History’s Red Hand

CONOR GORMLEY may rise only 5 ft 10 above the ground, but he now walks in a world where Tyrone people have elevated him to an ethereal plateau in the home of the new All-Ireland football champions.

In a corner of the winning dressing room in Croke Park yesterday, Gormley sits with two colleagues. Dazed. People mill around Mickey Harte a yard away, and one journalist offers a quick wave at Gormley, probably unaware that he has just saluted the man who has made history for his county.

This is no exaggeration, no crass short cut to the bottom line. The intervention - henceforth to be known as The Block - by Gormley in the 68th minute of yesterday’s throbbing All-Ireland final will change his life. Forever.