Editorial from Labour Comment:—May 2004 'Mortas Cinnagh' "It's a narrow gate
and a hard road that leads to life
and only a few find it."CORMAC McANALLEN died on Tuesday, 2nd March 2004, of a rare viral infection of the heart. He was 24 years of age.
A fluent Gaelic speaker, he taught history and politics at St. Catherine's College, Armagh. His school principal Margaret Martin said: "There is a sense of national loss and he epitomised someone who was very committed not only to education, but to Irish culture and Gaelic games."
"He was a born leader, quiet, unassuming and such a gentleman with a maturity that belied his years" (Mickey Harte, Tyrone Manager).
He was in line to achieve a unique treble, Captain of an All-Ireland Minor, U-21 and Senior All-Ireland football champions.
We had meant to say it before, but the death of Cormac McAnallen leaves us no choice, the success of Armagh and Tyrone on the playing field was born of struggle : the 30 year war in the North, the sacrifices, the loss of life gave the people of those two Counties a determination, a will and the self-esteem to make their mark in Irish life.
They did it on the GAA field. Not since its foundation in 1884, did GAA followers witness the momentous day like that Sunday in last September, when two teams from the same province lined out in an All-Ireland final for the first time.
It is no accident either, that the majority of Gaelic Football and Hurling titles are held by the three Counties of Cork, Kerry and Tipperary, the heartland of the struggle for freedom in the 1920s. When young people had nothing else, they had the Gaelic Athletic Association.
It was the GAA playing fields that developed the leadership of many fine young Republicans, some later to give their life for Irish independence.
Contrast the scenes of community in Tyrone with the arrest in Spain of Keith Gillespie from Belfast, a Northern international soccer player, with two mates from Leicester City now charged with the rape of three girls in a luxury Spanish hotel.
A fellow guest in their hotel said players glugged dozens of bottles of 330 Euro-a-time Cristal champagne in the bar.
Or the trial in Dublin of the ex-Blackrock boys for the murder of teenager, Brian Murphy at Club Anabel in the Burlington Hotel.
Two very different Irelands—Mary Coughlan, the Minister for Social Welfare, would have got a better understanding of the meaning of family, and community too, had she visited south-east Tyrone during those sad days of Cormac's bereavement in early March, 2004.
Cormac never took the back door, said his colleague, Margaret Martin, St. Catherine's Principal, he was "mortas cinnagh", "pride of race". She mentioned Cormac's belief in the collective, he maintained that it was "wrong to be too individualistic".
"He personified everything that was good about humanity" (Fr. Gerard McAleer, St. Patrick's College, Armagh). "He was a gift to the world, he was a gift to Tyrone."
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"In little over an hour that afternoon in Belfast, Cormac had taken me from the skills of the Kerry inside-forward line to some of Hugh O'Neill's more famous battles, including the Battle of the Yellow Ford that took place only a few miles from his Eglish home. He had, obviously, chosen the perfect profession for himself in history teaching" (Mark Gallagher, Irish Examiner, 3.3.2004).
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The McAnallens are renowned for their intelligence and keen interest in politics and history.
Cormac made a point of making his acceptance speech after the 1998 All-Ireland Minor final in Gaelic.
"He exemplified everything that was good in a Gaelic footballer and human being."
"Cormac McAnallen was the sort of young man who over the decades have edified the GAA, giving it the extra layer of quality and class which signifies that the GAA is more than just a mere sports organisation." (Eugene McGee, Irish Independent, 3.3.2004).
"So too will be the fact that Cormac was a model footballer, did not smoke or drink, deeply respected his Catholic faith and was still regarded as 'one of the lads', which shows that one does not have to put on a macho lifestyle or act the 'hard man' on the field to become a genuine hero." (Ibid.).
From Brantry, his townland, he was taken for burial at St. Patrick's Church, Eglish, on Oona Waters, four miles south of Dungannon and not all that distant from another sacred ground, Tullaghoge, three miles south of Cookstown, nine or 10 miles from Eglish, the inauguration seat of the O'Neills. Mountjoy destroyed the chair in August, 1602.
