‘It doesn’t get any easier’
Tyrone’s Kevin Hughes experienced highs and lows throughout his stellar playing career
GRIEF and glory might be odd bedfellows, but they were so intertwined in Kevin Hughes’ playing career that they became indistinguishable.
The two-time Tyrone All-Ireland winner is the focus of tonight’s TG4 Laochra Gael episode in what is a profoundly honest and heart-wrenching conclusion to the current series.
Few players have been dealt such a cruel hand of cards as those that came Hughes way.
He was on the Omagh pitch when his team-mate Paul McGirr was fatally injured when scoring a goal in the 1997 Ulster minor championship clash with Armagh. Later that summer, as he prepared to play Kerry in an All-Ireland minor semi-final replay, he lost his older brother Paul in a car accident, while four years later his sister Helen died in similar circumstances.
And within months of being named man of the match in Tyrone’s breakthrough All-Ireland victory in 2003, Hughes was part of a dressing room left devastated by the sudden death of Cormac McAnallen
with the 20th anniversary of that sad occasion marked earlier this month. Inevitably, as Tyrone absorbed the shock death of McAnallen, the team turned to Hughes to find some perspective on what had happened. ‘That’s life. Life sucks but you move on,’ was the hard-learned truth which he imparted to them. Now at this remove, he is glad to put his story on film because, in doing so, he is honouring those who were so close to him and who should still be in the prime of their lives. ‘That’s the hand we’ve been dealt. You just try and find the strength to talk about it, as hard as it is,’ he explained in a pre-screening briefing to the media this week. ‘I did a podcast last year and it was nice just to get Paul and Helen’s names out there again. ‘And now in the show, Paul McGirr and Cormac as well. It’s nice to keep their names out there again. ‘It’s over 20 years ago but unfortunately with time, it still doesn’t get any easier,’ admitted Hughes. Inevitably, those tragedies framed Hughes’ life and career.
That summer of 1997 was a defining one, even though they lost the All-Ireland final to Laois but finding the strength to play in that replay against Kerry brought clarity and purpose to playing football.
‘The evening of the drawn game the bus was dropping me off at the dropping point and my brother Paul was there and it was the first time that he ever embraced me and told me he was proud of me.
‘Then, the following week, when the replay happened, it was the first time the rest of my family were all there. John and Helen were in New York and Maura was in England.
‘They had to fly home for the funeral. That was the first game they were all at to see me. I was playing with that in the back of my mind that I wanted to impress, I wanted to do it for Paul.
‘It was the same for the rest of my career. I wanted to do it for Paul and then when Helen passed away, she was a massive fan of mine and that definitely was a driving force going forward.”
It would be a driving force for all of them; in 1998 Hughes was part of a minor team that honoured Paul McGirr by winning the All-Ireland and that group would backbone a golden era in Tyrone football, claiming three Sam Maguire Cups inside five years with Hughes missing out on the 2005 success having gone to Australia with his girlfriend, now his wife Teresa.
‘As a footballer, you always say when you’re playing at that level, you’re in a bubble.
‘And it’s not until you retire
“It’s nice to keep their names out there”
that you really look back on things and have a really good think about it and appreciate what you’ve come through. ‘And I suppose from that instance you do the same with the tragedies that you’ve had. ‘At the time, you’re going day to day and the same with family and that and with teammates. ‘I think looking back, it definitely brought that group of players closer together. ‘It gave a deeper meaning to playing football. ‘But, also, football is a great outlet for getting away from everyday life and all its struggles.’ However, those that died will never be forgotten and the death of Caolan Devlin, brother of current Tyrone star Niall, last week in a car accident on the A5 Omagh/Ballygawley road — where plans to upgrade the route have been repeatedly thwarted — brought it all back. ‘Caolan passing away did bring it all back. ‘Unfortunately on that day that he passed away there was another objection that went in against A5 going ahead so it is very disappointing... there have been countless deaths on that road. How many more lives have to be lost?’