All-Ulster decider can provide demonstration of province’s continued surge
Peter Harte of Tyrone in action against Ódhran McFadden Ferry during round 1 of the All-Ireland Senior Football Championship in Ballybofey, Donegal. File picture: Ramsey Cardy/Sportsfile
THIS weekend’s All-Ireland SFC semi-finals have left open the very real possibility of a second-ever all-Ulster final with Donegal and Tyrone hoping to make it through to the July 27 showpiece.
The first, famously, came back in 2003 when the Red Hands won Sam Maguire for the first time, snatching it away from bitter rivals Armagh in a game noted for Conor Gormley’s late block to deny Stevie McDonnell what appeared a certain goal late on.
It’s also remembered for Diarmaid Marsden’s controversial sending off after an incident with Philly Jordan.
Coincidentally, there’s a legends tour of Croke Park taking place before Tyrone’s meeting with Kerry on Saturday and it just happens that Marsden will be delivering it, so the pair will be in the same vicinity anyway.
“Everyone from Armagh, 99 per cent of them anyway, will have one opinion on what happened, and that will be that I dived to get Diarmaid sent off,” said Jordan in a book three years ago.
“There’s no guilt in my part in terms of what happened. When you have a camera angle that doesn’t show what actually happened then it’s very easy for people to say what happened.”
“I know in my own heart what happened,” Marsden, who was eventually cleared on a technicality, said in the same book, confirming that the pair hadn’t crossed paths since.
In terms of animosity, that Armagh-Tyrone rivalry was easily one of the most bitter in GAA history – reaching a peak in the 2005 Ulster final replay when poison seeped through the stands and onto the pitch – but Donegal and Tyrone won’t exactly share the love should they be the final two standing in the battle for Sam.
It was Jim McGuinness’s side that brought the Tyrone team of the noughties’ dominance to an end with abrasive provincial wins in 2011 and 2012.
Prior to this season’s round-robin clash, McGuinness had never lost a championship match in Ballybofey and he had also won every previous clash with Tyrone, but Malachy O’Rourke’s side won 2-17 to 0-20 in May with Seanie O’Donnell grabbing both goals.
There is no shortage of incident when the sides meet, and the fall-out from an 1973 Ulster clash could have had massive consequences. On the same weekend that Éamon de Valera officially left Áras an Uachtaráin - Erskine Hamilton Childers moving in the next day – the national press declared that it was a “miracle” that game concluded with Donegal’s Nealy Gallagher requiring a hospital visit and the crowd showering the pitch with missiles. Fights broke out everywhere.
Donegal discussed the prospect of aligning with the Connacht Council as a result, but their name never made it onto the Nestor Cup in the end.
The 2024 season was the year of Ulster with the province providing winners of the All-Ireland senior, U20 and minor championships, Tailteann Cup, Sigerson Cup, Hogan Cup plus the senior, intermediate and junior club championships.
The 2025 season could never follow that act, but it can still provide a game to demonstrate the province’s continued surge. Of course, Kerry and Meath will have a lot to say about that this weekend.
Whoever Derry have on the sideline for their Division Two opener next season will be their fifth manager in just four years.
Rory Gallagher, Ciarán Meenagh (interim), Mickey Harte and Paddy Tally have all been in charge in that spell and after the latter’s shock dismissal this week, a new voice is required in the Oakleaf County once again as they try and get back to the highs of 2022 and ‘23 when they claimed back-to-back Ulster titles and successive All-Ireland semi-finals.
Armagh club Carrickcruppen have appealed their one-point Division 1B league loss to Dromintee. Although there was no video footage, they say a point kicked from outside the arc during the first half and bouncing over should have been given as two points. An appeal is expected to be heard next Wednesday and could be crucial to Cruppen’s attempts to remain a senior side in 2026.
Even in defeat – if it ultimately stands – Armagh number two goalkeeper Blaine Hughes, the man between the sticks for last year’s All-Ireland triumph, delivered an exhibition. He stroked over seven points off the deck, delivered some extraordinary kick-outs and made a brilliant late save from Gareth Kilgallon.
Ulster hurling is always trying to find ways to bridge the gap on Munster and Leinster, and sometimes that takes an inventive approach.
Step forward MacNean hurling club – an amalgamation of two clubs but with the unusual rider that Belcoo come from Fermanagh and Shannon Gaels hail from Cavan.
Anita Maguire is chairing the new venture with a jersey design competition underway to select their new kit for the cross-border operation.
Former Tyrone player Gavin Devlin remains heavily linked with the vacant Louth position, possibly in a joint ticket deal with Peter Dooley. The pair worked together previously in the Wee County during Mickey Harte’s spell in charge and are well received in the Leinster county.
“I’m not going to insult you by trying to state that Donegal see this as a tough fixture because the hard facts are that if you were given the scenario at the start of the season then Jim McGuinness and his players would have taken the hand off you.”
- former Donegal footballer Kevin Cassidy on his county’s upcoming All-Ireland semi-final with Meath.
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