The 90s Our most successful yet

Success at all Levels.

 

The new decade began in earnest with changes happening all over the world.

The previous year saw the fall of the Iron curtain in Europe and 1990 was the year which we finally released the grip of Carrickmore on the Benburb Cup.

This didn’t just happen by chance.

There was no luck needed on that infamous day in July 1990.

It was like a volcano that had been building for a decade and was ready to erupt.

The work that had been going on during the 1980’s with all youth groups had been phenomenal. Some great success had been achieved. These young lads were friends in earnest off the field and warriors on it.

These were mixed with seasoned, experienced players still in their prime and with the hunger to go with it.

Under the leadership of Peter McCaughey and Teddy Devlin, everyone had bought into the belief that this was going to be our year and no one was going to stop us.

On Sunday 22nd of July, Dungannon and Carrickmore took to the field at Coalisland.

Our star player Eamon Devlin was absent through injury. This did not deter us. A solid team performance all over the field ensured utter dominance over the men in black and amber.

Without his cousins attacking prowess, Padraig Devlin produced an exhibition of hurling, dominating midfield along with his brother Brian.

This gave us the platform for attack after attack, with lively performances from youngster Brian McIntosh, Michael Devlin and Thomas Colton who scored our first goal in the 6th minute.

Michael Devlin who had just returned from England also had the ball in the net 3 minutes later. Someone forgot to tell Michael a rule where you couldn’t hand pass a ball into the net had been introduced.

Goal disallowed.

The defence where just as effective, with stand out performances from Harold Heron and Stephen Woodhead.

Carrickmore’s Patsy Farrell managed to score a goal with 8 minutes remaining of the first half., completely against the run of play and when Peter Kerr scored a long range point before half time, questions were being asked how our dominance only resulted in a 2 point lead at half time.

Dungannon 1:5

Carrickmore 1:3

The next 30 minutes of hurling was the best Dungannon had played in years.

With only 10 seconds gone Michael Devlin had the ball over the bar. 2 minutes later Padraig Devlin scored a free from distance. 2 further points from play by Michael and Padraig Devlin had suddenly opened a 6 point lead.

When Brian McIntosh hit the net with 1o minutes to go, followed by a fine point from Thomas Colton, the game was over.

As the referee blew the final whistle, the Dungannon crowd went wild.

12 years in waiting for the Benburb Cup to return home was finally over and the celebrations began

M Fahy, D Molloy, H Heron, D Quinn, S Donnelly, S Woodhead, E Corrigan, B Devlin, P Devlin (0-9), B McIntosh (1-0), D McConville, C Conlon (0-1), M Devlin (0-2), T Colton (1-1), H Og McBride.

 

 

Watch the 1990 Championship Final by Clicking Here

 

With the draw made for the Ulster Club Championship, it was time for the team to refocus.

As training intensified our minds turned to Monaghan Champions Clontibret, who we were up against in the First round at O’Neill Park.

The Monaghan Champions dominated the first quarter.

Padraig Devlin opened the score from a free but this was soon cancelled out by Clontibret.

They had the ball in the back of the Dungannon net moments later to go 3 points up and this was followed up by a few more points.

However, a few scores from Padraig Devlin & a point from Collie Conlon left only 2 in it at half time, despite Clontibret’s dominance.

On the restart Gerry McIntosh tagged on a point to put the minimum between the sides but just as they had done in the first half, Clontibret pounced for another goal putting them 4 points to the good.

Despite this Dungannon dug deep again.

With Padraig Devlin dominating midfield scoring 2 exceptional points and Gerry McIntosh delivering precision passes to the forwards, it wasn’t long until his cousin Brian had the ball in the back of the Clontibret net.

Moments later, Stumpy had the ball in the net again and when Danny Cunningham hit the third it was game over.

Following our Quarter Final victory, only Keady stood in the way of us being crowned Intermediate Champions.

This was the Ulster Semi Final Hurling Championship.

Firm favourites Keady were an experienced team with players like Jim McCormack, Patrick Cunningham and Damien McGleenan.

Despite this, we hurled our hearts out to go 1 point up at the interval.

Keady didn’t expect the battle that was unravelling before them.

Brian Devlin was playing the game of his life at Full Back keeping Jim McCormack out of the game.

Jim had scored 4 Goals and 7 points in the last game but Brian was well up for this one.

Unfortunately Brian took a bad hit and injury forced a swap of him into the forward line.

Eventually, with wind advantage, the guile of Keady took over. As the lads tired a Keady goal and several points put the game beyond us and Keady advanced to the Ulster Final.

1990 was an exceptional year for our senior hurlers.

