Just a God determined to bring the Holy Grail to his people

AFTER 119 years, there were still some who couldn’t catch a glimpse of Sam. So Peter Canavan, who acted like a big, smiling child all evening, did the proper thing.

As the dignitaries droned on and on, as the swaying masses before the courthouse waved their flag and chanted Tyrone, the great one burst from the stage.

Where was he going? Heavies in yellow flak jackets, television cameras and the few journos witnessing the incredible scenes in Omagh, followed as dutifully as every step in Canavan’s career has been followed. They told us on the stage this was a fantastic achievement for the whole of Tyrone to revel in, Canavan was making sure that was the case.

The legendary forward made a beeline for those divorced from the jubilant scenes. The people who lingered in the pubs too long or were trapped in traffic and couldn’t be part of the 40,000 on Omagh’s main street. There was no sign of a bad

ankle in this race, just a God determined to bring the Holy Grail to his people, so they might reach out and touch. His closed fist in the air, as it seems to have stayed since hoisting the cup the day before, their hero brought Sam Maguire to them. There was even an attempt to indulge in a spot of crowd-surfing, but that came to nought.

The most overheard phrase, even from the lips of non-GAA people, is “delighted for Canavan.” And we should be delighted for a man who, in his moment of glory, thought of those that had missed out. He didn’t need to leave the stage, he didn’t need to bring Sam to the thousands who couldn’t see the stage. They shouldn’t have stayed in the pub so long, after all. But, he did because this victory was as much for them as for him.

What had he brought them? The culmination of his career, the obsession that drove a county hemmed in by three neighbours who had nourished their great hunger over the past 11 years, the crown they have thought was rightfully theirs since Kevin McCabe’s penalty sailed over the bar in 1986. In the bedlam that was the Burlington on Monday morning, you caught a glimpse of McCabe, still sporting the moustache. Seventeen years he had waited to see the ghost of his penalty miss laid to rest and the morning after, his voice was hoarse with emotion.

But he could speak long enough to predict great things for this Tyrone team. Monkey off the back and all that. Mickey Harte refused to entertain any talk of dynasties in the bowels of Croker on Sunday evening, but watching the players as they danced on the Omagh stage on Monday night, you remembered McCabe’s words. They are so young, as young as Galway when they won in ’98, even younger. Three of them will line out with the U21s in Navan this afternoon, most of the rest are only 23 or 24. What odds on Tyrone winning at least two of the next five All-Ireland titles? But, we are here to reflect on the maiden success, not to predict the future. Some things you mightn’t know about Tyrone. It is the largest of the Six Counties, only Donegal, in a geographical sense, is bigger in Ulster. It is pre-dominantly rural. Omagh, its biggest town, has only a population of 25,000.

Stephen McKenna, a retired SDLP councillor from Omagh, spoke on Monday evening about how the disparate nature of the county often created problems, rather than solving it.

“Here in Omagh, people are more inclined towards Donegal; scratch an Omagh person long enough and you will find a bit of Donegal. Over in Dungannon, there are more Armagh, there are parts that are more Derry. There has never really been an unifying factor, geographically, in the county. It’s one of the reasons why this All-Ireland was such an obsession within the county.”

Predominantly rural and pre-dominantly Catholic, Tyrone never enjoyed the sense of unity other northern counties might have had. That its playing population is divided among 48 GAA clubs tells you something. In few other counties, could they have the most talented footballer in the land and be denied his genius for a year because his jaw was broken in a club game.

One of Harte’s lasting achievements, and indeed Art McRory and Eugene McKenna before him, was that he engendered a sense of unity among the scattered masses. Everybody, and everything, in Tyrone this year was geared towards reaching the summit. The entire county had one purpose, that was why Omagh hosted such delirium on Monday night.

It is fitting that Harte has been a leading light in creating this unity. His own football career suffered because of the tears within the county. However, that cold winter afternoon, when Harte was dismissed in a parish league game germinated an obsession in their manager. An obsession that had its sense of completion on Sunday evening.

As Paddy Tally, his trainer, said in Omagh on Monday night, “myself and Mickey Harte sat in an office in Ballygawley last winter and he said ‘Paddy will you come with me and win an All-Ireland for Tyrone.’ I said I would but at the time, I thought he was talking through his head. But inside each of the 31 players on our panel, I can tell you there is a little bit of Mickey Harte.”

There were other things to admire about Tyrone’s homecoming. The UUP chairman of the Omagh District Council, Allan Rainey, welcomed them on stage, and congratulated them in a lengthy speech. Rainey even travelled to Croker to support Harte’s boys. In a town that has suffered so terribly in the recent past, this mightn’t seem like any great gesture, but Stephen McKenna disagrees.

“I think that was a courageous move by Allan, because there will be a lot of people, a lot of his supporters, upset by that.” How could anyone be upset by watching Tyrone sate GAA’s greatest hunger? The North is a different place these days, isn’t it? There was a good-natured police presence stewarding Tyrone’s homecoming. Their emotional success made it onto the front and back pages of the Belfast Telegraph.

And yet, some mind-sets take longer to change. Some people in the North still feel intimidated by the red and white flags and bunting that is strewn across the county at the moment. Why? “I don’t know,” Stephen McKenna says. “It’s silly. It is just people celebrating a fantastic achievement.” Tell that to the Belfast Newsletter who decreed that Belfast Giants’ latest victory in the Superleague was more newsworthy than Tyrone’s incredible breakthrough.

Brendan Harkin, PRO of the Tyrone County Board, said a lot on the Omagh stage on Monday night, but he hit the nail on the head when he talked of the magic of the GAA. “The GAA represents everything that is good about Irish nationalism. It is good for the community, it is good for the people, we don’t play for money. We just play for the love of the game.”

And for the memory of those not with them anymore. It was a nice touch by Peter Canavan to mention Paul McGirr in his speech. His legacy is left on each of those players who have had such underage success. And now of course, are clutching a Celtic Cross. Tyrone aren’t about to stop yet. On Monday night, after the festivities in Omagh, the entire Tyrone panel went to the Abbey Hotel in Donegal Town for a night. It was an escape from the delirium, but it also shielded John Devine, Seán Cavanagh and Dermot Carlin, the three U21s, from the mayhem. Let them focus on this afternoon.

Never again will they, whoever “they” are, say about Tyrone that they are never a force when they come down to Dublin. Not that many people said that to begin with, despite some of the murmurs in Omagh. Even less will say it now.