Tyrone legend John Joe O’Hagan passes away

JOHN Joe O’Hagan, one of the great trailblazers and legendary figures in Tyrone GAA, passed away last night.

He won All Ireland minor medals in 1947 and 1948 on the first Tyrone teams to bring All Ireland glory to the Red Hand county. The win in 1947 remains part of Gaelic football folklore when supporters ran onto Croke Park to hail the All Ireland conquering team after they made a magnificant comeback to beat Mayo. A year later they took the Thomas Markham Cup to Tyrone again with a win against Dublin. On that Dublin team was the great Dessie Ferguson who also sadly passed away last night.

Mr O’Hagan went on to have a tremendous senior career with the county and his club Clonoe O’Rahillys. In 1956 he lined out on the half back line on the first Tyrone senior team to win an Ulster championship beating Cavan in the final. In the All Ireland semi-final they were narowly beaten by the great Galway team, that included Frank Stockwell and Sean Purcell, who went on to win the final. A year later (1957) he won his second Ulster senior medal when Tyrone defeated Derry in the final.

A tough defender, he won five O’Neill Cup medals with Clonoe that included the famous three-in-a-row in 1958, ’59 and ’60 as well as in 1964 and 1965.

He was the father of former Tyrone and Coalisland Fianna star Damian O’Hagan. On Sunday his grandson Cormac scored the winning point for Coalisland in the semi-final of the O’Neill Cup against Errigal Ciaran.