Mourners bid farewell to a rare footballing talent

EIGHT days ago Cormac McAnallen attended the wedding of his Tyrone team-mate Gavin Devlin, in the company of his fiancee Aisling Moore.

According to friends, he talked excitedly about his future marriage plans. Yesterday, neighbours, friends and the community at large joined with the Tyrone team and management and the GAA fraternity in their thousands to bid farewell to Cormac, described as an iconic figure who had nourished people with his goodness.

The tiny parish church was packed to capacity, hundreds more watched the funeral mass in St Patrick's GFC hall on closed-circuit television and a huge crowd of mourners gathered in the environs of the little chapel.