THE death of Art McRory was painfully sudden, but his memory will live long in Tyrone, as an icon of Gaelic football.
On Thursday, at the wake house, there had been the unfamiliar sight of tears streaming down familiar faces.
At his funeral service on Friday at St Patrick’s Church in his native Dungannon, though, there was much more chat and laughter, as those who’d known and loved him – one and the same – recalled what he’d done and said.
Three spells as Tyrone manager, and during the first two of those he took the Red Hands to an All-Ireland Senior Football Final. The first man ever to do so in 1986, only a hugely controversial refereeing decision denied Tyrone a replay against Dublin in 1995.
Many men from both those teams were there to see off their leader, including Ciaran McGarvey travelling up from Offaly. That chat and craic were mighty, of course.
One former star recalled how he and a playing colleague, both carrying some ‘winter weight’ met Art in the late 90s, in between his first two spells in charge, and cheekily claimed that ‘training has improved’.
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Sizing the pair up, Art immediately shot back: ‘I see the grub has got better too.’
Big Art no doubt would have had a twinkle in his eyes as the sun beat down on the funeral cortege, heading up the Donaghmore Road and through the town.
Making his players work for him one last time, making them sweat again.
Red and white chequered flags flew at half-mast around Anne Street, with mourners standing out to pay their respects, as they were all the way up Irish Street, on through the town centre out to St Patrick’s Church.
Schoolchildren, and players from Dungannon Clarke’s, Eoghan Ruadh hurlers, Aodh Ruadh ladies, Naomh Treasa camogie, and Tyrone Towers basketballers formed the guards of honour, along with ‘the boys of ‘86’ and ’95.
Fittingly for a man of such intelligence, an educator of both pupils and players, the first reading came from the Book of Wisdom, in Irish.
Dean Kevin Donaghy, leading the Requiem Mass, spoke of Art’s religious faith, shared by his late wife Helen, who predeceased him earlier this year.
Indeed the readings, the second of them by his elder son Colm, were the same as Art had chosen for Helen’s funeral.
Art himself had the ability to instil belief, to insist that Tyrone could compete with the best.
Art’s vision and passion elevated the Red Hands, raising standards and heightening ambitions.
All-Ireland Finals were no longer to be generational events but regular, realistic targets.
All-Ireland Finals were not mere occasions for participation, but games to be won.
Sadly, Art and Tyrone came up short, in both 1986 and 1995, but those were the building blocks to bring Sam Maguire among the bushes four times in this century.
The team that finally broke through 20 years ago had been moulded by Art and his co-manager Eugene McKenna in McRory’s third spell as boss, from 2000 to 2002.
Indeed in that last year the duo led Tyrone to their first ever national senior football triumph, the National Football League.
McKenna, appropriately, organised the players for the ‘lifts’ and was between Art’s sons Colm and Ciaran as they bore their father’s coffin from his home.
Art’s intelligence was undoubted, his range of interests reaching far beyond Gaelic games, to greyhound racing, basketball and volleyball, for examples, but also outside the world of sport, to opera and theatre as well.
However, as Fr Donaghy noted, it was for football that Art McRory will be best remembered.
Generations of players, officials, and supporters came to give thanks, to pay their respects, to the life of service that Art McRory dedicated to his beloved Tyrone, at all levels.
An All-Ireland Junior winner himself, as player-coach in 1968, when he was named Tyrone’s player of the season, a year earlier he’d won an All-Ireland Vocational Schools title with Tyrone, defeating Kerry.
The great man was buried in the black blazer he received for the team holiday after that 1986 Final, lovingly kept all those years. The Red Hand, of course, next to his heart.
Kerry legend Mikey Sheehy, who notched 1-4 in the Kingdom’s comeback victory, came up to bid farewell to Art, a relation by marriage.
Afterwards, the place to be was Quinn’s Corner, run by Paudge Quinn, Tyrone’s goalscorer in that 1986 All-Ireland Final.
This was a county funeral, not a state one, but the depth and breadth of respect for Art McRory reached far beyond Tyrone, across Ulster and throughout Ireland.
He never moved far from his William Street home, but he became one of the most recognisable faces and voices in the GAA.
As his own family acknowledged, ‘he was never behind the door at saying what he thought, but he had a kind heart’.
It’s in the O’Neill County and in his hometown that the sorrow runs deepest, of course.
On Sunday, his club Dungannon Clarke’s re-open their pitch at O’Neill Park with a match against local rivals Donaghmore.
The games go on, as Art would wish, but the great man himself will never be forgotten.
