Revival of historic Tyrone cup competition

By Niall Gartland

THE Jim Devlin Cup is set to be revived in the spring to mark the 50th anniversary of the murders of Jim and Gertrude Devlin by loyalist gunmen outside Edendork in Tyrone.

It will take place between the 16 Division One teams in Tyrone on a knock-out starting in April and culminating in the final which will be played at Jim Devlin’s home ground of Fr Peter Campbell Park in Coalisland.

The competition has not taken place for almost two decades and the Jim Devlin Cup is currently on display in the Tyrone GAA Centre of Excellence in Dungannon.

The cup is named in honour of the former Coalisland star, who captained the club to O’Neill Cup honours in 1955.

He lined out at full-back on the trail-blazing Tyrone teams that won the county’s first Ulster Championships in 1956 and 1957.

He won four MacRory Cup medals, a record he shares with Dermot McNicholl of Derry, and in 1946 was on the St Patrick’s College team that won the inaugural Hogan Cup competition.

His playing career was prematurely ended through injury in 1960, the same year he was elected as chairman of Tyrone County Board aged only 32.

He and his wife Gertrude were murdered close to their home by the notorious Glenanne Gang that had been operating in the Mid-Ulster area. Their 17-year-old daughter Patricia who was also travelling home in the car that night miraculously survived but was seriously injured.