WHEN the history is written on how the blanket ban on grassroots sports was lifted and which ended the open prison of thousands of children across the north, people should remember the passion and ceaseless energy of Stephen Atherton.
ONE of my great friends set up a WhatsApp group on Saturday entitled ‘Hasn’t a clue’.
He demanded my immediate resignation as a columnist with The Irish News.
He didn’t see h...
I HAD been in a few post-match media huddles with Mickey Harte during Errigal Ciaran’s run to the All-Ireland Club semi-finals in 2002/03 - but the first conversation I had with him was at a Croke Park gig.
We were on the doorstep of the Championship in 2003 and Mickey was holding court in a function room somewhere high up in the Hogan stand.
It was around the time everyone was telling the new Tyrone manager that he didn’t have the midfield to win the All-Ireland.
The questions came thick and fast from the floor. One by one, Mickey answered them with eloquence and humility.
One of the many impressive things about Mickey was how he framed his arguments. You might have completely disagreed with him on a subject but by the time he'd answered a question you would have a clearer understanding of his point of view.
I found him to be an exceptionally bright, articulate man.
In the hallway afterwards, I’d opened my laptop and began typing up his quotes.
Mickey and Michaela emerged from the room. Father and daughter absolutely radiant.
“You must be talked out, Mickey,” I said.
Smiling and with child-like enthusiasm, he said: “Yes - but isn’t it great to be asked?”
You sensed that Mickey enjoyed the debate.
With people like Mickey Harte and Joe Kernan taking the reins in their respective counties, Gaelic Games was emerging into the light and ready to shed its suspicion of the ‘meedja’.
The ‘Noughties’ was a great time to be involved in sports journalism, particularly the GAA.
Armagh and Tyrone press nights were an absolute joy. All the players turned up and you could talk to anybody.
There were no press officers chaperoning journalists to designated seats and expecting them to feed off the exact same five minutes of quotes the following day. This was long before the mindless racket of social media.
When big Joe or Mickey held court they added hugely to the media discourse of the day. Journalists felt engaged with the game, even inspired by the debates of the day.
It wasn’t just a job I was doing. It was the most wonderful hobby. A real privilege to be around greats of the game.
Harte's 2004 diary ‘Kicking Down Heaven’s Door’ ghost-written by Kieran Shannon, remains one of sport’s great memoirs.
There are coaching and motivational material contained in its pages that never grow old.
He was the alchemist that Tyrone football was crying out for.
In an interview in 2010, Peter Canavan told me: “I remember in later years Mickey got a psychologist on board to try and help out, but nobody was going to come in that was a better speaker than him. The players wanted to listen to Mickey. They didn’t want anybody else coming in.”
In winning their second All-Ireland title in 2005, he pulled off some tactical masterstrokes in Croke Park. And yet, after crashing out of the 2008 Ulster Championship to Down, pundit Martin McHugh said it was time for Harte to go.
Despite the perceived shortcomings of their forward line, Harte led them to the Promised Land again that summer in what was arguably his greatest triumph.
You didn’t have to delve too deeply into Mickey Harte’s life to realise the kind of man he is and will always remain.
You just needed to read about the ‘Lost Years’ of Glencull and how Harte and others wouldn’t bend to what they deemed unfair suspensions resulting from a parish league game.
It took seven years for the wounds to heal in the parish of Ballygawley which spawned Errigal Ciaran as we know it today.
Mickey was the leader Tyrone football needed when Paul McGirr tragically lost his life.
He led the way when Cormac McAnallen died suddenly in 2004 and the incredible resilience he displayed in public following Michaela’s death undoubtedly offered inspiration to others around the country who were grieving the loss of loved ones.
To this day, he doesn’t speak to RTE over a skit it broadcast which Harte took as a reference to his daughter. As time passes, many people have said that the boycott has gone on for far too long.
But we don’t walk in Mickey’s shoes.
From afar, Mickey inhabits a world that is black and white. There are no shades of grey.
In the early days when Tyrone were trying to win their first All-Ireland, he used to quote George Zalucki’s great line.
“Persistence is awesome. It is absolutely awesome. It is this that turns an average performer of average ability and moulds them into a champion.”
Of course, there was nothing average about Peter Canavan, Brian McGuigan, Brian Dooher, Sean Cavanagh, Owen Mulligan, Philip Jordan or Ryan McMenamin.
This was a once-in-a-lifetime generation of footballers who were led to glory by an incredible manager.
If 2003, ’05 and ’08 were the glory years, managing the departures of those great players over the next five years manifested in some difficult summers for the Red Hands.
The U21 All-Ireland winning side of 2015 gave Tyrone a timely boost and despite returning to the latter stages of the All-Ireland series Harte’s faith in persistence could conquer all never yielded a fourth Sam Maguire.
His dealings with the media became ever more fractious in recent years as he tried to dig a different path to glory without the star quality of the ‘Noughties’.
As he mulls over his future, the big imponderable is: has this Tyrone team already reached its potential? Has Mickey Harte squeezed everything that there is to squeeze out of them?
The fact that nobody can answer that question definitively is exactly the reason why changes are afoot.
If Harte does go, maybe in three years’ time, a kinder light will shine on his efforts of 2017, 2018 and 2019.
Or maybe Tyrone will reach the summit again under new leadership.
It's hard to imagine Mickey Harte not being on the Tyrone sidelines again. All good things come to an end – but he will want his departure to be on his terms.
He has always been a fascinating character and even without Tyrone the road ahead is still one of infinite possibilities.
Regardless of how this plays out, Tyrone should give thanks to their own, unique dream-maker. A giant of the game.
GAMES turn on big moments and when Caolan Mooney rounded three Fermanagh players (on the outside) before passing the ball brilliantly to Daniel Guinness who found a waiting Donal O’Hare to palm the ball to the net, Down created that cushion which, in turn, dictates how they won this match.
