Legend Patsy Forbes named honorary president of Tyrone

PATSY Forbes modestly emphasises that he’s just the ‘honorary’ Tyrone GAA President, but there’s no doubt whatsoever that he’s worthy of the new title that has been bestowed upon one of the living legends of Tyrone GAA.

The Ardboe native isn’t tempted to put the feet up even though he’s 78 years old, and his list of accomplishments down through the years is frankly awe-inspiring.

For starters, his playing career; he won three minor titles with Ardboe before captaining the club to their historic first Senior Championship title in 1968.

He was also part of the team which won the three in-a-row between 1971 and 1973, played in another final in 1983, and finally hung up the boots in 1989 when he was nearly 50.

He also played for Tyrone between 1960 and 1972, starting his career in the forward line before finishing his career as a wing-back, while in 1990 he captained the Tyrone Over 40s to the All-Ireland final.

Basically, we could go on and on; he’s been living in Derry town Magherafelt since 1971 so he has strong ties with the Oak Leaf county as well, fulfilling management roles in the county with Magherafelt and Ballinderry.

Forbes took up rugby at the age of 36 and played competitively for 14 years, represented Ulster in the boxing ring, and perhaps most notably of all, he was, and still is, a seriously dedicated runner, winning 33 Irish Master titles and representing Ireland on many occasions.

He’s also a prominent local businessman, founding his own manufacturing and supplying domestic furniture business when he was only 21 years of age, bringing a wealth of employment to the area. It still trades today as Forbes Furniture Group, under the directorship of his son, Brian.

He’s obviously kept himself busy, and that actually goes a long way to explain why, somewhat surprisingly, he has never sought an elected position at county level in Tyrone.

Forbes commented: “I was just that busy with everything between my businesses, being on other committees and helping out with coaching that I just didn’t have the time.

“When you’re doing all these things, it’s hard to have time for anything else.

“I liked to help out in Magherafelt and Ardboe as best I could – I was treasurer at Ardboe but I was always doing what I could for different people.”

Through his work with Club Tyrone, Patsy has also been centrally involved in the development of Derry’s GAA Centre at Owenbeg, Tyrone’s Garvaghey project, and Garvaghey’s near completed Performance Hub entailing the construction of a high performance gym and community activity centre at the rear of the distinctive T-shape main centre.

Commenting on the role played by Club Tyrone, Forbes said: “We did our bit along the way with fund-raising. I worked on the committee when Hugh McAleer was chairman and now with Mark Conway. There’s a great team there.

“I have to say the people in Tyrone are very generous. There’s some great businesses in the county, and there’s a very good committee there as well.”

Even though he’s a proud Tyrone man, he hasn’t let that interfere with his affinity with Derry, where he’s lived for 50 years having married Magherafelt lady Maura Higgins in 1971.

“People in Derry are fantastic and I get on very well with them. I played against Derry on numerous occasions as a player and it was very competitive but that’s all it was.

Magherafelt’s a very sporting town with a lot going on, and I had a business here as well, so you get to know the people.

“My son lives in Ballinderry so I suppose I’m associated with the area stretching the whole way up from Ardboe to Magherafelt.”