The Paul McGirr tournament – A special place in the calendar

I ATTENDED Tyrone’s Ulster Championship quarter-final clash against Armagh at Healy Park with my father in the summer of 1997.

I was only a nipper and memories of the day are hazy. The weather was good, the stands were jammed, and Tyrone won.

Armagh skipper Jarlath Burns (whatever happened to him) gave a vintage performance in the middle of the park but they spurned a host of scoring opportunities and a more economical Tyrone prevailed on a scoreline of 1-12 to 0-12.

In the curtain-raiser, Tyrone minors carved out a hard-fought victory over the Orchard County.

The decisive score was a 10th minute goal from Paul McGirr, but as he reached to fist the ball into the net, he accidentally collided with the Armagh goalkeeper. He contributed 1-1 that day in his short spell on the pitch – as fate would have it, the precise margin of victory on the day.

The Dromore teenager was treated for five minutes by medical personnel before being stretchered off the pitch but there was no real indication of what would come next – several hours later he was pronounced dead having sustained severe abdominal injuries, news that sent shockwaves reverberating through the entire GAA community.

More than a quarter of a century later, Paul McGirr isn’t just known for his untimely and tragic passing.

The vibrant Spirit of Paul McGirr charity, established in 2007, ten years after Paul’s death, continues to do astounding work in improving the lives of impoverished Zambians in the Chainda district.

Then there’s the prestigious Ulster U-16 Championship set up in his name all the way back in 1999. Organised and hosted by Dromore St Dymnpa’s and with the full backing of the McGirr family, it’s run like clockwork by the event organisers and all gate receipts go towards the aforementioned charity.

The competition was placed on hiatus for a couple of years as Covid-19 gate-crashed pretty much everything, but it made a very welcome return to the calendar in 2023 – albeit in a trimmed-back format as the majority of Ulster played their own competitions at u-15 level.

Thankfully, all nine counties have by this stage reverted to the traditional u-16 format and correspondingly the Paul McGirr tournament is well and truly back with a bang with this year.

It got underway last weekend with the preliminary round meeting of Burren and Newtownbutler, and Tyrone representatives Carrickmore are in action this Sunday against Denn of Cavan.

We’ve spoken to Dromore secretary Joe Rafferty about the tournament and its wider significance, as well as Paul’s brother Michael McGirr, who is at the coalface of the Spirit of Paul McGirr.

Joe, one of the tournament organisers, says that they were delighted to get it up and running again last year. Armagh side Dromintee emerged triumphant with victory over Errigal Ciaran in the final – where Paul McGirr played his football at underage level before the family moved to Dromore.

Joe said: “We definitely felt it was a success last year. We had some very competitive games and there was a good crowd at the final. It’s not that often a Tyrone team reaches the final, Errigal brought a great crowd and so did Dromintee. It really reflects well on the tournament when you have teams of that calibre involved.

“It is satisfying though that we’ve got it back up to the nine teams now that all the counties in Ulster have synchronised at u-16 level again. It’s like pre-Covid times with all nine teams and we’ve all been really looking forward to hosting it.”

Cast your eye over the roll of honour list on these pages and you’ll see the likes of Watty Graham’s Glen, who won back-to-back titles in 2009 and 2010. Many of those players (Conor Glass to cite a particularly prominent example) starred on the Glen team that embarked on last season’s surge to All-Ireland honours, while there’s a few surprises – what an achievement is was for Killeeshil, for example, to win the Paul McGirr tournament in 2001.

Rafferty commented: “Sometimes you get clubs who all of a sudden pull a batch of players together and Killeeshil is the perfect example of that. There’s a particularly special atmosphere when a relatively small team wins as it means so much to them.

“Then there’s the giants of Ulster football like Burren and Crossmaglen who have played in the competition down the years, they really pride themselves on winning Ulster titles so they get great joy from it as well.”