The league title was added to the Benburb cup and the Minor Championship returned to Dungannon after a long sebatical,

With close to half the senior team being teenagers, the future was looking bright for our Club as we headed into 1991.

 

 

 

 

 

1991 began with great expectation following the success of the year before but first we had our annual dinner dance.

Tipperary legend Nicky English received a warm welcome and then gave the lads a coaching session the next day.

 

Carrickmore entered a few years of rebuilding following the retirement of their elder players.

Killyclogher became stronger contenders for Benburb Cup glory during the early to mid 90s.

The Championship Final of 1991 turned into a real battle for the holders from 1990.

The first game was forced to a replay.

Before the Championship replay, Dungannon retained the Tyrone league with a convincing victory over Omagh on August 5th.

Eoghan Ruadh 5:10

Omagh 1:4

There were some great performances from Eoghan Ruadh.

Kevin Devlin nabbed a hat trick of goals as he moved from his usual position in the backline to corner forward. Stephen Donnelly scored 4 points and Mickey McHugh scored 1:2.

According to team Manager Peter McCaughey this was a great all round team effort.

The Championship replay took place on the August 15th in Carrickmore.

It was again a close, tense encounter with nothing between the teams until Killyclogher won it with a goal 5 minutes from time.

There were stand out performances on the day from Barry McIntosh, Stephen Donnelly and Owen Corrigan but unfortunately the work rate and hunger of Killyclogher was too much for the Champions of 1990 as they won the Benburb cup for the first time since 1977.

 

On a positive note 1991 ended with Eoghan Ruadh retaining the Minor Championship convincingly beating Shamrocks in the final on a scoreline of :

Eoghan Ruadh 3:9

Shamrocks 0:6

 

The result was never in doubt 20 minutes into the first half.

Goals scored by Ciaran Colton and Brian McIntosh with some great points from Midfield by Stephen Donnelly had Dungannon leading by 7 points as the half time whistle blew.

Stephen Donnelly added three 65s shortly after the restart and when Martin Morgan raised another green flag for Dungannon the game was over.

The Back line were exceptional on this day, led by Captain Declan Molloy and Darren Quinn.

However, it was Philip McQuaid who had the job of nullifying Shamrocks dangerman Eddie Shields that was the stand out performance of the match.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Unfortunately 1991 ended with Peter McCaughey stepping down as Senior Manager.

We were very grateful for the success Peter had accomplished with the Senior squad.

The first point of order for 1992 as the AGM convened was the appointment of a Senior Management team.

There was attempts to attract an outsider from the club but this proved unsuccessful.

It was agreed that Ciarán McHugh would take over the role.

 

Youth.

 

Ciarán Molloy had been working hard as Youth Officer over the previous few years.

A man committed to his role in developing the new age groups of Youth players coming through the  underage ranks.

The first success of the year for our club began with the U14s winning the Tyrone Feile Hurling Championship beating Omagh in the final.

Terry McIntosh and Peter McErlean scored late to steal the title from the opposition.

The U14s in 1992 were guided by Thomas Colton and the lads travelled to Galway/Mayo to represent our County narrowly missing the Final stages of the competition.

Meanwhile the U16s under the watchful eye of Padraig Devlin suffered an early setback with a heavy defeat to Omagh in the Tyrone League.

Omagh were firm favourites for the U16 Championship this year but revenge was to come when the 2 teams met again in the semi final.

A strong backline limited Omagh to 1:1 and the 2 Devlin cousins John and Sean ran riot in the forward line with Sean scoring 5:1 to send Omagh packing.

Eoghan Ruadh 7:7

Omagh 1:1

Strabane were Eoghan Ruadh’s opposition in the final which was a prequel to the Senior Championship final held in Carrickmore.

This was as tough and uncompromising U16 final not seen in years.

Strabane had took a commanding lead only for John Devlin to slowly turn the tide.

There were strong performances from Shay O’Neill and Kevin McSorley and Eoghan Ruadh were worthy winners in the end.

Eoghan Ruadh 3:7

Shamrocks 2:4

 

Watch the 1992 U16 Championship Final by clicking here

 

The Senior Championship Final which followed was a repeat of the 1991 Final.

Once again holders Killyclogher were the opposition.

A powerful display by Eoghan Ruadh ensured the Benburb Cup returned back to Dungannon.

Successful victories also occurred in 1993, 1996 and 1997 with Killyclogher victorious in 1994 and 1995.

If you have any information or videos of these Finals please get in contact with us.

 

Birth of a Prodigy – Damian Casey 30/8/1993

 

90’s Youth Success

 

There had been a conveyor belt of youth progression of players from U14 to Senior level throughout the 90’s.

A great achievement for not only the lads themselves but testament to the Coaches involved in their passage through the age groups.

