Kevin Hughes How Tyrone youngsters dealt with Omagh bomb and loss of team-mate to become winners
LAST week, a group of former Tyrone footballers of a certain vintage gathered at the Garvaghey GAA Centre. They were to be the first to get a look at the Eamonn and Michael Mallie documentary ‘Tír Eoghain: The Unbreakable Bond’, which charts a group of young footballers from their minor careers in 1997 to six years later.
Looking around himself, their strapping midfielder Kevin Hughes could only smile at the nostalgia of it all.
Not only had they achieved many remarkable achievements on the football field, but their greatest feat was how they came to terms with the tragic loss of their team-mate Paul McGirr, who died after colliding with an Armagh player during their Ulster Championship campaign.
Naturally, all of Ireland felt a deep sympathy with the young lads of Tyrone and the McGirr family, having to cope with such a devastating blow.
At the Red Hands’ next game against Monaghan, an astonishing 15,000 spectators were in the ground for the start of the minor semi-final. It was unheard of. And it was the same again for the decider, when they beat Antrim.
Then, cruel tragedy struck again. After drawing an All-Ireland semi-final with Kerry, they had a fortnight to prepare for the replay. During the weekend in between, Hughes lost his brother, also called Paul, in a car crash along the Killeeshil to Ballygawley roundabout. He was just 22.
The Red Hands would go on to beat Kerry and become a compelling sports story, but lose the All-Ireland final to Laois.
The night of that defeat, their manager Mickey Harte was seriously contemplating stepping down, but was convinced by a core group of players to stay on.
In 1998, Tyrone had to overcome the Omagh bombing. Their minors became a beacon of hope as they won the All-Ireland minor title. The path of Tyrone football history was changed forever as the core of that minor group went on to deliver two more All-Ireland titles at Under-21 level and three senior titles in 2003, ’05 and’08.
“It’s just really a tale of a minor team,” explained Hughes.
“We were just like any other minor team around the country, with lads who were just happy to be part of the county minor panel with an ambition to go on and win an All-Ireland.
“Then the tragedies became interwoven with it and it tightened the whole group. We progressed from there and it was about that, how close that group of players became throughout the years. Twenty years later, we all met up at the screening and it was just like we had never been apart.”
It almost seems trite to say it, given the depths of their grief and how the fragility of human life encroached in a period of their lives that under different circumstances should have been carefree and full of fun.
Married to Theresa and a father of young children Charlie, James and Holly, Hughes now counts the years back and sees himself as that 17-year-old skinny teenager and the hopes and dreams he and the others held for themselves.
“In ’97 we were still cubs and we had an ambition to be on the panel. Then when we got going, obviously the Academy in Dun-
gannon had a good result that year in the Hogan Cup and we were in the Vocational Schools’ final,” he said.
“So there was a bit of ambition there. And then when that happened with Paul, you wonder how others cope in that situation, but when it happens to yourself, to a family member, a team-mate, there is no other thing. You have to get over it. And I suppose it showed in the show how that group of fellas had to do it, we had to do it quickly but at the same time make Paul proud and go on to do our best.
“Football was an outlet for everybody in Tyrone at that time. Even though there was tragedy, at least there was a bit of light and a bit of joy in the way we were playing on the football field.”
What cannot be downplayed was the pastoral care that manager Harte and his selector and long-time friend, Father Gerard McAleer, played with this group of youngsters.
“It was critical,” emphasised Hughes. “Because you are so young, you question your faith and you question life and why this has to happen with Paul when it could have happened to any of us. And likewise with Cormac McAnallen (the minor captain in 1998, who died in 2004) as well. He was at the height of his prime and you would always question it.
“But at minor level you need that bit of guidance, and Mickey and Father Gerard were vital to that.”
Consider the team that the Tyrone minors had in 1998. Cormac McAnallen, Brian McGuigan, Enda McGinley, Owen Mulligan, Pascal McConnell, Kevin Hughes, Stephen O’Neill, Philip Jordan, Ryan Jordan, Michael McGee, Mark Harte and Gavin Devlin.
Multiple All Stars and All-Irelands later, they formed the nucleus of the greatest ever side to come out of the O’Neill County, and Hughes would contend that their early experiences helped shape them.
“Although it was a county team, it felt more like a club team atmosphere. There were no rivalries. When you turned up for county training it was like coming back to a club team,” he said.
Time passes. Anniversaries of deaths and successes bring back a flood of memories. What his team achieved from their backdrop has now been captured expertly.
Next Saturday, Kevin and Theresa are attending a GPA function in Croke Park and staying over for the All-Ireland final, 10 years after he had such a decisive influence, lofting over a crucial point as Tyrone sealed their third senior All-Ireland title.
And as he watches the new generation as they take the field against Dublin, he will be thinking of Paul Hughes. Of Paul McGirr. Of Cormac McAnallen.
‘Tír Eoghain: The Unbreakable Bond’ will be screened on Sunday night on TG4 at 8.30pm.