Loughmacrory shivered for many years in their shadow, all that changed when they beat their neighbours after a replay in this year’s Tyrone SFC semi-final. There are many in the club who will tell you that win was even sweeter than the county final victory over Trillick.
“There’s one secondary school in the parish to which all the children from both clubs go so you can imagine the craic,” says Mullan.
“The buzz after the final was just unbelievable. Especially playing a draw the first day, that was really exciting to have a replay in a county semi-final between two teams from the same parish with the rivalry that’s there.
“Then to win that replay with the last kick of the game…in the bad old days you would never have imagined we’d have a moment like that.
“In fairness to Carrickmore, I met some great Carrickmore friends on the pitch after the county final.
“Very magnanimous people to be there at all who were delighted for us. And I’ve gotten loads of text messages as well from Carrickmore people as well. Fair play to them, they were very happy for us.”
Loughmacrory’s rise to prominence is down to hard work as these rags to riches stories generally are.
The club put a big emphasis on underage development and engaging with their local community and are now earning the dividend.
“People who wouldn’t have been much interested in football in the bad old days of the 1970s and 1980s, suddenly all of these families became involved and the club is now very much at the heart of the community,” says Mullan.
“Huge work has gone into the underage structures and now we have a really good group of very talented players who played a lot of county underage.
“Of course, it helps too when you have a family of five boys who are all over six feet tall and are all good footballers, the Donaghy clan.”