Rafferty was keen to emphasise that the organisation of the tournament is a real team-effort and there’s been a particularly concerted effort this year now that all nine counties are represented again.

“With the return of the bigger tournament we needed more people involved and as a club we’re never short of people putting their hand up to help. We’ve a bigger committee this year to help with the running of the tournament and I’m sure that’ll be apparent as the tournament goes on.”

The bigger picture at play is the Spirit of Paul McGirr, and that’s something that Rafferty and the rest of the organisers are conscious of.

“The footballing side is obviously important. It’s a great honour for Dromore to have all the best clubs in Ulster playing on our pitch and facilities.

“Overarching it all though, is the Spirit of Paul McGirr and it’s great for visitors to find out about all the great work that goes on in Zambia, and all the gate receipts from the tournament go towards it.

“My daughter Ríona was out there for a while and it was a real eye opener for her – it’s a life-changer for anyone who goes out there and my son Odhran intends to go to Zambia next year as well.

“The work that goes on in Zambia is a real inspiration to everybody here. We take great pride in the tournament and the fact that it’s in Paul’s name makes it extra special.”

At the recent launch of the Paul McGirr Ulster U-16 Championship in Garvaghey, Michael McGirr delivered a brief presentation on the ongoing work of the charity in Zambia.

The charity has delivered a school for children with special needs, a pre-school for orphaned children and a primary school.

They’re also in the end stages of opening a secondary school that will cater for 500 pupils – a monumental effort but one that will have a transformative impact for so many children.

First and foremost, Michael is a football man. He played on the Errigal Ciaran team that won a historic Ulster SFC title in 1993, and he’s glad that the Paul McGirr tournament has been fully restored.

Michael said: “There was a slimmed down version last year to get it going again. Last year a lot of the counties were operating at different age groups but they’ve got themselves sorted and everyone’s back at u-16.

“It’s great to have it back again, it’s a great opportunity for young people to put their best foot forward and clubs seem to relish the chance to be involved.”

He also expressed thanks to the Dromore club for their efforts in ensuring that Paul’s name stays in the public consciousness.

“The tournament was initially started by the Dromore club the year after Paul died as a way of keeping his name alive.

“We’ve been fully supportive of it and are delighted that it’s still going. It brings a lot of goodwill to Dromore so there’s a lot of positives to take from it.”

Michael’s passion for the projects emanating from the Spirit of Paul McGirr is very apparent. It’s gone from strength-to-strength since its inception with a particular emphasis on improving the education prospects and creating safe spaces for the children of the Chainda district in Lusaka, Zambia.

“We got involved in an unplanned settlement back around 2006 and initially helped build a community centre.

“Once we had that structure in place, we could start other projects. We built a special needs school to keep those children safe during the day, we built a primary school that has 280 kids in it and we’ve recently put a roof on another primary school that has 400 children.

“We’ve just come back with a group of girls from the Loreto Grammar School in Omagh, they raised over £30,000 for what is called the Tyrone Secondary School Zambia, that’ll be finished around Easter.

“What you find is that anybody that has any wherewithal sent their children to boarding school, and that breaks the link between your child and the local community, they just don’t come back.

“So hopefully with this new school, kids can walk home in the evenings and see their neighbours and maybe stay around the community. They won’t just hang around or get a poorly paid job, they’ll be able to go to secondary school and get a skill or trade and make progress in life.”

Paul McGirr’s father Francis passed away last month. A hugely respected individual in both his native Ballygawley and adopted Dromore who achieved much in life, Francis was also a long-standing supporter of the Paul McGirr tournament, as his son Michael explains.

“He was always very supportive of the tournament and could see so many positives in it. Dad’s job was to get togged out every year and present the trophy to the winner, and he saw it as such an honour.

“He didn’t get to it last year, and that was the first time he missed it since the competition began apart from the two years lost to Covid.

“He saw it as a real pleasure and privilege to hand over the trophy to young athletes at the top of their game and as a family we’re just delighted that it’s returned.”