County still in a spin following Mickey Harte’s departure

Cursed deadlines. These pages had just been tucked up in bed last week when The Big Story broke. Mickey Harte has quit as Louth senior team manager and is going to Derry.

If only there’d been an hour or two. Straight away there’d be a change to the story headlined: “Contrasting fortunes for local GAA and soccer.”

It was good for the GAA because Croke Park had stepped in to oversee the stalled county grounds project – bad for soccer after the FAI Cup walloping. But now Louth were also in the dumps.

There’d have been a piece on Harte’s going, its size depending on how space was available. Three columns might not have been enough.

That aside, what did happen after the story broke: Twitter (which they now christened X) went into top gear, and texts and e-mails did the rounds with fury.

After that it seemed that every Tom, Dick, Harry, Ant and Dec was talking about it, throwing in their tuppence worth. And Mary and Annie were also rowing in.

“Did you hear the news,” they asked, and if you hadn’t, you were filled with all the details.

Just imagine what the wives would have been shouting had there been a fish market: not “herrings alive” but maybe, “the ship has sailed”.

A contest for the most-used word would have had ‘unbelievable’ winning hands down.

‘Sterling’ and ‘kick’, ‘in’, ‘the’, ‘teeth’ were others that got several mentions.

And from the other side, ‘ambition’, ’challenge’ and ‘who’, ‘can’, ‘blame’, ‘them’.

Me? It took a while to digest the whole thing. I simply could not comprehend what had just happened.

My disbelief was mixed with huge disappointment, not necessarily because Harte – taking his long-time ally, Gavin Devlin, with him – had chosen the Oak Leaf as his next port of call (which in itself needs a bit of explaining), but that he hadn’t stuck to the word he had given this county a while back.

The deal Harte struck with Louth just a matter of weeks after he had failed to win an extension of his term with Tyrone (the county he had led to three All-Ireland senior titles and others at underage level) was for three years.

He took up the post in late 2020, and had his first games the following year, many of them going on without onlookers due to Covid.

But long before his contract would end, Harte said he and his sidekick Devlin would be willing to stay on for another two years.

That pleased all sections of the local fraternity.

The planned extended period wouldn’t have taken off for a number of weeks yet, but would see them in charge next season and the one after that.

Up until the shock news was broken last Monday, Harte had been making preparations for next season.

He had given those who’d been in his panel for this year’s championship and league a fitness programme to follow, in addition to the training they’d be doing on the return to their clubs.

And, as said, there was hardly a championship game he had missed in recent weeks.

The disappointment among supporters might not have been so palpable had Harte not been a success in his time in charge.

But he was, winning his adopted county recognition it hadn’t enjoyed since the ill-fated Leinster championship of 2010.

Starting at the near-bottom rung of the inter-county ladder, his first campaign of real significance brought the Division Four league title to the county, and he followed 12 months later with a further step up in grade.

What would have been a record-breaker this year – the first county to win promotion three seasons on-the-trot – was only foiled with defeat to Dublin in the last of seven games. Cork, Kildare and Meath were three of the teams that had been eclipsed.

Then there was this year’s championship.

A tremendous comeback in the defeat of Westmeath the quarter-finals was followed by an extra-time win over Offaly.

Though there was a slapping from the champions, Dublin, in the final, it could be argued that some of the performances which followed in the All-Ireland league series, which Louth had qualified for by reaching the provincial final, were better than anything the Leinster had thrown up.

Cork couldn’t let up until reaching the finish-line in Navan, winning by just two points, and there was even fewer than that in it when Louth went to the West for a meeting with Mayo.

Kerry needed to win the final league match to stay in the competition, and because of this had all the big guns included for the meeting in Portlaoise.

The then-Sam Maguire Cup holders easily overcame the challenge. Nothing, however, could take from what was Louth’s best championship campaign in 13 years.

As we all looked forward with giddy anticipation to the draw for next year’s Leinster, and after that another league Division Two campaign, it was never envisaged that Mickey Harte wouldn’t be in charge, especially as he’d committed to an extension of his contact.

Indeed, as he attended local matches, many remarked on his enthusiasm for the job, taking notes on different players.

In choosing Derry for his next assignment, Harte is going a direction he previously said he wouldn’t.

On coming into this county, he said it would have been anathema to him to go to another Ulster county.

It’s said that the first approach from Derry had been to Gavin Devlin with the idea of getting himself and Harte on board.

Now that they’ve crossed their county border, it makes the northern province’s bear-pit deeper than it’s ever been.

The championship will see Harte’s new team seeking a third title in succession, the returned Jim McGuinness trying to re-ignite Donegal fire, and Kieran McGeeney hoping for better luck with his Armagh side.

Vinny Corry had a good first year, and further improvement could see his Monaghan side deep in the mix.

Down’s Conor Laverty and Andy McEntee, in his second year with Antrim, along with Cavan newcomer, Raymond Galligan, will have ambitions, and could it be that Rory Gallagher will be back in some guise, this time involved with his native Fermanagh?

And then there’s Harte’s ex. What a game it would be if Tyrone were to meet Derry in, say, the final. As happened before with an Ulster game at this stage, Croker could be the venue.

But even if that doesn’t materialise, these fiercest of rivals will meet in the league.

And there’ll be a whole lot of other, let’s say, piquant all-Ulster clashes in the points competition.

That’s in the future and away from home.

What’s now more important down here is finding someone to take over. The speculation has been as intense as the debate that shook a county to its foundations.