less than a month later everything had changed. Players would have done anything for Tommy. I felt sorry for him because he was very unlucky, none more so than with the Maurice Fitzgerald sideline that drew the match for Kerry the first day. Tommy was as honest as the day was long and was fiercely driven. There was nothing he wouldn't have done for Dublin. He was probably a better manager at the end but had more to learn and I think it's a shame he didn't get the chance."

The Thurles experience did provide Darcy with the most amusing incident in his career.

"We were staying in the Horse and Jockey and I went out for a walk with one of the lads. A car pulled in beside us and my colleague said, 'There's your man.'

'Who?'

'Your man from Star Trek.'

"It was Colm Meaney and he was walking into the car park. The next thing I knew I heard a booming voice shouting: 'Hey Colm. Beam me up Scottie.' It was Vinny Murphy standing at the window. He was as naked as the day he was born!

"Vinny was a character. He loved a fag. Some wag changed the sign in Parnell Park from, 'No Smoking' to 'No Smoking Vinny!'"

Darcy continues to be involved in the game through coaching St Brigid's, a side managed by Gerry McEntee, a tough, uncompromising star of the Meath team of the 1980s. "Gerry manages the way he played!"

With Jim Gavin, Darcy coached the Dublin under-21 side to an All Ireland in 2003, though the team was officially managed by Tommy Lyons. What was their relationship with Lyons at the time? "It was frosty enough. If Tommy walked into this room now I would have great craic with him but I don't agree with his approach to management. He had a very different agenda to Tommy Carr."

Many of that under-21 team have graduated into the senior ranks. Who were the players Darcy knew would make it?

"Alan Brogan was always going to be a great player. Bryan Cullen stood out as a player and a leader. He had that serious drive and determination that you need to be a winner. We had a celebration after we won the Leinster title and after it all the boys went to pubs or night clubs except Bryan. When I asked him why he said, 'I've won nothing yet. I want to win an All Ireland'".

Although he failed to win an All Ireland medal, the glass is half full for Darcy.

"The greatest achievement for me now is when I meet guys like Peter Canavan or Kieran McGeeney and they say, 'howya Declan?' To have that kind of respect means a lot. It is much more important to me than any medal."

John Scally's book 'Best of the West' is published by Collins Press and is available from Easons at €24.95

Curriculum Vitae

Declan darcy

Date Of Birth 14 May, 1970

Clubs Aughawillian, St Brigid's

Inter-county honours

Connacht under-21 title, 1991; Connacht senior title, 1994

Did you know? Became the only man to captain a side that beat the traditional Connacht big three of Galway, Mayo and Rosommon in a single championship season, his late 45s earning Leitrim victory over Roscommon and another shot at Galway during their historic 1994 season