Jim McGuinness owes a massive debt of gratitude to Colm McFadden’s mother

Hats off to Mrs McFadden.

When her son retired in August, there were many plaudits laid at the feet of the 2012 All-Ireland winner. Colm McFadden was the perfect target man. Colm McFadden was Donegal's longest-serving player. Colm McFadden could kick a point from anywhere. All fair points, but we neglected the pivotal contribution his mammy made to Donegal football - it was she who paired her daughter Yvonne with the mastermind of that 2012 victory. In today's Sunday Independent aid mastermind Jim McGuinness explains how he and his wife met.

"Yvonne had been going out with this guy but had split up with him that summer, and her mother was going: 'And what about Jim McGuinness?' And what about Jim McGuinness?' Yvonne was sick of it: 'Will you just shut your mouth about Jim McGuinness! Why are you talking about him? I've never even met him!' Anyway, we're in the players' lounge in Croke Park after losing to Dublin in the All-Ireland quarter-final and this woman - her mother - calls me over. And (Yvonne) turned around, and I turned around, and that was it. So I owe her mother a lot too."

That was 2002 and McGuinness and Yvonne were eventually married and now have a family together. Fair play, Mrs McFadden. If anyone can appreciate the value of dogged determination it is your son-in-law. Elsewhere in the interview McGuinness and the interviewer, Paul Kimmage, disagree over McGuinness' infamous snubbing of journalist Declan Bogue at the 2012 All-Ireland final press conference. Bogue had interviewed Kevin Cassidy for a book 'This is Our Year'. Cassidy was excluded from the Donegal panel after the book's publication, while McGuinness refused to speak to journalists after the win over Mayo unless Bogue left the room.

"Hold on a second," McGuinness tells Kimmage. "I was not going to be a hypocrite, I was not going to sit in that press conference and pretend it didn't happen. That would have been the easy thing to do. The hard thing was to do. The hard thing was to go 'I'm taking a stand here'. Because if there was one thing - and I'll get animated now - if there was one thing that had the potential for that to happen, that was it."

It's an interesting exchange and well worth a read in full.

Stephen Rochford chats with Colm Parkinson on The GAA Hour, heated Lee Keegan debate, and Barry Cahill is outnumbered by Mayo backers. Subscribe here on iTunes.