Former Gortin captain Roger Keenan reminisces on their historic run to the 1985 Senior Championship final

By Niall Gartland

TWO Saturday evenings ago, a distinguished group of Gortin gentlemen convened for a meal and a few drinks in the local village.

It wasn’t just your usual weekly gathering – yes, they’re friends surely, but backboning the whole endeavour was the marking of a very significant milestone.

Forty years ago, Gortin, St Patrick’s reached the Tyrone Senior Championship final for the one and only time in the club’s history. An achievement worth commemorating.

Their swashbuckling crusade through the blue ribbon club championship was the centrepiece of a storied period for the club.

In 1984, Gortin reached the Centenary Cup final. In 1985, they made the Jim Devlin Cup showdown. In 1986, they bowed out of the senior championship at the semi-final stage to eventual champions Trillick. Those were the peak years, though they did get their hands on an intermediate title in 1989.

Leading Gortin out in their historic senior championship final appearance was Roger Keenan, one of the leading protagonists during their meteoric rise from fifth-tier football.

Indeed, the club in its latest guise had only been formed in 1972 after previously falling victim to emigration in the mid-sixties.

Taking up the story, Keenan spooled the tape all the way back to blissful Sunday afternoon kickarounds after mass.

“When I was 12 years old, maybe 25 people would come together after mass, going to various venues across the parish. Playing across the rivers, going over to Mickey Clarke’s house, going to all sorts of places, and the basis of the team probably came together through that.

“The club was reformed, and we played underage football from 1973-1984 as Owenkillew – that was Gortin, Glenelly and Greencastle together.

“At adult level, we entered 5B initially – I actually have a 5B medal here in the house. We were promoted in consecutive years, and then in 1979, the leagues were amalgamated into three leagues. Because we won the intermediate league that year, we were promoted into senior football.”

Gortin could call upon a number of talented players from their Plumbridge neighbours at adult level, but parted ways when Glenelly, St Joseph’s was constituted in 1981.

Keenan said: “We had some really strong Glenelly players like Pearse O’Kane, Tom O’Kane, Mick O’Kane and the Lindsays, and they broke away from us in the early ‘80s to form their own team. That left us absent about five or six players.

“We also had a good budding footballer in Conor McSherry – Conor and I played midfield at senior level, but he transferred to Coalisland, so he was a big miss as well.”

Still, Gortin continued on their upwards trajectory culminating in their bona fide shot at glory in the mid-eighties. They had talented players in every sector, but the focal point was John Keenan, who had transferred to his native Gortin after winning three successive senior championships with Carrickmore.

“The big catalyst was John. He’s from Gortin, and played for us until we fell apart in the sixties.

“He was teaching for a while in Carrickmore, and Francis Martin approached him to play for their club, and you couldn’t fault him for transferring. I think he won four senior championships in total.

“He came back to us in the eighties and was our player-manager, and we had some great stalwarts.

“We’d Gerry Muldoon in goals, Mickey Clarke at full-back, the Mossey brothers were a big influence, we’d my brothers Harry and Fergal, Paddy McCrory, Liam Reilly, Victor Toner and Gerard McCullagh, so it was a strong all-round team.”

That’s without mentioning a certain Gerry McElhinney, the star attraction on the Derry side that claimed back-to-back Ulster titles in 1975 and 1976. He later spent four seasons with Gortin – though his soccer commitments took priority and he missed Gortin’s biggest day as pre-season with Plymouth had got underway.

Taking us through their pathway to the 1985 county final against Augher, who were by then featuring in their fifth final, Keenan said: “We played Moy in the first round which was a good win as they’d three or four county players – I remember I was marking Plunkett Donaghy. Gerry was playing that day as well.

“We overcame Derrylaughan in the quarter-final, and then beat Eglish well in the semi-final in Omagh.

“We came up against Augher in the final, and we probably weren’t strong enough for them. The conditions were terrible to be honest – you wouldn’t have put a dog out in it.

“I’m not blaming the conditions but they didn’t help as we were a young, light team and probably needed a dry sod to have a chance.”

While their unprecedented run didn’t climax with the O’Neill Cup, even reaching the final was a momentous achievement. Keenan recalls the hype up in the lead up to the decider.

“They were heady days and a great bond developed between that group of players.

“I remember the big press night in the week before the championship final. It was one of the worst summers ever in terms of weather, it never settled, and I remember John trained us through the muck and the rain for two hours.

“The ‘Herald men and the rest of the media were left waiting up in the hall. By the time we got up to them, some had actually left by that stage.

“I just remember the buzz around the parish with so many people chatting about it. I remember hearing people out and about who didn’t know who you were, chatting about the Gortin team, so it was a really exciting time.”

Although the senior championship proved beyond them, Gortin did round off the decade on a high, winning their first of two intermediate championship titles in 1989.

“They were great times and great to look back on, but we very nearly came out of it without winning anything.

“The bulk of the team went on in 1989 to win the intermediate championship, so it’s nice they did end up getting something in terms of silverware.”

A lot of water has passed under the bridge since the halcyon days of the eighties. Whatever about football, life moves on as well. It’s important not to forget, and Keenan is glad that they made the effort to come together earlier this month for a meet up.

“I’m obviously still in close contact with my own brothers and I see the likes of Mickey Clarke and this last year have played a bit of golf with Mickey Mossey and Paddy McCrory. They’ve retired so it gives us a bit of time to get together.

“We just decided among ourselves to have a gathering for the 40th anniversary. Mosseys put up the meal and we did a fair bit of reminiscing and had a bit of craic. It was a quiet enough night but it was just brilliant to get together to chat about the old days.”