Our minors who stayed hurling together as a group following their U14 success in 1987 and 1988, won championship glory in 1990 and 1991 and then won a three in a row of the inaugural U21 Championship from 1994 to 1998.

Lads like Darren Quinn, Stephen Donnelly, Eamon Devlin, Brian McIntosh, Philip McQuaid and Declan Molloy had all tasted minor and senior glory in 1990.

What an achievement for lads not even at their 18th birthday.

1994 was a great year with a trio of success at U16, Minor and U21 level.

 

Watch the 1994 Minor Championship Final by Clicking here.

 

The Minor’s also added another championship title in 1997.

However, it was the U14’s success in 1992, 1993 and again in 1995 that would propel name’s like Marty Devlin, Paul Lavery, Terry McIntosh, Barry Winters, Ryan Winters, Cathal McErlean, Fearghal McCluskey, Eugene Molloy and Connor McNulty onto senior success in the following years.

 

Watch the 1995 U14 Championship Final by Clicking here.

 

As we entered the penultimate year of the 20th Century, the whole talk was about the impeachment of Bill Clinton and the incoming Millennium bug.

Closer to home the most important matter that concerned us was the appointment of a new Senior Manager.

It was agreed unanimously that Peter Mc Caughey would once again fill this role.

Peter knew these players very well, knew the potential these lads had and the bar was set high before the season commenced.

Peter was thinking well beyond retaining the Benburb Cup.

It was winning the Ulster Shield that was in the back of his mind following 4 previous defeats this decade.

 

 

The league title was recaptured in 1999 but as we all know winning the Benburb Cup is the pride of Dungannon.

Shamrocks were easily dispatched off in the Championship semi final and following Omagh’s defeat in the other semi final, the show down between two great adversaries had been arranged for Sunday 22nd of August.

The first half was very tight with Carrickmore building up a 3 point lead in a low scoring affair.

There was some wayward shooting and a lot of missed opportunities from both sides.

As we all know hurling leads can change in the wink of an eye and two goals by Brian Mc Intosh & Darren Quinn before half time proved this point.

Dungannon took a 3 point lead into the break.

As the second half began. Carrickmore scored a goal from a rebound off a well saved shot by Stephen Donnelly in the Dungannon goals.

This was their last score of the game with Dungannon dominating afterwards.

Paul Lavery with sniper precision from free’s and Brian McIntosh who put in a man of the match display for Eoghan Ruadh.

As Eamon Devlin lifted the Benburb Cup, our minds turned to Ulster.

Eoghan Ruadh 2:7

Carrickmore 1:5

 

 

Eoghan Ruadh team was as follows,

1.S Donnelly, 2.B Winters, 3.T Colton, 4.D Molloy 5.M McHugh 6.S Woodhead 7.S ONeill 8.G McIntosh 9.E Devlin 10.P Lavery ( 0.3 ) 11.M McErlean 12.E McCurry 13.T McIntosh ( 0.1 ) 14.D Quinn ( 1.0 ) 15.B McIntosh ( 1:3 )

 

 

 

Subsequent victories occured over Cavan champions Mullahoran and Monaghan Champions Castleblaney,

Now we were in an Ulster Club Shield Final, this time against a strong Burt team from Donegal.

So on Sunday 5th of September 1999, the game was fixed for Glen Co Derry.

Could Dungannon put behind them years of disappointments of Shield Final’s this decade.

The scene was set and the lads were determined to make the breakthrough.

The result was that emphatic you would nearly think we were seasoned winners year in year out.

Burt was completely overwhelmed by the passion, work rate, hunger and team work that Dungannon produced that day.

In the end the victory was by an amazing 11 points.

You could not pick a player of the match on this occasion, it was a total team performance.

1.Stephen Donnelly 2.Barry Winters 3.Thomas Colton ( 0:1 ) 4.Fergal Devlin 5.Michael McHugh 6.Stephen Woodhead 7.Declan Molloy 8.Mickey McErlean 9.Gerry McIntosh 10.Eamon Devlin ( 0:4 ) 11. Paul Lavery (0:2) 12.Eddie McCurry 13.Terry McIntosh ( 2:1 )        14. Darren Quinn 15.Brian McIntosh ( 0:2 )

Subs Peter McErlean ( 1:0 ) for Eddie McCurry & Fearghal McCluskey for Darren Quinn

 

In 1999, regardless of the margin of defeat to Ballygalget in the Ulster Club Semi Final, a point to remember.

Our Club had reached the last 16 of the All Ireland Club Championship.

What an amazing end to this century and a proud moment for our town.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Altogether do you know how many medals Stephen Donnelly, Darren Quinn, Eamonn Devlin, Brian McIntosh and Declan Molloy amassed in 1990?