TYRONE and Armagh have crossed swords exactly 100 times in Championship, National League and Dr McKenna Cup games since the Ulster final of 1890.
The grass might have been knee-high and the rules fairly arbitrary but you can bet there were no holds barred that day and the standard was set for the 99 clashes over 131 years that have followed up to and including last season’s encounter in Division One (for the record Armagh have won 46, Tyrone 41 and there have been 13 draws.
Games between the counties are always blood-and-thunder affairs which include that intoxicating mix of superb football, broken bones, bloody noses, big hits and great scores we all love.
It’s as fierce a rivalry as there is in the GAA but tonight at the Athletic Grounds the auld enemies put it on hold and stand in solidarity with a family that had its heart broken last April.
James Reel was a husband, a father, a son, a brother and a friend who died long, long before his time in a terrible accident. A thoroughly decent human being, James doted on his twin girls and his wife Mairead who was expecting their third child when he tragically lost his life.
Amid an out-pouring of grief and shock, the crowds that lined the country roads when James, a talented steel fabricator who ran his own Elite Fabrications business, was taken to his final resting place in his native Silverbridge spoke volumes of the esteem in which he was held.
Life will never be the same for them but somehow the grieving family has found the strength to turn their tragedy into something positive for their community and the proceeds from tonight’s game between their county and the All-Ireland champions will go towards building a playpark in James’s name at the Silverbridge Harps’ grounds.
The idea for the park came to James’s sister Ashling while she tossed and turned during a restless, grief-stricken night.
She explained: “I woke at quarter-to-four in the morning and said to my husband: ‘I’m going to build a playpark for James.’
“I told everyone the next morning and it was just taken off from there. We went to the Silverbridge club and they told us they loved the idea and would get behind us 100 per cent. The mission statement of the club is that it’s all about family and Jarlath Burns said that the playpark would finish off the club in regards to families using it.”
When the Reel family discussed their plans with him, Pat Casey, the chairman of Silverbridge Harps, fittingly remarked: ‘A man will never die as long as his name is spoken’. The James Reel Playpark will be enjoyed by generations to come.
“It didn’t sit right with me to have a cup named after him because, yes, James liked football, but football wasn’t his life, his kids were his life so the idea of a playpark sat better,” Ashling added.
“James’s idea of a great day out on a Sunday was to go to the park with the kids – he would spend hours in it.
“All the events we are doing are to give something back to the community. We don’t want to ask for money – we’re asking people to come out and support us on a humdinger of a night that’s not just for football fanatics.
“It’s for everyone, it will be happy and jolly, Santa will be there, the Elves will be there, there’ll be a Christmas atmosphere, there’ll be sweets for the kids… It’ll be a great occasion.”
Paddy Reel sees the park as a fitting and lasting legacy to James: “It’ll be there forever” he said and his late brother’s wife Mairead, who has welcomed baby James into the world since the accident, agrees.
“It’s something that James would have loved,” she said.
“When his sisters and Paddy get an idea in their heads then there’s no putting them off, you just have to go with it! A park is something we don’t have in the community and he would have mentioned that so I think it will be brilliant.”
James’s eldest sister Majella doted on her baby brother. She says tonight’s event is an opportunity for the family to give something back to a community that wrapped its arms around them.
“The park will be for everyone to enjoy,” she said.
“When James died we were in a bubble and we were living a nightmare so we couldn’t really see outside the bubble. We couldn’t see how supportive people were because we weren’t in a position to see it whereas now this campaign has given people an opportunity to reach out to us and come over and give us a tap on the shoulder and say: ‘Fair play’.
“My dad (Bernard) has found it very difficult but now instead of someone looking at him with a sad face, they’re looking at him and saying: ‘Fair play, you are doing great work’. So it has been great in that respect even though it’s hard and it’s been difficult.”
Yes, fair play to Bernard and his family and fair play to Armagh and Tyrone, to the GAA and to all the local clubs and business who have given their support and raised or donated money already.
“The joy is in getting together as a community and achieving this together,” says Majella.
“We want this to be a journey, we want to enjoy these events and it means more when people pull together and create it together. We want everyone to come out for the match, it’s a cracking game and it will be a fun night and a great experience for people to come out as a family.”
If the fundraising campaign goes as well as the family hope, they plan to start work on the playpark on James’s anniversary in April next year and welcome the first of many thousands of excited children in September.
There is no Sam Maguire to be raised in triumph, no Anglo-Celt Cup or League points up for grabs but the latest instalment of a rivalry that has spanned three centuries goes right to the heart of the GAA.
Tonight isn’t about winning and losing, it’s about community and fellowship and every seat that’s filled, every cheer that rings out and every smile for Santa will mean so much to the family of James Reel.
Be part of it.
