Michaela Harte's religious faith was central to her character and to her independent spirit
YOUNG, BEAUTIFUL and always by her famous father’s side – but those who really knew her say there was both substance and depth to Michaela Harte’s character.
The expressions of shock and grief at her death cut right across the divisions in Northern Irish society and beyond.
Those who knew her best say she managed to chart an independent path by embodying deep personal religious commitment. The result, says a close family friend, was a grounded and self-assured young woman.
Fr Gerard McAleer baptised Michaela on January 15th, two weeks after her birth, on the last day of 1983. He was once principal at the Dungannon school where Harte later taught Irish and religion, but he is better known for partnering her father, Mickey, in managing Tyrone’s underage teams.
He acknowledges the role so-called traditional Catholicism had in shaping Mickey Harte and the effect this had on his daughter. “The most basic expression of Catholic faith is going to Mass and the sacraments. The family would have prayed the rosary, and that rubs off.”
She went to the local primary school, just outside Ballygawley, progressing to Loreto Convent in Omagh and St Mary’s University College, in Belfast, where she studied Irish and trained as a teacher.
She was becoming her own woman, Fr McAleer recalls, but without jettisoning her background. “I know not everyone is committed; it’s very hard to explain why someone is committed to anything. But it’s like the air you breathe: you’re influenced.
“All [the Harte family] are committed to their faith. They are all Pioneers, all of them non-smokers.”
None of them is evangelical or pushy, however, he says.
The questioning young woman and the priest often chatted casually over a cup of tea about the state of the world. “You don’t have far to go to see how pervasive evil is in the world,” he says. “What better example of evil is there than Michaela’s death?
“Michaela wasn’t a preacher, she wouldn’t go around telling people what to do. She had made the Christian faith her own and realised that it brought happiness and contentment to her, and she lived a very fulfilling and rewarding life.”
Around Co Tyrone, of course, it wasn’t Harte’s personal take on Catholicism that won her notice and respect. She was just seven when her father and Fr McAleer took over the Tyrone minor team. She went everywhere with her father.
The Tyrone minors won the All-Ireland in 1998, and she wrote her predictions then for the Tyrone team, says Fr McAleer. The teenage Michaela recorded on paper her belief that the All-Ireland- winning minors would form the basis of a team that would progress through under-21 level to take the county’s first senior All-Ireland in 2003.
“The predictions were serious, not a bit of fun, and reflected what we were all thinking at that time,” he says. “It was very profound and clear-sighted.”
Harte was emerging as a significant mentor for the Tyrone panel. A committed Gaeilgeoir, she helped the 2003 Tyrone team prepare for the senior All-Ireland final. Peter Canavan, the captain that year, describes the young Michaela gathering the team in a hotel room to teach 30 young men to sing Amhrán na bhFiann.
Fr McAleer said the idea was a key one. It would enable the TV audience to witness a Tyrone team standing together for the anthem in full voice, united. She compiled CDs of the senior panel’s favourite music to play on the coach to big games.
UTV news anchorman turned Ulster Unionist Party candidate Mike Nesbitt bears witness to the Harte family generosity.
“Mickey Harte did the most wonderful thing for me once. I asked if he would help a young man who was dying of cancer by letting him watch Tyrone train ahead of the 2003 All-Ireland final. He did, and he ensured the team treated young David Gillespie as a superstar. But that is what decent people do. Mickey went the extra mile. He let it be known he did not want to read of David’s passing in the papers – he wanted a call. And I am afraid he got it the weekend after he took his Tyrone team to Croke Park.
“Mickey visited David’s mum and dad during the wake. Anne could not believe it when she saw Mickey Harte in his match-day suit at their front door – so imagine how she felt when Mickey stood back to reveal the entire Sam Maguire winning team there, in their match-day suits, to pay their respects to a boy they had met for only half an hour.
“It was an act of uncommon humanity in the midst of terrible grief.”
Monday’s funeral for Michaela Harte will likely see that “uncommon humanity” repaid.
