‘Michaela was very precious’

GROWING up beside St Malachy’s Church in Ballymacilroy outside Ballygawley, Mickey Harte was used to the rituals it hosted.

He saw enough funerals to appreciate from an early age just how earnest an occasion they were.

Unlike most children, the adjacent graveyard held no fear for him. But yesterday, on a perfectly still January afternoon he buried his daughter Michaela in a plot under the hill that dwarfs the hamlet, just yards away from his old family home. Never before had he stepped onto the holy ground with such bone-shaking trepidation.