Cormac McAnallen

Cormac McAnallen (Cormac Mac An Ailín; 11 February 1980 – 2 March 2004) was an Irish Gaelic footballer who played for the Eglish St Patrick's club and the Tyrone county team.

Cormac McAnallen was born on 11 February 1980 in Dungannon.

He lived in the Brantry, with his parents Brendan and Bridget, and his brothers Donal and Fergus.

Between 1984 and 1990 Cormac attended Derrylatinee Primary School; from 1990 to 1997 he attended St Patrick's Grammar School in Armagh.

At St. Patrick's he was part of the team that won the Blackboard Jungle quiz on RTÉ (1996/97).

McAnallen won consecutive Tyrone Minor Championships with Eglish in 1996 and 1997.

He was a student at Queen's University Belfast between 1997 and 2001, and in 2001/02 he studied at University College Dublin (UCD), while doing teaching practice at St Benildus College, Stillorgan.

At Minor level, McAnallen won the 1997 Ulster Minor Championship with Tyrone and they went on to reach the All-Ireland Minor final, but were defeated by Laois.

The following year with McAnallen as captain, Tyrone defended their Ulster crown and also went on to win the All-Ireland Minor title.

He won a Tyrone Intermediate Championship medal with the club in 1997.

He was named Personality of the Year by the Ulster GAA Writers Association in 1998.

He graduated from Queen's in 2000 with a B.A. in History, and in 2001 with a postgraduate diploma in Computer-Based Learning.

McAnallen was Tyrone Under-21 captain in 2000 and 2001.

In both those years the county won both the Ulster Under-21 Championship and the All-Ireland Under-21 Championship twice.

By this stage he was already playing for the Tyrone Senior side.

In 2001 he won an Ulster Senior Championship medal and was named both All Stars Young Footballer of the Year and the Ulster GAA Writers Association's Footballer of the Year.

McAnallen played for UCD while studying at the university and won the Dublin Senior Football Championship medal in 2001 and 2002 captaining the team both years.

McAnallen represented Ireland in the International Rules Series against Australia in 2001, 2002 and 2003.

He graduated from UCD in 2002 with a higher diploma in Education.

From 2002 to 2004, Cormac's main subject of teaching was history and politics at St Catherine's College, Armagh, and he managed school sports teams.

He also however taught other subjects such as history, politics, mathematics, computers, French and Religion.

He was well liked by students and staff alike.

In his after-school hours he acted as a Youth-Sport co-ordinator in the Armagh district, and he was frequently a coach at Tyrone GAA summer camps.

He was a midfielder on the Tyrone team that won back-to-back National League titles in 2002 and 2003.

With Tyrone, McAnallen won the All-Ireland Senior Football Championship in 2003, and twice won both the Ulster Senior Football Championship and National League titles.

At underage level he won an All-Ireland Minor and two All-Ireland Under-21 Championships with Tyrone.

He also won an All Stars Award for his performances in the 2003 Championship.

McAnallen played for UCD while studying in Dublin and helped the university win the Dublin Senior Football Championship.

In December 2003, McAnallen became engaged to Ashlene Moore.

In his spare time, McAnallen played a wide range of sports – including hurling, golf, table tennis and soccer – and loved watching every type of sport.

He was also a keen participant in quizzes, and he took a great interest in history and Gaelic culture.

In 2003 he moved to the full-back position and two months later the team won the All-Ireland Senior Football Championship for the first time in the county's history.

Tyrone had also won the Ulster Championship earlier in the summer en route to winning the All-Ireland.

McAnallen was rewarded with an All Star award for his performances in the 2003 Championship.

McAnallen won a Railway Cup medal with Ulster in 2003 and also played in the competition in 2001.

McAnallen died suddenly on 2 March 2004, aged 24.

Despite his relatively short career, he won almost every honour in the game.

He was often captain of successful teams, and was known as a particularly inspirational captain.

He was posthumously named Queen's University Graduate of the Year in 2004.

In 2004, just over a week before his death, he captained Tyrone to success in the Dr. McKenna Cup.