Our Honorary President – Peter Mac Caughey.
Peter has been a familiar face at Eoghan Ruadh Hurling Club for well over half a Century.
Born in 1946 to Mr Art and Teresa Mac Caughey, Peter was to manage one of the most successful periods our Club has experienced in recent times.
Peter’s first introduction to hurling was during his days at St Patricks Academy Dungannon.
A football dominant school even to this day.
In 1964, he joined Eoghan Ruadh having been introduced to Teddy Devlin.
Teddy was keen to see hurling grow amongst the towns youth and Peter was a great fit with his team mates.
Unfortunately there were not that many matches in the 60’s to compare the standard of hurling at the time.
The 1960s were a decade where very few County Finals took place.
Peter was part of the 1966 Eoghan Ruadh Team that met a Benburb Priory Select team.
This would have consisted of Clergy from the hurling strongholds of Kilkenny, Cork and Tipperary.
The game was played at O’Neill Park Dungannon on a very wet and windy Sunday afternoon.
Unfortunately Eoghan Ruadh were well beaten.
Peter was to remain playing senior level Club hurling for a further 20 years, the highlight being captaining the 1975 Benburb Cup winning team.
He was also a regular on the Tyrone Senior team during this period.
Coach & Manager.
In the 1970’s, the playing fields on a Saturday afternoon was the place to be for our underage players to develop their skills.
Peter amongst others were not found wanting and could be relied upon week in week out to coach.
Passing on his knowledge and love for the game would allow a lot of these players to progress to Senior level.
Some were part of the successful Benburb Cup winning squad of 1978.
Coaching Courses were a novel idea in the 1970s.
In July 1974, Croke Park had organised a week long course at Gormanstown College.
Some of the greats of the game at the time were present.
Peter and a few other coaches from our Club had been invited and once completed were presented with a first Hurling coaching certificate.
Peter retired from hurling in the 80’s but along with Noel Devlin took up the Management of our Senior team.
Unfortunately, the club had to wait a few more years for success.
In 1990, Eoghan Ruadh under the management of Peter and with a combination of youth and expertise in the squad, Carrickmore were well beaten and relinquished the Benburb Cup.
This was our first success in 12 years, a long wait. In fact Peter had himself played on our last team that won the County Championship in 1978.
Work Constraints.
Peter was a busy self employed architect.
He had been well known to work long hours with many calling to his home for advice and assistance.
Peter believed that in order to be successful, it was necessary to commit 100% to your role no matter what it was in life.
Work had become too busy to continue in his role as Senior Manager and he reluctantly decided to step aside.
Ulster Success.
In 1999, Peter was approached to once again manage our Senior team.
The expectation was that there was an Ulster title in this team and Peter was determined that the team reached this goal.
We had beat Carrickmore ( the reigning Ulster Shield Champions ) in the County final.
Having accounted for both the Cavan and Monaghan Champions, it was Burt of Donegal who would challenge us in the Final for the Ulster Shield.
The game was won by 11 points and we were crowned Ulster Champions.
In 2000, Peter remained as Senior Manager to oversee the Ulster Shield being retained by the Club.
A very successful two years for our Club.
Peter had also been assistant to Alex Connolly, during Alex’s term as Tyrone hurling Manager.
In 1986 Tyrone won the Division 4 National Hurling League. Our Club was heavily represented in the winning team.
When Alex stepped down, Peter was offered the job but could not commit as his Club with whom he was still Manager came first.
However, along with Carrickmore’s Barney Cunningham, the two men stayed on as temporary replacements until a Manager was confirmed.
Eoghan Ruadh Committee Member.
Peter has been a member of the Eoghan Ruadh Committee for nearly 60 years.
He has held almost every position in the Club.
A 4 term Chairman, 8 term Vice Chairman, secretary and now Honorary President.
For many years, Peter along with Teddy Devlin and Donagh Begley were the Eoghan Ruadh representatives at the monthly meetings of the Tyrone County board and also was Tyrone’s representative of the Ulster Council for 2 years.
Peter refereed a Senior Tyrone County Hurling Final at O’Neill Park in the 1970’s and also umpired an All Ireland Semi Final in Croke Park on one occasion.
He was part of a group including Noel Devlin who organised our first participation in the Kilmacud All Ireland 7 aside competition which is customarily held the day before the All Ireland Hurling Finals.
He also helped organise a first home and away shinty challenge game with Glasgow University in the mid 1980’s.
In April 2018 Peter was awarded a gold Credo Pin by GAA President John Horan.
An acknowledgement for his massive contribution in promoting hurling and GAA values in our Club for 50 years.
Peter is a true legend of our Club and an inspiration to us all.
We thank you for your years of service.
