Kieran Shannon: Frank McGuigan lit up lives far beyond Tyrone
Frank McGuigan, one of Tyrone's greatest ever footballers, died at the weekend aged 71. Pic: INPHO/Andrew Paton
In all the years – decades – I’ve been writing for papers, I’ve never got a reaction like I did to an interview with a former player a week out from the all-Ulster All-Ireland final of 2003.
Tyrone-Armagh was on its way to becoming the most intense GAA rivalry of the 21st century, eliciting a dislike of each other that Dublin-Kerry never has and, for all the passion it now engenders, Donegal-Kerry never will. Hate is a strong word, but in those years that’s how those counties felt about each other, the idea of either county being denied either the first or second All-Ireland in their entire history by the crowd just across the county bounds.
