FROM AROUND 8AM on Sunday morning, the children of Errigal Ciaran will receive their customary county final morning wake-up call.
Pat Traynor, local butcher, bodhrán-beater, pied-piper and superfan will do the rounds of the parish with a loudhailer, parking briefly outside each house.
He’ll be armed with some morsel of banter for the parents inside. There’s a chance they could be treated to a few bars of the corny 1993 track written in a fit of optimism after the Ulster club final win; ‘And it’s Errigal, it’s Errigal, that’s what you’ll hear us say, when we all pack into the Hogan Stand on St Patrick’s Day.’
Part summons, a taste of fan boosting rally, smidgen of ‘only in Ireland’ and a directive, nay, a command to get to Healy Park later that day when Errigal Ciaran face Trillick in the county final.
Errigal, she may be young, but she has some rich traditions.
On Tuesday evening, several men converged upon the famous roundabout with a Manitou, fastening a cordon of blue and gold bunting around lamp posts.
It’s all context and history, but the thought struck that outside of nerds and geeks, pretty much anyone under the age of 35 wouldn’t believe that this area has always been a football hotbed, there was virtually no success for several decades.
Here’s the context; since their formation in 1990, Errigal Ciaran have featured in more county finals (14) in Tyrone than any other club, their neighbours in Carrickmore just behind on 13 finals.
The story is well worn now, but a quick recap.
When the rest of the world had smeared their football boots in Dubbin and flung them into a corner at the conclusion of club competitions at the dead of winter, the people of Ballygawley conceived their own inter-club competition.
It was a bit of craic until it wasn’t a bit of craic. The concept of social Gaelic games is foreign to those who take it so seriously. So a row blew up in a game. Mickey Harte, a man in his prime for club and county, was stuck in the middle of it. The club committee suspended him. The other man in the fracas? He was free to play handball that same week.
Cue, ‘The Split.’ Eight long, hard years of it when Harte gained the approval of local Chieftain Sean Canavan (He said of Harte; “He doesn’t drink or smoke, so how would be leading children astray?”), recruited all his outrageously gifted children and a few other families around Glencull and did their damnedest to function as a proper club with portakabins beside their wee field in ‘The Holm’, Irish lessons, fundraisers and a diet of challenge matches around Ulster.
Every year, Harte would gather up friends and neighbours and picket the annual Tyrone County Convention, seeking affiliation for ‘Glencull St Malachy’s’.
And each year they were denied.
Truth be told, St Ciaran’s weren’t a force either. They had won Tyrone titles back in the midsts of 1926 and 1931, against clubs long since defunct in Ardboe Pearses and Washingbay Shamrocks.
The arrival of a Wunderkid called Peter Canavan, along with the recognised talent of his older brothers, put a spurt on the outreach work of Fr Sean Hegarty who was telling representatives of Glencull and St Ciaran’s, that the other was open to a reconciliation. There wasn’t a word about it, but it worked.
Wind the tape forward now to St Patrick’s weekend 1990, in the Toronto Skydome, Canada.
Peter Canavan is playing as an 18-year-old for Tyrone on a concrete floor against Dublin in an exhibition match as part of Toronto’s Irish Festival. Screened on Ulster Television, he was listed as a Killyclogher player – a figleaf of convenience to bridge the affiliation gap.
When he returned to Ireland, it was to a new club; Errigal Ciaran. In his first year he played Division 3 for the ‘B’ team, a de facto Glencull side for one seasons, one of the conditions of the merger.
Within three years, Errigal won the Ulster club championship. On the day of the final, Peter’s older brother Stephen wasn’t feeling too good. As they were making their way through Aughnacloy towards the Athletic Grounds in Armagh by car, he asked the driver to pull in.
Into the pub. Two half ‘uns. Settled him.
Settled him enough to score the winning goal in the final against RGU Downpatrick. Cue the ‘Errigal, Errigal’ tune. As a song, you couldn’t say it kicks any ass, but it serves a purpose.
That day and that year give rise to an attitude that persists in the Errigal Ciaran club. Although they have been blessed with an abundance of managerial talent in the Hartes, Canavans, McGinleys, Quinns, Malachy O’Rourke, Leo McBride and so on, their first titles were delivered by Danny Ball, from the other end of the county.
Other managers came and did their thing and delivered titles, such as the former Armagh manager, Peter McDonnell, or Ronan McGuckin from Ballinderry.
Another ‘import’ was Peter McGinnity. One of the greatest footballers of the late 1970s and ‘80s. Fermanagh’s first All-Star and a man who has spent 40 years coaching at schools, club and county level.
He brought Killyclogher to their first Tyrone title, in 2003.
Two years later he was at Errigal but he did not deliver a title. In fact, he did something a little, let’s say, avant-garde in 2005 by playing Peter Canavan at centre-back when they lost a county semi final to Omagh.
