TYRONE CELEBRATIONS:A GLEAMING Sam Maguire Cup crossed the Border at Aughnacloy yesterday evening firmly in the grasp of the Tyrone players.
These were the men who on Sunday won what DUP sports minister Gregory Campbell, in his "congratulatory" words earlier, described as an "international event" - as in the UK team beat the team from the Republic.
Some found his comments funny, some thought them a tad sour. They were lost though on the hundreds of supporters clad in red and white who last night thronged the main street in Aughnacloy to welcome home the All-Ireland Football Final victors.
It was a fevered, cheerful atmosphere in the town as they waited for the team to finally make their entry into the Red Hand county. A small plane in the Tyrone colours circled overhead and down below the crowds cheered, sang and swayed.
The Cream of the Barley group sang à la The Proclaimers how they would "walk 500 miles to welcome Sam Maguire back to Tyrone" for the third time in a decade.
Children knocked great noisy fun from air horns or klaxons. Some of the adults standing alongside winced and shuddered. They had the look of people who might have overdone the celebrations the previous night.
Close to the stage - the back of a big lorry - Michael Neligan, up from Killarney from all places, rubbed his left shoulder. He kept faith with the Kingdom wearing a Kerry T-shirt.
His brother, Denis, who lives in Bearagh, not too far from Omagh, wore a Kerry jersey but also a red Tyrone stetson hat, in deference to his wife Anne, a proud Tyrone woman decked out in red and white.
Michael was beside Anne when they watched the match on television in Heaney's pub in Bearagh. "Every time Tyrone scored or got close, I thumped poor Michael on the shoulder with the excitement," she said.
The Neligans were gracious in defeat. "Oh, the best team won", said Michael.
The crowd roared with delight when the team finally crossed the Border. Young girls, beards drawn on their faces (executed with eyeliner, they explained), whooped and hollered as Mickey Harte and the players lined up on the stage.
The mock beards, of course, were a reference to how some of the players did not shave during the campaign. Dark-bearded Ryan McMenamin looked like Fidel Castro in his soft-peaked army- style cap. As Harte and captain Brian Dooher addressed the crowd, some of the players doused them with water, provided by the Rocwell Water sponsors.
Harte said there would be no resting on laurels. A new gimmick to replace the beards would be required for next year. A modest man, nonetheless, he felt winning the All-Ireland "every couple of years" could be improved upon. "How about every year?" he said.