Cormac McAnallen RIP

Dougal

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GAA mourns McAnallen death


Cormac McAnallen died on Tuesday morning
GAA was plunged into mourning with the sudden death of Tyrone county captain Cormac McAnallen.
The 24-year-old Armagh schoolteacher was found dead in his bed in the early hours of Tuesday morning.

The Benburb-born McAnallen was a member of Tyrone's All-Ireland winning side last season when they defeated champions Armagh at Croke Park.

Tyrone manager Mickey Harte had made McAnallen captain following the injury to Peter Canavan.


Harte paid homage to a player whom he said was a role model for the sport.

''I'm still in a state of shock after hearing the news early this morning,'' said Harte.

He was just a gem of a man, and it's going to be very difficult to pick up the pieces

Tyrone manager
Mickey Harte
''It's simply unbelievable and no words could explain what has happened.

''He was such a good guy, a brilliant athlete and dedicated player.

''People use the term role model liberally, but for Cormac, he was that person.

''He had been captain of all our teams right through from minor, under-21 and now with Peter Canavan sidelined, the senior side.

''I was so delighted for him when he lifted the McKenna Cup recently, his first senior title as captain.

''He was such a gentleman and all our sympathies go out to his family. His maturity belied his years, and he was everything you would want in a young man.

MCANALLEN ACHIEVEMENTS
1997: All Ireland Minor runner-up captain
1998: All Ireland Minor winning captain
2000: Sigerson Cup winner with Queen's
2001/2: All-Ireland U-21 winning captain
2001: Young Footballer of the Year
2002/3: National League winner
2003: All-Ireland winner and All Star
''He was just a gem of a man, and it's going to be very difficult to pick up the pieces.''


McAnallen won every honour in the sport of GAA right through to the final glory of being a vital cog in Tyrone's Sam Maguire-winning side last September.

Earlier in his career he won All-Ireland minor and under-21 medals with Tyrone, and collected his first GAA All Star award last December.

McAnallen also represented Ireland against Australia in the International Rules Series last November.

He taught history and politics at St Catherine's College after graduating at Queen's University where he won Sigerson Cup honours back in the Millennium year.

His loss will be felt throughout the whole of the GAA community and beyond.

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There have been many tears shed this morning in Tyrone at the passing of this extraordinary young man.
On a family level, he was a hero to his football-mad brother Donal.


Cormac McAnallen died on Tuesday morning
So much so that Donal was the first person to sprint onto the pitch at the end of the All Ireland final and leap into Cormac's arms.

Cormac was to be married later this year and had the whole world in front of him in his private life and in his footballing life.

He'd just been made captain of the Tyrone team and spoke to me just four weeks ago about his appointment.

He chuckled at the task he'd been given of attempting to follow in the footsteps of Peter the Great, Tyrone's captain last September but said that it was an honour and that he hoped to have as good a year.

The fact that such responsibility had been placed on such young shoulders was an enormous tribute to Cormac as a footballer and as a person.

He was only 24 yet he was remarkably mature partly because he had already coped with tragedy in his sporting life.


On June 15 in 1997 Tyrone minor team-mate Paul McGirr died a few hours after playing in a match in Omagh.

Cormac and the team of 18 year-olds eventually overcame that loss but they never forgot Paul which is why Peter Canavan in his acceptance speech last September stated that Paul had shaped their characters.

Tragedy like that shouldn't happen to a football team but now it's happened again.

It places another extraordinary burden on the shoulders of the All Ireland champions and on their management team who have been open with their spirituality in recent times.

Manager Mickey Harte wrote a book called 'Kicking down heaven's door.

I happened to pick it up only yesterday and found a quote Mickey had taken from basketball coach John Wooden.

"Learn as if you were to live forever; live as if you were to die tomorrow".

Cormac was true to that philosophy. His passing is a massive loss to everyone who knew him.

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A real tragedy. Rest in Peace.
 
'He was just our boy, it's as simple as that'



Paddy McIntosh's rasping voice shuddered to a halt yesterday as grief over Cormac McAnallen's sudden death finally overwhelmed him.

The youth coach surveyed the desolate main hall of the tiny GAA club in Eglish and tried to make sense of the loss of a young star idolised by all ages.

Months earlier, McIntosh (54), spent the proudest night of his life in the same building when McAnallen and his victorious team-mates swept in after Tyrone's historic All-Ireland win.

The local hero he nurtured from a 10-year-old into one of the finest talents of his generation had dedicated his success on the pitch to him.

But now, McAnallen had been snatched from a community that basked in his achievements and, for McIntosh, the pain was almost unbearable.

His speech crackling with emotion, the coach said: "Cormac stood on that stage the night Tyrone came here with the cup and, even before he mentioned his parents, he talked about me.

"It was the greatest thing ever said about me to have a lad who had won an All-Ireland medal say I was the biggest influence on his career." Even though he won medals at all levels and represented Ireland in the International Rules series against Australia, McAnallen was always desperate to play for his club.

"He would turn up for friendlies and pester to get on. You tell me another county player who's like that?" challenged McIntosh.

As the youth officer tried to deal with his anguish, banners celebrating the player's successes still adorned the clubhouse.

The rest of the Eglish team had also gathered in the tiny village's clubhouse. Numbed by the death of a player and friend who inspired them, they simply had to be with each other.

"This is the only place for us today," said 25-year-old midfielder Conall Martin, who readily admitted his dead team-mate had been a hero to them all.

He said: "Cormac was a role model and when he talked, everybody listened. The term legend is too lightly used but that's what he was."

Forward James Muldoon, a school teacher like McAnallen, said the depth of his loss had not even begun to sink in.

