It Was Thirty Years Ago Today!

Dúiche CLG Thír Eoghain … Ar An Lá Seo: Gaelic Tyrone … On This Day …
Thirty years ago today, 21 September 1986, Tyrone played in our first ever All-Ireland Senior Final, losing eventually to the ‘Golden Years’ Kerry team by 1-10 to 2-15. Tyrone played so well for so long and had moved into a deserved seven-point lead with half-an-hour left to play. But it wasn’t to be and a number of key injuries to Tyrone players combined with a power-surge from Kerry produced a cruel 15-point turnaround. No title for Tyrone … but people now knew what was possible.
Reaching that Final was an historic breakthrough for Tyrone. In the previous 83 years we had reached five All-Ireland Finals, all at Minor level, winning three. In the next 30 years we would reach 18 (4 x Senior, 7 x Under 21 and 7 x Minor), winning 13. The men of the 1980s made their own major contribution, playing in half the decade’s Ulster Finals and winning three of them. Nothing like that had ever happened here before.
Tonight at Garvaghey we celebrate the breakthrough men of 1986, Management Art McRory, Tom McKeagney, Pat McCartan and Bob Granville;  Players Eugene McKenna (Captain), Aidan Skelton, Martin Dorman, Joe Mallon, Sean Donnelly, Ciaran McGarvey, John Lynch, Kevin McCabe, Noel McGinn, Paddy Ball, Plunkett Donaghy, Harry McClure, Mickey McClure, Sean McNally, Paudge Quinn, Damian O’Hagan, Mickey Mallon, Declan Muldoon, Enda Kilpatrick, Liam Grugan, Audie Hamilton, Peter O’Neill, Stephen Conway, Aidan O’Hagan, Paul Maxwell, Pat McKeown, Con Mulholland and Stephen Rice; and County Officials Jimmy Treacy (County Chair), Brendan Harkin (County Secretary), Vinny Beggs (County Treasurer), Tony McKenna (Activities Board Chair), Frank Rodgers (Activities Board Secretary) and Patsy Gallagher (Activities Board Treasurer).
‘Molann an obair na fir – The work praises the men’.