“There won’t be a cow milked in Omagh tonight if we win,” said the Tyrone fan, decked from head to toe in red and white. He had just come from the family farm, a few miles down the road, wearing a jersey and a smile, hoping against hope the Ulstermen would bring it home and he’d get a night off.
It wasn’t to be. From elation to devastation it was an All Ireland Final that had it all but, in the end, the extraordinary Dublin team were triumphant at Croke Park, leaving Tyrone fans 113 miles away as miserable as the weather.
As the rain pelted down in Omagh, more than 2,000 supporters, some with their faces painted in the team’s colours, packed into the main street to watch the game on a giant screen.
With a drink in hand and, for some, a flag in the other it was 78 minutes of boisterous noise – the thrilling first few minutes to the tear-jerking final whistle that brought with it groans of defeat.
Emotional rollercoaster
Riding the emotional rollercoaster were twins Una McGirr and Shelia Monaghan from Fintona who spent most of the match pacing up and down the street more than Mickey Harte. They have never fallen out, phone each other 10 times a day and even in sport are there for one another.
“My nerves are gone, I don’t know what Mickey’s would be like. They must be worse,” laughed McGirr. “One minute I am jumping up and down, the next my heart is sinking. I thought we had it, I really did,” she said.
“Look, Dublin came back in the second half,” said Monaghan. “It was good for us at the start but Dublin’s a stronger team and, in the end, the best team won, it’s as simple as that. Sure, it was a day out if nothing else.”
“And we should celebrate anyway,” laughed McGirr, wearing a cowboy hat, which almost covered her specially dyed pink hair.
“It went downhill a wee bit,” said Mary McCanney from Dromore. “I was so happy at the start, then look what happened. Och well,” she said.
“It was always going to be tight, the early penalty for Dublin put us on the back foot after such a great start,” said Jude McElroy who helped organise the fan zone at his family’s pub complex.
Damien Cooke from Sion Mills accepts the better team won.
“Tyrone lost but that’s football. There is still a buzz about here, I’d be buzzing too if I owned a pub right now,” he said.
Colin Clarke from Strabane spent most of the game shouting at the big screen and says despite the setback the Red Hands still have his support.
“The mood would not be good but you’ll still get me here next year. I am proud of Tyrone and they have a pile of support, everywhere from Fermanagh to Bulgaria.”
A decision by the referee to hand Dublin a penalty did not sit well with Clarke.
“That was never a penalty, that referee is for Dublin, I am telling you,” he said, pointing at the screen.
"You said it," replied Declan McLoughlin, having a drink with his friend Sean Maguire.
“This is about as close to a Sam Maguire that I’ll get,” he joked.
“Tyrone put up a good fight,” he said, “We can be proud.”
“Did they hell?” replied Maguire. “They are dung, they missed too many chances.”
“If you make it to the final, there’s nothing wrong with you,” replied Bryan Colton, listening in.
“The only problem now is there’s an awful queue for the bar,” he said.
Even as the drops of rain washed the red and white paint off their faces, the ever-optimistic people of Tyrone were content with Harte’s men knowing the sun will shine again. And they weren’t for calling it a night, apart from the farmers, of course, who had hours of milking ahead.
