Those in the club have been besieged this week. Newspapers, radio, television, they have all wanted to be brought inside the world of a club that for years clung onto existence by its fingertips, punctuated by members being tortured, murdered, and several arson and bomb assaults on their property.

During the week, they had the ultimate media blessing when Marty Morrissey called in to natter with one and all.

If there has been a downside, it was the letter they received from the local Antrim and Newtownabbey Borough Council.

During the summer, Union flags fly alongside flags of Loyalist Paramilitaries undisturbed for months. Over the past fortnight, a number of St Enda’s amber and black flags have been erected. The club were mailed, asking when they might take the flags down?

Still, if that is all they have to put up with now, they’ll take it. This is a defiant breed of people.

Declan Steele was brought up on the Antrim Road and introduced to St Enda’s by former Down All-Ireland winner George Lavery. By coincidence, he lives 30 yards down the road from George now and had the recent pleasure of introducing his three children Shay, Oisín, and Senan, part of the young crew who invaded the Navan pitch after the semi-final victory to love-bomb their big smiley midfielder Joe Maskey who punished Spiddal’s Manus Breathnach’s wandering outfield with a 40-yard lobbed goal.

“As a club, and as a community we will never forget the people who made the ultimate sacrifice and paid for promoting our games and culture with their lives,” says Steele.

“We had five members murdered throughout the Troubles, two of them I did not know, but Sean Fox, our 73-year-old president was tied to a chair and interrogated. I knew Sean, I played juvenile football the whole way up with his grandson.

“I played football with Gerry Devlin, when he was murdered at the gates of the club and I found that hard to take.

“And then Gerard Lawlor who I coached was tragically killed in 2002. I coached him from 13 years of age and he was a lovely young fella.”

Steele was an experienced senior campaigner when Lawlor made his first steps onto the team. St Enda’s were down to play Sarsfields in a game but something went awry with the timings.

In any event, they went ahead and trained. Steele had a conversation with the rangy Lawlor afterwards as they drained a bit of goodness out of a summer’s evening.

But July is a bad month in the north. The following morning, Steele’s phone rang. Lawlor had been shot three times by two men who pulled up close on a motorbike shortly after midnight along the Floral Road.

His death has echoes of many other murders in the north. No arrests were made. No prosecutions brought forward, no inquests.

“I found it hard to take in,” recalls Steele.

That galvanised us in a way. That year, we went from when Gerard was killed and being mid-table in Division Two, we went on a run and didn’t lose a game for the rest of the season, won the Division Two title.

Mercifully, north Belfast is one of the areas to benefit most from peacetime. Affordable housing attracted young professionals and new developments sprung up to the east of St Enda’s grounds.

Steele’s wife, Sinead Larkin is now registrar of the club that has around 250 senior members and 500 juveniles. Recently, she found herself standing on a sideline talking to a father wiling away the hours watching his children play.

He was from Glengormley all his life, but was never allowed to play for the club. His parents felt it was too dangerous.

That fear is washed away. The club celebrate an Annual Sean Fox Day in member of their former club chairman. The laughter of children bounces over two excellent pitches as everyone enjoys the bouncy castles, pizzas, and burgers. They marked the 20th anniversary of Gerry Devlin last year.

Reaching the final has meant a Supernova of media reports, all that hardship detailed and captured. One evening, Sinead caught her husband weeping quietly holding a paper, reading another story of all those people he knew.

There’s an All-Ireland final to be played against Kerry’s Kilcummin. It’s tempting to think that a win would deliver them into the promised land.

But they’re already there.