Dairy farmer Darren Hughes on life after Monaghan GAA career
Co. Monaghan farmer, Darren Hughes has said that he won't be 'going back to the yard late at night' anymore after calling time on his inter-county career.
The Monaghan midfielder announced his retirement from inter-county football this week after spending almost 20 years playing for the Farney county.
The 38 year-old is a dairy farmer by trade, but has won a McKenna cup title, three national league titles, and two Ulster senior championship titles during his inter-county career.
Hughes told Agriland that managing life as a farmer and an elite inter-county footballer is "a lot", but that he "wouldn't have it any other way".
He said: "It is a lot, but I’m my own boss, the workloads on me and I'm lucky - dad's on site 99% of the time, whenever I need him.
"As I always say, I’d far rather this than sit in an office from nine to five every day and having to lift the bag and go to training."
"It’s time management and you work around it. I think I managed it rightly.
"Probably stuff on the farm might have fell by the wayside but at the same time, when you're your own boss, you can cover over them cracks at times," Hughes added.
Having made his debut for Monaghan in 2006, the Scotstown man believes that the time is right to call time on his inter-county career, but added that the 2025 season was "bonus territory" for him.
In an Ulster Championship game against Cavan in April 2024, Hughes suffered a serious injury that many felt would end his career in a Monaghan jersey.
However, circumstances changed for Hughes last November, which gave him the time that he needed to make a full recovery.
"I lost my whole herd to TB, so I sort of knew I was going to be four months with no farming, so it coincided with having a bit of time on my hands, and I knew I would be fit to commit fully to a county set-up for another year," Hughes explained.
"I probably thought myself that 'that was that', and I was probably at peace with it too. As I say, the circumstances changed at home in the wintertime, and that was probably the decisive factor that turned me back to the county this year.
"I had the time, I couldn’t have done it if the cows had have been here, I wouldn’t have had the time to do it. That would have been that."
Thankfully, Hughes' farm was fully restocked at the end of April 2025 and, after a busy few weeks getting back into the swing of things, the farm is "flying now".
Now that he has retired from inter-county football, Hughes said that he will continue to play football for his club, Scotstown, for as long as possible, but that he will not be rushing as much on the farm.
He said: "With the flexibility I had, and to be an inter-county footballer, it’s as good a job as I can see - bar being a teacher, probably. You’re not tied to an office or being in the same place every day.
"There has been many an evening you’d be coming home after training, putting the wellies on and going out to the yard, sometimes you think for a look round, but you never find an hour or two passing. That was part and parcel of it."
"There were times I landed into training and the manager would look at me and say, ‘You’re not fit to train tonight,’ with hectic workloads or a lack of sleep, but I wouldn’t have it any other way."