Cormac's grandfather, Charlie O'Neill, played the fiddle and Aunt, Marie Burns, played the harp in St. Patrick's Church, Eglish.
In the land of O'Neill, where they buried Cormac McAnallen on that Friday morning, 5th March 2004, in his death, we saw and experienced a land and a community that offers an alternative to the rootlessness and cynicism which Ireland has been dragged into for the last couple of decades!
Croke Park
"But what I can't accept is the comments on Prime Time re British soldiers in 1920. With that type of mentality, we will never be able to move forward.
"Can the Cork County Board (i.e. Frank Murphy) accept this point of view? Those comments are indefensible and even more so after the gracious words in defeat used by Clive Woodward and Lawrence Dallaglio after our great victory at Twickenham" (Donough O'Reilly in a letter to Irish Independent, 12.3.2004).
Croke Park is not just a great sports ground, it's a national shrine, bathed in the blood of innocent Irish men and women, and yes, children—the Tans didn't spare children on Bloody Sunday, even outside the ground, on that day in November, 1920, in a match between Dublin and Tipperary in aid of the Irish Volunteer Dependents' Fund. Michael Hogan, the Tipperary player, was murdered along with 11 other people.
It wasn't the GAA that coined the term, Bloody Sunday, it was General Frank Crozier, Commandant of the Auxiliaries, who to his credit probably averted an even worse massacre.
Mr. O'Reilly is not prepared to go back to 1920, what about 1972, 1983 or 1998, when the GAA badge or identity in certain quarters meant certain death? The GAA doesn't have to go back to 1920. Below are listed the members of the Association whose membership of the GAA probably singled them out for death.
1972: Louis Leonard, 26-year-old family man and captain of the Derrylin GAA football team was murdered by an undercover British Army plant. 1973: Frank McCaughey, Aghaloo GAA club, Aughnacloy murdered by the UFF. 1974: Ballycran GAA clubhouse, Ards Peninsula burned down. 1981: Kevin Lynch, an active member of the Dungiven GAA club died after 71 days on hunger strike. 1983: Aiden McAnespie, also from Aghaloo GAA club, murdered on his way to a Gaelic football match by a Grenadier Guard, who was charged with an unlawful killing but was never convicted. Dr. Mick Loftus, President of the GAA "called his death murder". Cardinal O Fiaich said the same. 1991: Ballycran GAA clubhouse burned a second time. 1993: Sean Fox, a 72-year old member of St. Enda's GAA club, Glengormley, North Belfast murdered by loyalist gunmen. 1997: Sean Brown, Wolfe Tone GAA club, Bellaghy, Co. Derry abducted and murdered. 1997: Gerry Devlin, 30, St. Enda's GAA club, Glengormley shot dead. 1998: Fergal McCusker, Watty Graham's GAA club, Maghera, Co. Derry, murdered by the LVF. The West Brits
What kills the revisionists and the anti-Republicans is the fact that the GAA is a nation-wide organisation, alive in every parish from the Glens of Antrim to the Beara Peninsula. The murder of Aiden McAnespie was felt as bitterly and as sorely by Cork GAA members as it was by the Northern Gaels.
The PDs and the Irish Independent would dismiss such deaths as part of the 'tribal' conflict in the North—'thank goodness we have none of that down here'.
The GAA ensured that such murders were affairs of the nation and posed an obligation on all Irish people to find an honourable and peaceful solution.
Frank Murphy and his County Board have upheld these values more than most. When our Northern members were under threat, Cork County Board never failed to rally and above all, take cognizance of the plight of our Northern Gaels! That is why the petty and the pathetic detest Murphy so much.
Nobody can tell the Cork County GAA Board about sports stadiums! Pairc Ui Chaoimh is one of the finest Gaelic grounds in the land. An example of how soccer is administered in this country can be seen in the manner in which that code lost Flower Lodge to the GAA. Flower Lodge has probably one of the finest playing surfaces in Ireland. It is now Pairc Ui Rinn and one of the gems in the crown of the Cork GAA The bigots can eat their heart out!
