A Love/Hate relationship like no other as old neighbours clash yet again in Ulster

It’s less than a 15-minute drive from the Aghyaran GAA club in Tyrone to the heart of Killygordan and the home of former Donegal player Donal Reid. Yet despite the close proximity in terms of geography, he has always seen them as two different worlds. 

After all, he should know better than most. 

In almost a 20-year period, the 1992 All-Ireland winner spent three stints managing Tyrone clubs. He started with Clann na nGael in the mid-1990s, before moving on to Aghyaran and Gortin. 

Reid retired from inter-county football in 1993, following a broken shoulder sustained against Armagh. He would later manage the Donegal U-21 side to Ulster success in 1995 before he would enter into a Brave New World, when he took the plunge and crossed the divide into Tyrone.  

Despite the ever-present rivalry between the two counties, especially in Reid’s case, considering how close to the border he lived, his time in the Red Hand County gave him a warmer appreciation of the nature of the people and their love of GAA. 

“I suppose there’s no argument, especially where I’m from, our closest rivals would’ve always been Tyrone,” the former Donegal wing-back explained. “I’m only a few minutes from the border, right beside Aghyaran and Castlederg, and the banter, no doubt, was always on before a Donegal and Tyrone game.” 

Cross-border trade for Donegal and Tyrone coaches and players is nothing new. Brian McEniff's mother came from Carrickmore and the Bundoran man had two spells there managing the county’s most successful club. 

Cathal Corey came from the village of Kildress, on the outskirts of Cookstown, but was the leading figure in guiding Naomh Conaill to championship success in 2010. 

Fergal McNulty was another. A former player with St Columba's from Urney in Tyrone, and a former squad player under John Joe Doherty in 2010. The Doneyloop parish crosses the divide, with the local church in Donegal and the GAA club in Tyrone. But back in his underage era, an Ulster Council ruling found that the parish boundary ruled over the county, and he was entitled to play with Urney. 

The county rivalry is not an accident either, after all these two sides are meeting for the 26th time in championship history. And while both sides are relatively new in terms of national success from the association’s timeline, the conflict between both sides on match days is infamous. 

Perhaps the go-to moment is now the now legendary ‘Battle of Ballybofey’ in 1973. Tyrone won the match, but the atmosphere was tense. Donegal’s Neilly Gallagher was stretchered off early in the game and sent to hospital after being struck in the face when bottles were thrown onto the field . . . or so the legend goes. 

“I suppose you could call it a Love/Hate relationship. I mean, I managed clubs in Tyrone for almost 20 years, and I can easily say there’s a big difference to the way they look at football and the way we in Donegal look at football,” Reid said. 

“The easiest way to describe it is, in Tyrone, football is a way of life, while in Donegal, and many other counties really, it’s more of a pastime, that’s something I’ve always felt. 

“I think what drew me to coach in Tyrone was that it offered a different challenge like no other county could. As I said, they see football as an identity. At that time, especially through the hard times of the Troubles, football and that community within GAA clubs was really the only thing people in Tyrone had. 

Speaking back over a decade ago now, former Donegal manager Brian McEniff supported this theory when stating; "I think the Troubles might have had something to do with the bad rivalry, there was a lot going on at the time and it caused a lot of aggravation and contention between players on opposite sides of the border. They’d call you a Free State b******, it was sad what was said on reflection." 

Reid further highlights the importance the GAA had in Tyrone communities and how they saw it as a way of life, but more importantly, the lessons he took from coaching there. 

“I don’t think in all the years I was there during my time as manager in Tyrone, I never had a problem, or very rarely anyway, had a problem with lads missing training, or being late, or not giving their all for the club. They just had that different outlook to the game . . . I learned a lot in my time there,” Reid said. 

“What it taught me then when I eventually came back to coach in Donegal, I tried to apply those same values in different clubs in our county, so it helped me along the way.” 

During his life in football, Reid acknowledges that he has crossed many impressive GAA figures. He was a member of Jim McGuinness’s backroom staff during the Naomh Conaill man’s first term in charge.  

Reid cited McGuinness as one of the most impressive men he’s ever met in the game or has ever worked with. A sentiment he similarly shares with the man who will take charge in the opposite dugout on Sunday – Brian Dooher. 

When Reid went to Clann na nGael in the mid-1990s, Dooher had just burst onto the inter-county scene, but even from those early days, the former Donegal and Red Hughs player saw something in the Tyrone manager . . . a real leadership quality not seen in many young players. 

“I think when you talk about leaders and the different players I’ve come across in my time, I don’t think there was a better leader to manage than Brian Dooher. When I managed Brian at Clann na nGael, it’s fair to say, he and Stephen O’Neill ran the club,” Reid claimed. 

“Brian was the captain of the team. He was the first on the pitch and the last to leave the pitch. He had all the traits to be a great player and also a great manager. I actually used to consult with him on team selection, which is something I would never do with players, but I did consult with Brian, that’s how high of regard and respect I had for him.  

“I worked with both Jim and Brian, and what I would say is they’re quite similar, they’re both really driven individuals, both extremely intelligent, and have a great love and passion for their county and for the game, we see that in them . . . they’re two of the best people I’ve worked with. 

“I came across them at different points in their lives. Jim is a very different person from the one I knew as a player to the one he became as a manager. Brian still seems the same, he was always that driving force, the one you could turn to to do a job. He was probably Mickey Harte’s most valuable player in all his years with Tyrone, he could play anywhere.” 

Reid has made his feelings clear about Sunday’s clash in Celtic Park at 2pm in the Ulster semi-final, with the former half-back stating that he can’t see any team beating Donegal and that with the Jim McGuinness factor back on board, there’s an All-Ireland in this team. 

But the rivalry of these two counties takes on a life of its own, it can be a rivalry like no other with a few curve balls thrown in the middle. It’s expected to be a real classic and you don’t have to be living on the border to understand that.