Like everyone else in the tight-knit committee, the players were dumbfounded at how someone so fit could collapse and die so suddenly.

The GAA star, who was set to marry his fiancée, Aisling, within months, had gone to the gym on Monday night with some of his club mates.

But hours after arriving back at the house where he lived with his parents, Brendan and Bridget, and brothers, Donal and Fergus, he was found dead in bed.

Pupils at St Catherine's Grammar School in Armagh, where he taught history and politics, wept in the classrooms as they learned McAnallen was dead.

But back in Eglish, villagers were making urgent arrangements to deal with their grief and offer support to the family.

Terry McCann, who runs the local grocer's and post office, told how his packed shop learned what had happened. "About a dozen people were in here when the morning news came on the radio and they just stood in stunned silence," he said.

McCann (52), insisted the area had never experienced a shock like it. The Gaelic footballer had captured the imagination of local youngsters in a way that even the top names in English soccer would be jealous of.

"Instead of running about with Michael Owen or David Beckham shirts on, all the children wanted Cormac's gear," he said.

One of the shop owner's first customers was the Sinn Féin MP for the area, Michelle Gildernew. She was left sobbing at the death of a close friend she had known since childhood.

Gildernew, who visited the family, was laden down with food to take to a local community centre where other mourners were gathering. She said: "The family are showing great dignity but the shock of this simply hasn't hit them yet.

"We have lost an ambassador, the first Eglish man to captain Tyrone football team, but they have lost a son."

As the family tried to come to terms with their shattering loss, the supermarket run by McAnallen's parents four miles away in Benburb, remained locked up.

A hand-written note on the door said simply: "Closed due to death in the family." But with the streets of Benburb desolate and the whole of Eglish seemingly coming together to comfort each other, rarely can a family have been so extended.

One woman, who asked not to be named, clutched a photo she had taken with McAnallen on that night he brought the Sam Maguire Cup to Eglish, and tried to explain what the player meant to the area.

"He was just our boy, it's as simple as that."
 
Success will honour McAnallen
Keith Duggan reports



The remains of the Tyrone footballer Cormac McAnallen were carried home to Eglish yesterday afternoon at 3 o'clock. Among the many local people who waited along the quiet road which lead to the McAnallen family home was Mickey Harte.

Since the sorrowful news of McAnallen's sudden passing was broadcast across Ireland early on Tuesday morning, Harte has tried to find words to understand a tragedy that in scale balances the joy that Tyrone's All-Ireland victory of last September brought the county.

It has not been easy. Along with the numbing loss and confusion that his death has evoked exists a fierce pride in the afterglow of Cormac McAnallen's brief and spectacular comet-shoot through his chosen fields of education and Gaelic football.

The Tyrone team were due to meet for the first time since their captain passed away last night, but that gathering has been postponed until this evening.

"I suppose the thought of getting together as a group is of some small comfort," Harte responded yesterday afternoon.

"The shock of this is just incredibly difficult for any of us to fully understand and accept. And we had arranged to meet up as a group simply to sit down and be together and maybe just try to begin to get some clarity and to remember Cormac quietly and privately."

Although Tyrone's league game scheduled for Sunday against Cork in Omagh has been postponed, Harte has already stated that he is determined that his All-Ireland winning side will resume their defence of the league title in the coming weeks as robustly as ever. Anything less, he feels, would be a dishonour to a player whose zeal and enthusiasm was uncontainable.

It is probable that the Tyrone team will retire the number three jersey in which McAnallen arguably turned the destiny of last year's championship season when he was converted to the full back position last summer.

He gained prominence as a midfielder, but his short, flawless sojourn in defence was a revelation. This gesture or remembrance - mirroring the decision taken to retire the number 12 shirt of Tyrone's minor season of 1997 following the death of McAnallen's Tyrone minor team-mate Paul McGirr - is one of the ways the team will carry the spirit of their captain with them.

But while Harte's determination and general anxiety to honour McAnallen through Gaelic football, the medium which brought the young player national acclaim and admiration and innumerable friendships, he admits it will be very difficult to summon the energy for sport.

"It is difficult. And it is going to be difficult for some time to come. We have all suffered an irreplaceable loss as a GAA family. But all our thoughts are concentrated now on the loss to the McAnallen family and to Cormac's fiancee, Aisling. They are dealing with this tragedy with great love and dignity.

"All we can do is try and give ourselves to committing to a team of which Cormac has been such a great part and to try and honour him in that way. And we do that by being good. And by being strong."

The suddenness and circumstances of Cormac McAnallen's passing has made it all the more unbelievable. Preliminary reports now state that it is believed that a rare viral infection to his heart caused his death.

That knowledge will do little to lessen the pain. The funeral service will take place tomorrow at the church in Eglish. It will at once be a scene of local mourning and national respect as friends and competitors from the GAA community, for whom McAnallen was emblematic of the confidence and athletic spirit that delivered Tyrone its very first All-Ireland.

Not for many years has a death had such a profound and stilling affect on the general GAA community.

McAnallen last played for Tyrone in the McKenna Cup final win over Donegal. As captain, he lifted the provincial trophy that had been, strangely, about the only honour in the game that had eluded him. His roll of sporting accolades, achieved at the age of just 24, is truly stunning, but those close to him testify that it was vitality and generosity of spirit that marked him apart.

Asked when he had last seen Cormac, Mickey Harte said: "Well, it was at Gavin Devlin's wedding last Friday. Funny, when I was leaving for the evening, I saw Cormac and Aisling just taking a wee walk along a laneway close to the hotel in Ballymena where we were staying. They were just having a happy, normal time. But I just thought it was typical of who Cormac was, away from it all and happy. You know, independent."




© The Irish Times
 
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