MARK Harte fought back tears as his thoughts turned to his sister Michaela in the moments after Errigal Ciaran had clinched their first Tyrone championship in a decade.
Harte’s men won a thrilling final against neighbours Carrickmore but the joy of victory was tinged with the sadness of not being able to share it with loved ones and Harte, joint manager of Errigal Ciaran, dedicated the two-point victory to “people who aren’t with us any more”.
“We have a number of families struggling in the parish with relatives who are ill and to see people coming towards me with tears in their eyes…,” he said.
“They didn’t have to say anything because I know exactly what they’re feeling and I know who they’re thinking about.
“We’re all thinking of people who aren’t with us any more and they are so important and that’s who I’m thinking of now. So for everybody who is struggling in the parish and for everybody who has gone over the last 10 or 12 years this is just such an important win for so many reasons.”
Harte’s side dominated the second quarter of the game and led by seven points at half-time. But they needed a determined to rearguard action to hold off a full-blooded assault from Carrickmore in the second half.
“There is never anything between Carrickmore and Errigal, it’s always nip-and-tuck,” said Harte, whose side will go on to meet Derry champions Watty Graham’s Glen in a mouth-watering Ulster championship quarter-final.
“We probably had a poor first 20 and I thought the goal and a couple of points before half-time put a bit of a gloss on it. If we had kept their goal out early in the second half we could have given ourselves a bit of a buffer but Errigal-Carrickmore games take on a life of their own.
“It was always going to go down to the wire and that’s what we planned for mentally. We had to go and win that game two or three times so, for a group of players’ whose mentality has been attacked, both outside the club and within in because we’re our own worst critics as well, it was good to stand strong whenever the heat came on and to get over the line.”
Harte had previously managed Pomeroy and Fermanagh’s Roslea but it came as no surprise when he said that winning with his native club was “like nothing else”.
“With every group of players you work with you build a bond but there’s a bond there (with his club) since the day I was born,” he said.
“I didn’t want to build it up with the players but now that we have achieved this, winning you’re your won is like nothing else. Today was going to be a really hard day to stomach or a day to celebrate.”
Goals from Padraig McGirr, late in the first half, and Joe Oguz, midway through the second, were crucial to Errigal’s win but, after Martin Penrose found the back of their net early in the second half it took a shoulder-to-the-wheel effort to get the Ballygawley men over the line.
“We’ve had a number of big games – I’m thinking of the Dromore game when we were under pressure and Niall Kelly made a couple of miraculous blocks,” said Harte.
“They don’t appear on the scoreline but they do give a team momentum.
“The goals from Padraig and Joe were fantastic but credit to the defenders as well – getting a hand in, doing the ugly stuff that doesn’t get the headlines but is absolutely crucial.”
