IF you think Tiernan McCann is a flash boy, with his styled hair and fancy boots, then blame his dad. For the boots anyway.
Terry McCann played football and hurling for Tyrone, and with his club until almost the age of 40, but it’s the touches of flamboyance that stick most in his son’s memory.
“He played full-forward and had Adidas Predator Manias, which were like the best boot of all time. I don’t know how he got them, but he still had them until a couple of years ago; they’re probably worth about £6-700.
“He played until he was 39 with Killyclogher. I remember watching him in a county final [in 2003] – not that he did much, on for the last five minutes, got a free…,” he deadpans.
“I distinctly remember that he had this dummy that we’ve inherited, me and [his brother] Conall; we tend to save it for club games. I remember the silly things, the flashy things.”
Dad Terry does deserve credit for his son’s playing ability too, of course. Not just for the genetics, but for the tips and advice too, having been a long-serving manager of the Tyrone Vocational Schools side and a county coaching officer.
Now 25, Tiernan still welcomes his dad’s words of wisdom: “He would never be too critical – there’s plenty of people to do that. He would always try to be positive, analytical. He can see where I can improve or what I can do more of, whether it’s finishing or catching above my head.
“If you have a bad game, he’d be the first person to try to lift your spirits, he wouldn’t lay it on you. He knows himself, he probably didn’t get that when he was playing. He knows how important it is for Conall and myself.”
Tiernan McCann, though, is steeped in the GAA on both sides of his family. His mum Diane got her GAA fanaticism from her mother. Anna McCaughey, who sadly passed away in December, served on the Tyrone County Board and as Scor co-ordinator in the county for years.
“She was the first female president of Carrickmore in 2011,” Tiernan recalls proudly. “She organised the banquets for All-Irelands, was heavily involved in Scor. She would have been very well-respected in Carrickmore and further afield.”
Still, she didn’t manage to exert too much influence over this particular grandson in one regard: “I didn’t do any Scor,” he says. Distance played a part, and single-mindedness, as he explains: “She was [in] Carrickmore. It was always football in our house and nothing else.”
Even his dad’s involvement in hurling did not extend to Tiernan for long, due to the latter’s desire to succeed: “I played hurling until I was about 14… It’s a very difficult sport to play! It’s incredibly skilful.
“I don’t play golf, because I know I’m not good at it. I don’t bother playing things I know I’m not good at; that doesn’t make sense to me, I’m just really competitive.”
He is good at Gaelic football, however, and has become a fixture in the Tyrone starting side over the past two years, usually as an attacking wing-back.
McCann came to wider attention for the wrong reasons in 2015, after inadvisedly falling to the ground when Monaghan’s Darren Hughes ruffled his hair late on during the All-Ireland SFC quarter-final, leading to a red card that was later rescinded.
Then Tiernan was criticised again after a collision with Derry’s Brendan Rogers seconds after the throw-in of last year’s McKenna Cup final left the Slaughtneil clubman requiring 14 stitches.
McCann spoke about the Hughes incident in a rare encounter with the media last summer, and has been keen to attract only positive attention:
“Hopefully those things are in the past and people will be moving on to talk about my football… I’ve tried to keep my head down and concentrate on football.”
That worked out pretty well for most of the rest of 2016. “I won the Championship with Killyclogher and the Ulster Championship [with Tyrone] so I had a fantastic year. Those were the rewards for putting those things to bed, continuing to work hard.
“Not letting those things bother you, understanding that people will have opinions and you can’t control that. The only way I can do anything is go out and have people saying something positive about the way I play football.
“That’s what I decided to do and I reaped the benefits of it last year - and I hope to do the same this year.”
McCann appreciates those trophies: only a second ever county title for his club Killyclogher – matching his dad’s achievement 13 years earlier – and his first Ulster SFC triumph.
Yet he knows that he cannot take his Tyrone jersey for granted, such is the competition for starting slots: “It’s fierce, I saw it first hand last weekend [in the McKenna Cup Final].
“It’s the first time I’ve watched a Tyrone game in more than a year. I thought we were really slick against Derry, the boys who came in upped it another level.”
Given that Tyrone selected two current Allstars, Mattie Donnelly and Peter Harte, in their half-back line, McCann’s talk of a battle for places is fully justified.
“That keeps everybody on their toes. Every time you go into training you have to prove yourself to Mickey and ‘the Horse’ [Gavin Devlin].
“That can only bode well for us as a team that we have 25 to 30 players vying for places in the team.”
He certainly puts the effort in to attend Tyrone training. A locum pharmacist, the search for work has taken him to Dublin, and he now lives in an apartment in Santry, a northern suburb of the city.
The morning we spoke, he’d already been out for a gym session, having attended Tyrone training at Garvaghey the night before. He tailors his work schedule around his involvement with the Red Hands.
“Last year in the middle of the Championship I was only working two or three days and that allowed me to recover after games, prepare for games, and so on – but you can’t do that all year.
“The work is in the south, most of it in Dublin, so I made the move down. It’s another challenge and I’m embracing it.
“I can pick and choose my days, so I don’t really work Tuesdays and Thursdays because I’ll not get home in time for training. That’s a bit mad, I know, but I’d work a Sunday or a Saturday to make up for it.
“It can be sporadic and difficult to manage at times, but it’s just about being organised and planning in advance and Mickey [Harte] is obviously very accommodating.
“I’m down here for a year, see how it goes – I’m enjoying it at the minute.”
Tyrone like making trips to Dublin, especially in the Championship, but McCann is cautious about agreeing with the contention that the Red Hands are one of the country’s top four football sides:
“A lot of people, including the media down south, are more inclined to say there’s a top three of Dublin, Kerry, and Mayo, and we’re just outside that.
“That’s probably fairly accurate. In last year’s Ulster Championship we just squeezed past Donegal, and they’re a Division One team, as are Monaghan – who are wild strong – and Cavan, who are coming good. That’s only in Ulster.
“We want to stay in Division One, so that would place us in the top six. After that we’ll see what we do.”
Have boots, will travel – and travel hopefully.
