Tyrone 1-13 Donegal 0-13:SAMUEL JOHNSON famously said of the Giant's Causeway that it was worth seeing but not worth going to see.
Yesterday’s game of football between Tyrone and Donegal (played eventually in Edendork) was worth it for the sake of getting back to football but not worth it for the football.
“It was about taking a first step,” said Mickey Harte afterwards, the bruised northern sky turning pink behind him as the sun set.
“It was about getting back out there. Doing another first. There are a lot of firsts to get through. The players are special. The county board, our community, our neighbours. This was secondary, but it was about getting out to play our sport again. It wasn’t easy for their team, but I appreciate it.”
The generally sparse attendance for McKenna Cup games at the frosty end of the year was swollen to several thousand who wanted just to stand shoulder to shoulder with the Harte family for this first step.
In a GAA community which has suffered more than its share of grief, these raw days of respectful silences and lowered flags and black armbands have become familiar. But yesterday was especially poignant.
The game’s scheduling and venue moved throughout the day. Initially deferred to four o’clock in Omagh, when Tyrone met at 1.30pm they were asked to consider Edendork at three, pending Donegal’s agreement. Eventually at about 3:15 a game broke out.
It hardly mattered to those who had bowed in respect at the sight of Mickey Harte leading his team out.
The venue, as it turned out, had an apposite, northern sparseness too, a typicality which Healy Park lacks. The gentle Tyrone hills supervising, the bent sentinel trees, men blowing on their hands and stamping their feet and, on a lorry on the hill, the media, ranks swollen by hacks trying not to seem prurient but to serve a wider need.
Mickey Harte took his place on the sideline, folded his arms as is his wont and stared impassively and inscrutably, the same as he has always done. Where his thoughts wandered too isn’t tough to guess. This was a hard day.
“All I can ask,” he said afterwards of the present and the future, “is for players to give their best. That’s the only way we can remember the good times we had in the past, times that Michaela was part of. And she will be in the future.
“There’ll be better days. We’ll have days that will be more difficult than that again. I know I am with good company. We’ll give it our best shot. Life is different and it’s going to be different.”
That difference and finding a way of accommodating it was the theme of the afternoon.
As for the football, it was start-of-term stuff but decent for all that. Tyrone started well and were seven points ahead after 20 minutes.
Donegal roared back to lead by a point at the break. Colm Kavanagh of Tyrone and Neil McGee of Donegal were sent off either side of half-time.
In the second half, Tyrone pulled ahead early, scoring the first four points to hammer out a three-point lead.
That was that. They played from memory, inflicting on Donegal the patterns and plays learned at their master’s hand down the years. Losing was unthinkable. Winning was a duty of respect.
“We’re just happy that we contributed well,” said Donegal manager Jim McGuinness. “We wanted to come down and play the match and to contribute. That was the thing to do.”
Conscious of the time and the place, he commented obliquely on the difficulties he is facing in getting a team together let alone put a training programme in place.
Twenty yards away Mickey Harte, tracksuited and pale, was thanking people.
“We are so impressed and grateful for the support from those outside the GAA community, too. Michaela’s death has extended to people outside our community. Every organisation you can imagine in this province and country has been there for us.”
It was almost dark. The last of his own people, those who had been there for him yesterday and will be through the times to come, were leaving. He pulled his tracksuit collar up over his chin and walked in thought towards the dressingroom.
Familiar steps, but first steps to some sort of rehabilitation for an extraordinary man.
TYRONE:J Curran; A McRory, C McCarron, M Swift; D Harte (0-2), E McGinley, R McMenamin (0-1, free); A Cassidy (0-2), S Cavanagh (0-3, one free), C Cavanagh, B McGuigan (0-2), C Girvan; M Penrose (0-2, one free), S O'Neill, M Donnelly (1-1). Subs: K Hughes for Girvan (h-t), P McNeice for M Donnelly (53 mins).
DONEGAL:P Durkan; P McGrath, N McGee, K Mulhern; L Keeney, L McLoone (0-1), K Cassidy; R Kavanagh (0-1), C Classon; D McLoughlin (0-2), D Molloy (0-3, one free), O MacNiallas (0-1); K Lacey (0-2), R McErlane (0-1), C McFadden (0-2). Subs: A Hanlon for MacNiallas (h-t), F McGlynn for R Kavanagh (54 mins), MacNiallas for McLoughlin (63 mins).
Referee:J McQuillan (Cavan).
