In Tyrone, ordinary life drifts on amidst the harrowing sorrow. Yesterday was results day at St Patrick's Boys Academy in Dungannon and, as with every other year, parents filed into the office of Father Gerard McAleer to discuss results, nervous and proud.

They talked college plans and disappointments but the tone was subdued and thoughts were never far away from those less fortunate. Father Gerard was reared in Omagh. He passed through secondary school within two years of Mickey Harte, with whom he now manages the Tyrone minor team. Both men knew many of those who died in the Omagh atrocity and for much of this week, Father McAleer sat talking, weeping and praying with the family of Mrs Mary Grimes, the Beragh parishioner killed alongside her pregnant daughter Avril.

And last night, he drove to Pomeroy to prepare a bunch of shaken youngsters for a football match in Dublin. Adversity has haunted these kids for two years but they remain unbroken.

"Literally everybody in the Tyrone panel has been affected by this. Our entire community has. You have to understand, Omagh is a market town, a meeting place and it has always been reasonably mixed. If there is any semblance of positivity to be taken from this whole tragedy, it's that it has brought our community even closer together. Every house you go to, Catholic and Protestant families are grieving together."

Last Saturday, the best young footballers around the mid-Ulster county were to have gathered in Omagh for a bite to eat before training on Sunday. News of the bombing spread and the meeting was abandoned. A hastily arranged training schedule for the Sunday morning was forgotten as the awfulness of the bombing became apparent.

"We have always trained in Omagh but obviously it wasn't appropriate to do so this week. We have been meeting in Pomeroy. But, you know, it's important to this team to keep on playing, especially in light of what has happened. This only strengthens our community's resolve and these lads have been through a lot in the past year anyway."

Last summer was traumatic for the Tyrone minors, many of whom will line out again in Croke Park this Sunday. On June 15th of last year, Paul McGirr collided with an Armagh player as he tapped a hopeful ball into an empty net. The impact, purely accidental, left him lying still. He was stretchered off and after the match, jubilant Tyrone players retired to the dressing room to learn their friend had died.

"Aye, that was in Omagh. It had a devastating affect on all of us. I think it really shaped the character and spirit of those young lads. We really wanted to go and win the thing, for Paul's sake and our own."

The teenager's death left them reeling and more tragedy followed. A short time later, the brother of midfielder Kevin Hughes was killed in a car accident and then the county was forced to come to terms with the death in another road accident of the McGeery brothers, the day before they were due to line out for their club against Errigal Ciaran in the Tyrone county final.

"Those times were terrible, just numbing. But we played through them. We played Kerry in the All-Ireland semi-final replay in Parnell Park and afterwards, Michael O Muircheartaigh told me it was one of the finest games he'd seen. And, of course, we lost the All-Ireland final to Laois by three points. We were six down with 10 minutes to go and I'd like to think that with more time, we might have caught them," reflects Father McAleer.

It was a painful end to a saddening, unforgetable season for the youngsters, but this year they regrouped and strode, after some uncertain moments to a second consecutive Ulster title.

Perhaps to some in the county, the sight of young Tyrone men lost in the middle of the celebratory tumult of Croke Park will offer a much needed re-affirmation of hopeful life. Others will understandably, spend Sunday oblivious to the match. It would be nice to believe that this year's minor Championship is destined for Tyrone, but the players themselves might well laugh at such wistful naivety.

"Well, we would love that and we are going for it but there are no guarantees. No matter what, though, these boys will not forget these years. I think they'll remain close. Because they are a fine bunch of lads, ye know."