Mickey’s lifetime involvement with Errigal Ciaran

By Alan Rodgers

At around lunchtime on Sunday afternoon, the cavalcade of vehicles moving out from the parish of Errigal Kerrogue will include one man who has a lifetime of involvement in Gaelic Games.

It has been some journey for Mickey Mullin from the townland of Altamuskin. A new generation of his family is now making a mark on the playing scene, but the now 82 year-old has a virtually unrivalled pedigree as a player and coach with the former Ballygawley St Ciaran’s and the current Errigal Ciaran club.

Many years have passed since Mickey’s career began under the guidance of the famous Fr Brendan McEvoy, a priest based in the parish who set up the South Tyrone Juvenile League in the late forties. Mickey was still a teenager when the new Cardinal McRory Park was being built at Dunmoyle in 1956, and remembers his first games on the senior team just a few short years later.

“I began playing for the club at about the age of 12. We always had an interest in playing football, and started in the fields behind the house. Fr McEvoy was a great football man, he looked after the underage team and I remember about 10 of us going in his car to matches,” remembers Mickey. “On a Sunday we played over at a field beside the current field. Football was the main thing for us. The opening of the Dunmoyle pitch in 1956 was a big thing. Everybody worked at it with shovels and spades. There was a bulldozer got from Hadden’s, but we all did the drainage and preparing the field.

“I was only a young lad. There weren’t many tractors and we all helped out. It was great to have a pitch to play on. When it was opened our U-15s played Galbally in a challenge match. Tyrone had won the Ulster title for the first time in 1956 and the team came to play at the opening as well.”

Within a few short years, the young Mickey Mullin was increasingly making his mark on the pitch. An adult playing career which lasted nearly twenty years had a number of high points. Among them was the 1959 Junior Championship success, reaching the county senior semi-final in 1963, winning three McElduff Cups in a row and an Intermediate League title in 1974.

The photographs from those years bear testament to Mickey’s involvement. In 1959, he can be seen enjoying a training session ahead of their win over Ardboe. He’s pictured kneeling in the front row in the 1963 team which won the McElduff Cup in the sixties, and as a veteran he’s there as well in the 1974 team with future stars like Barney Campbell and Mickey Harte and Peter Harte, among others.

“Every local club was much the same at that time. We had only a Junior team, Beragh were the same. But you gradually got going and in 1959 we won the Junior title. That was a big day and I’ll never forget it. I mind very little about it. What I do remember is getting a big chop from a big strong fella called O’Neill on the Ardboe team,” he adds.

“Peter and John Donnelly, the McCleans, Sean Canavan, John Hackett and Frank Higgins were among the main players on that team. We got to the county semi-final, but Omagh were nearly like a county team with the likes of Paddy Corey, Mick Brewster, Jackie Taggart and the Donnellys.

“They beat us easy. That was a great experience. We were small and Paddy Joe McClean was full-forward and I was in the half-forwards. We had worked out a tactic to play the ball in low to us forwards. But that didn’t happen. The ball went into the air and we were watching it coming down. I was marking Henry McCrory that day.”

Later that year, Ballygawley avenged that semi-final result by defeating Omagh in the St Enda Cup Final, but the promise of that 1963 season wasn’t fulfilled and it was another decade before more success followed. But by 1974, Mickey was still involved in a team that included Mickey and Peter Harte, Barney and Seamus Horisk, Francie Mulgrew, future Tyrone minor Barney Campbell, Eamon Mullin and Joe McRory.

The climax of that season reflected Mickey’s attacking abilities. In the final game of the season against Owen Roes, Ballygawley were trailing by 3-5 to 1-1. They needed to win to gain promotion and the outlook was bleak at that stage. But a goal from Joe McRory got them going and then with two minutes left, Mullin snatched the winner.

He was to play on for another decade before retiring, and remained very much involved in the eighties when the club was divided between Ballygawley St Ciaran’s and Glencull St Malachy’s.

Agreement was reached to form the new Errigal Ciaran club in 1990. By 1993 Mickey was involved in the senior management team with Danny Ball and Anthony Gallagher. That year was to see Errigal making history by bringing a third county title to the parish, and then an historic first ever Ulster Club success for both club and county.

“In the years past teams trained once a week with a match on Sunday. Many struggled to field. I just loved football. We were as fit as fiddles because we were working every day. I never knew what a hamstring was,” he adds.

“Eventually things were put on a firmer basis. But in those years we were always short three or four players. It was hard to get up into senior football.

“Then in 1993 I became involved with the management and that was no doubt one of the better teams to come along.

“Danny (Ball) was the manager with Doonan Gallagher helping him. There were a lot of good players. You had four Canavans, four Quinns, and plenty of good players. Winning that title and then the Ulster title was a big thing for the club because we had never really won anything. The last title we’d won before that was the O’Neill Cups in 1925 and 1931.”

The memories remain fresh for all those who experienced those glory years.

Now, 30 years on, the pendulum has swung around again and Errigal are back bidding for a third provincial crown.

A new generation of family members are now forging forward for club and county. Mickey’s grandson, Peter McGrane, was an All-Ireland medal winner as part of the Armagh team this year. His grand-daughter, Meabh Corrigan, starred on the Tyrone ladies team which reached the National League Division Two and All-Ireland Intermediate final. His grandson, Turlough is a member of the Tyrone senior hurling team.

But there’s a special family connection with the Errigal team that will take the field on Sunday against Kilcoo. As Mickey watches on from the Athletic Grounds’ stand, his grandsons, Cormac Quinn and Tomas Mullin, will be part of the Errigal panel hoping to make more history, just as their grandfather has done with the club for more than 70 years.

Watch our special preview show ahead of Sunday’s Ulster final showdown