Sunday mass moved as Loughmacrory prepare for first ever county final appearance

Loughmacrory will face 2023 champions Trillick in what will be their first ever senior county final in Omagh on Sunday

For large swathes of the population of Tyrone, Gaelic football is the main religion.

Indeed, this weekend, local mass in one part of the county has had to be switched to accommodate an historic achievement ahead of the Tyrone SFC final.

Loughmacrory will take on Trillick in Sunday’s decider in what will be the club’s first ever appearance in the senior final.

Founded in 1973, St Teresa’s have never played in an Intermediate final, let alone a senior one. That will change on Sunday when they take on the 2023 champions in O’Neills Healy Park.

Fr Peter McAnenly, parish priest of Termonmaguirc, which encompasses Loughmacrory and their slain semi-final opponents Carrickmore, has decided there’s no point in Sunday’s services clashing with the biggest game of the year.

Taking to social media, Fr Anenly confirmed that Sunday mass has been brought forward to Saturday night at 7.30pm.

Loughmacrory manager Marty Boyle would gladly welcome any prayers for his team. He knows the scale of the challenge they face.

While Sunday’s showpiece will be alien territory for the people of Loughmacrory, Trillick are appearing in their fifth final in seven years and toppled last season’s Ulster club champions Errigal Ciaran in the semi-final.

“It’s a huge challenge,” stated Boyle.

“Trillick are a household name. Trillick and Errigal Ciaran are the teams everybody aspires to try and hang on to their coattails.

“Firstly, we’ll enjoy the build-up. It is an occasion to be savoured, whether we are playing Trillick or whoever.

“It’s a county final and it’s brilliant progress for these boys and it’s a brilliant occasion for them to look forward to. Now, they’ve to go and throw themselves into it.”

Loughmacrory claimed a first ever Championship win over their parish rivals in the semi-final replay last week with Tyrone U20 star Ruairi McCullagh scoring an injury-time two-pointer to settle the contest having missed a penalty only minutes earlier.

In between, Carrickmore took the lead for the first time when Tiarnan Loughran converted a penalty at the other end.

While the dramatic conclusion might have put Loughmacrory’s fans through the wringer, their manager insisted that he had total faith his young charges would prevail and hailed the composure of McCullagh.

“I was hoping we could have a bit more control and possession and whatnot, but in Championship football, that’s very difficult,” said Boyle.

“You just have to trust them, the players, and all the work that’s been put into these players down through the years.

“That’s the time when it comes to fruition in terms of dealing with the big moments, the big Championship moments that present themselves.

“I’m not saying I was comfortable watching, but you have to trust the players and I do trust the players and it speaks volumes about, not only Ruairi (McCullagh), but the rest of the group.

“We spend so much time together, you see the type of men that they are, you see the desire, the resolve they have – you just know that no matter what has to be done, they’re going to do it.”

He added: “We were really happy coming in at half-time with how we had played, we performed really well in the first half, we just didn’t get the scores on the board

“When you’re in good form, you know that you’re going to create those chances, and we did in the second half as well.”