Fifty years on ex-player recalls Omagh Town’s first steps

ONE of the first players to pull on a shirt for the now defunct Omagh Town Football Club has with great fondness recalled the early days of the one time senior club.

Fifty years ago players from Omagh Celtic and local side White Hart joined forces and Omagh Town took its bow in the old B Division – the equivalent to the modern day Lough 41 Championship.

James Meyler was one of those players and, although he didn’t realise it at the time, that group broke new ground and 18 years later ‘The Town’, as they became affectionately known, were regularly pitting their wits against the likes of Linfield, Glentoran, Crusaders and the other top sides in the country.

In those early days Meyler and his team-mates played purely for the enjoyment and comradeship, however, all these years later he realises those first steps into senior football was quite a big deal.

“I never really thought too much about it at the time but it’s only when meeting some of those involved more recently that I realised just how much it meant,” he said.

“Omagh Celtic was a ‘mixed’ team but ironically was mainly made of players from the Protestant tradition and White Hart became very successful in a short time.

“I joined Town from White Hart, which caused a little bit of acrimony at the time, and two weeks later Neil Barbour followed suit.

“People like Pat Sharkey and Pat McGlinn then joined and by the end of that season it was more of a Omagh team. At the start there were boys from different parts of the country including four or five from Strabane.

“That team competed in the B Division and played in the Irish Cup. I didn’t realise it at the time but there was a reasonably big crowd at those games on a Saturday because it was so easy for men to come into the town. The women did the shopping and the men came around to the showgrounds (now the site of the Showgrounds Retail Park which houses the likes of M&S, Argos, Next and other major outlets).

“I don’t know if there was 500 or 1000 people at the games but judging by the amount of people standing around the railings there seem to be a big interest.”

The first manager was Dougie Simpson, an ex-army man, who became captain of Omagh Golf Club.

James remembers him and his team-mates training in Omagh army camp during some of ‘The Troubles’ years but at the time they never really gave it a second thought.

In those early years the cross-community outfit played against reserve sides from Linfield, Portadown, Glenavon and the likes of Ballyclare Comrades and Dundela.

They, too, struck up a fierce rivalry with county neighbours Dungannon Swifts.

“I remember one game big Norman Loughlin, the Red Man, fighting with Darren Clarke’s father, who was a very good soccer player. It was always war, they were our big rivals,” continued Meyler.

“It’s only in latter years that you realise the bond that we all had, it was something quite special.

“As for Dougie Simpson I can’t remember his team talks or we can’t remember him ever giving out to us or swearing or anything; he was just good at organising.

“It was more of a fun thing, there was none of ‘you have to win this game’.”

After 17 seasons in the B Division, Omagh Town joined the Irish League and in 1991 famously defeated Linfield 3-1 in the final of the Budweiser Cup Final.

For 15 years Omagh regularly competed with the best in the business but due to financial difficulties the club folded in June 2005.

The former club grounds at St Julian’s Road has since been turned into a recreational park and all that is left for those involved is memories, some very precious memories indeed

Even in those early years Meyler said there were signs the direction the club was heading.

“As the years went on things became a wee bit more professional and the club lost that allegiance to this part of the world,”he added.

“I could feel that when I left around 1979. Initially it was very much a parochial team and everyone knew the players who were playing at that time.

“As things became more professional that local connection was lost.”