Yes; Peter Canavan. Yes; centre back.
McGinnity will be there at the Tyrone county final this Sunday, this time as a coach in Trillick manager Jody Gormley’s backroom.
Now, this is where Ulster football gets as small and incestuous as a Fleetwood Mac story.
On the Errigal sideline is Mark Harte; son of Mickey. He played for McGinnity in 2005. Later, he succeeded McGinnity as manager at his club Roslea Shamrocks and won a Fermanagh championship in 2014.
Harte has Adrian O’Donnell alongside him. He had the same playing journey and has gone with Harte through their coaching postings in Roslea, Pomeroy where they delivered the Tyrone and Ulster Intermediate championships in 2016, Ballinderry, and now their home club.
While they have no reservations over an imported manager, Errigal have had an embarrassment of riches to pick from when they went home grown.
Mickey Harte spent one year in charge, 2002, and brought them to the county title and their second Ulster title. It’s one of the curiosities of Tyrone football that they boast such a strong championship and yet no team outside of Errigal have conquered Ulster.
Peter Canavan had the job from 2008 to 2011 and delivered two league titles for a squad in transition.
His brother Pascal spent four seasons in charge but his final game was a sickener, Trillick beating them in the 2019 final, 0-12 to 2-4 with huge criticism forthcoming for Errigal’s conservatism in that particular game. He copped the blame, rightly or wrongly, for getting to a county final and committing the Cardinal Sin of Not Having A Right Good Cut At It.
Two seasons ago, on Harte and O’Donnell’s first year, Errigal were the side that the rest of Tyrone got a good laugh out of.
In the 2021 semi final against Coalisland they were up by seven points with ten minutes to go. Coalisland’s county player Michael McKernan had been sent off and they hadn’t scored from play. And then they went and scored three goals to knock Errigal out.
Tyrone club football and the culture of support around it is cut-throat. Put it this way, there were few neutrals saddened by their loss. Instead, phrases like ‘no middle,’ ‘no stones,’ and ‘good enough for them,’ abounded.
Last year, they put that right in winning the Tyrone title.
They did it with an entirely homegrown management in Harte and O’Donnell.
Providing support was O’Donnell’s brother Barry, Dara Tierney who doubled up as manager of the Thirds team, Tommy Hackett, while captain and cerebral centre-forward Tommy Canavan laid out and overseen their strength and conditioning work.
While he may be the most recognisable name on the ticket, Mark Harte turns his face away from the limelight.
Perhaps, he exists in the public imagination as the man who went to Mauritius to retrieve his sister Michaela after she was murdered on honeymoon. The footage from that time shows someone in an unimaginably difficult position, for all the world to see and intrude.
Football was his constant. Outside of the club stuff, he was in the dugout for Tyrone for a couple of seasons, remaining resolutely low-key.
His day job is a teacher but he provides co-commentary for TG4, while he draws on his vast human experiences to deliver some talks on resilience. To call it life-coaching wouldn’t capture it.
As a player, he was on the Tyrone panels that won All-Irelands in 2003 and 2005, always just around the fringes of gaining significant playing time.
Lacking stature at centre forward for Errigal, he compensated with a huge amount of craft and intelligence. Accuracy was another strength and he was entrusted with the free kicks to suit a left-footer, while Canavan took the rest.
So, what happens on Sunday?
His time in Roslea throws up some interesting observations from Shane McMahon, who served as the fulcrum of that club’s attack over the McGinnity and Harte/O’Donnell period.
“We done a clean sweep that year. Won absolutely everything,” he recalls.
“They were a breath of fresh air. We went into the Ulster club and our preparation going into that was top-notch. Off the scale. We had a training camp for a day in Carton House.
“They were brilliant. I couldn’t speak highly enough of them, two gentlemen.
“They were so civil and the players just loved them. Mark Harte was almost like a father figure, without being much older than the players. He was such an influence and they couldn’t have done enough for you.
“I did fall out with them once I felt bad enough to call them up the following day to apologise. And they had a great way of explaining things to you and you always felt they were on your side.”
Trillick are coming in under the radar. This season has been one of loss. In the Kilmacud Sevens final, Matthew Donnelly tore his posterior cruciate ligament in his knee as well as breaking his tibia.
Less than a fortnight ago, his uncle, Gerard ‘Shep’ Donnelly passed away, a huge hard-working and popular figure in the club. They are motivated and hungry.
Out of his loyalty to McGinnity, Shane McMahon has gone to all the Trillick championship games this season. He sees a good bit of McGinnity in them.
“Honestly, McGinnity is a genius,” he says.
“I really believe that. You can see him all over this Trillick team; hunting in packs, the positions they are getting back into, just dogged fighting.”
Impossible to call. On paper, you can drool at the talent Errigal possess.
And that’s a trap that has caught many.