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"The GAA engaged in its own drive to raise money for the Omagh appeal, and channelled gate receipts and other revenue into its own fund. This turned out to be more than a casual gesture because the G.A.A. subsequently emerged as the single biggest contributor to the appeal fund. In May, 2000, Joe McDonagh, the Association president, Liam Mulvihill and officials from Tyrone and Donegal county boards gathered at Healy Park in Omagh to present a cheque for £750,000 to the trustees of the appeal." (How The GAA Survived The Troubles, Desmond Fahy, Wolfhound, 2001).
We don't know what The Sunday Times or Bob Geldof contributed, but by hell, they sure got some publicity from Omagh compared to the three-quarter of a million pounds donated by the GAA
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The GAA is ever slated over 'Rule 42' and 'Open access' to Croke Park! This is by a media now predominately owned by British newspaper chains and the pro-British Irish Independent and Irish Times titles.
One had only to watch the Ireland v England Rugby game, to witness the cringing end this mealy-mouthedness has brought about. On the pretext that the Irish National Anthem, Amhran Na BhFiann would insult the Ulster players on the team, it has been replaced by some ditty composed by the author of Puppet On A String. However, on the day, only one Ulster player lined out, his National Anthem God Save The Queen was sung with gusto, the rest of the Triple Crown winning team from Dublin, were too ashamed to sing their own National Anthem.
We are told we must look forward to the future. The past is a different country. The oppressed must forget whilst the oppressor celebrates. Look at Britain, it is inundated with celebration of tradition and wars!
Paidi O Se
Paidi O Se is the latest person to be attacked for expressing an honest opinion, following a speech in Newry, Paidi said:
"Every time that I come up to Down, every part of the Northern Counties being involved in football and all that. Thanks to be God there's an awful lot of how do I put it… there's an awful lot of release of pressure there at the moment, whereby there is no foreigner people telling us, checking us out or whatever going in. I can't put it any clearer than that.
"Then he spelt out his position on Croke Park. He went on: 'There are a number of issues I would like to outline tonight. Issue number one would be the question should soccer or rugby be played at Croke Park. And people have been turning and twisting and everything they like about that issue.
"'I was asked that question in New York last week. Would you agree, Paidi, that soccer and rugby should be played in Croke Park? And I said, fine, I will under one condition, that it's under a 32 county All Ireland'" (Evening Echo, Cork, 6.3.2004).
"The Newry Democrat and its sister publications in the Thomas Crosbie Holdings Group completely disassociate themselves from the political remarks of Mr. O Se." (ibid).
"A defiant O Se said afterwards that he had 'nothing to subtract' from his remarks and had a very clear conscience" (The Kingdom, Killarney, 9.3.2004).
And why the hell should he!
Thomas Crosbie Holdings also own the Irish Examiner. A few days after Paidi's remarks, the following appeared on the front page: "Not since the burning of Cork has the city by the Lee been so emblazoned with fire, colour and a sense of vibrant expectation" (11.3.2004).
It is surely a measure of what we are, when such a flippant and contemptible remark about the deliberate destruction of a city centre by British armed forces went unchallenged in Cork city. Had the Tans only known, they could have fulfilled our "vibrant expectation" by burning down the Cork Examiner building when they were finished burning down our City Hall and the Carnegie Library.
The battle here is between those who believe the GAA is a lot more besides sport and those, mainly in the media, commercial interests who would treat it as another entertainment activity, devoid of social or historical roots.
"So the Association has defied the culture of integration and openness and made itself look like a dinosaur. Why?" (Irish Independent, 10.3.2004).
The Irish Independent today may laud its wide coverage of Gaelic games and hurling but Sir Anthony O'Reilly's daily boycotted for decades any coverage of our national games. It was only with the establishment of The Irish Press, that William Martin Murphy's titles condescended to cover Gaelic games.
Surely Sir Anthony and his fellow press mogul, Rupert Murdoch, have enough shekels to help out their Anglophile mates in the soccer and rugby fraternity!
As we go to press, we have learned of the sudden deaths of John McCall, the Irish U-19 rugby star from Armagh, and the passing of 31-year-old Frankie McMullen, the Antrim and Dunloy hurler, who played in the All-Ireland club hurling final against the North Cork team, Newtownshandrum, in Croke Park on St. Patrick's Day last.
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