THIS IS AN extract from The Pursuit of Perfect – The Life, Death and Legacy of Cormac McAnallen, written by his brother Dónal McAnallen. Cormac McAnallen was the captain of the All Ireland-winning Tyrone football team. He died suddenly of an undetected heart condition in 2004 at the age of 24. This extract describes the harrowing circumstances in which his death was discovered.
On the landing I realised that the noise was coming from Cormac’s bedroom. I walked around the corner, entered and flicked on the light. There he lay on his back, tilted slightly to one side, with his duvet half lifted as though he had tried to get up. His eyes were open, staring into space and there was some sort of mucus on his lip.
I knew something was seriously wrong.
Instinct told me he might have had an epileptic fit, from an undetected problem; I recalled the strange case of a cousin who had a seizure due to the flashing lights of Sonic the Hedgehog years earlier. If not that, could Cormac be choking on his own vomit?
Now I realise that the noise was the ‘death rattle’, which I had heard once before, when my grandmother died in a nursing home. At this moment, however, I made no such association. The noise had reduced to an exhaling wheeze by the time I got to Cormac. These were truly the last gasps. I shook him and shouted his name in an attempt to rouse him. I didn’t know what else to do. I knew nothing of CPR.
‘Mummy! Come quickly! I think Cormac’s had some sort of fit!’
Mummy came in, called his name and looked for a pulse, to no avail. Then she turned him sideways to the recovery position, to see was he choking on something. She hoped she was doing it right, but wasn’t sure. Daddy was awoken by the commotion, and I woke Fergus.
3.15 am: I thundered downstairs to ring 999 from the main landline. Describing what was wrong with Cormac and our exact location wasn’t easy. An ambulance was assigned at 3.17.
3.17 am: Simultaneously, Mummy rang Dr Anjun Ghosh for guidance on artificial respiration. A retired local GP and family friend, he answered from his bed. Immediately he presumed she must be phoning about Daddy. Teresa, Anjun’s wife, awoke. A former general nurse and a trained first-aider, she came on to the line to say she’d come over. ‘I’ll go with you,’ said Anjun, who couldn’t drive since a recent knee operation. After two minutes and 13 seconds, they hung up and got dressed to go.
3.20–3.30 am approx. We tried what we could with our limited knowledge. A few attempted compressions, half-baked breaths of life. But it was futile. He wouldn’t stir. Absolute disbelief consumed us. How could this be happening to Cormac, of all people? Daddy felt cold feet; minutes later, they seemed colder yet. ‘I think the poor child’s dead,’ he declared in a high pitch that I had never heard him reach before.
Then he drove out to meet the ambulance, as the 999 operator had requested. Finding a remote house like ours at that dark hour was no small task in the pre-Satnav era. Daddy wanted out of the house anyway, for he could do nothing there to bring his second son back.
The Pursuit of Perfection: The Life, Death and Legacy of Cormac McAnallen by Donal McAnallen is published by Penguin Ireland. More info here.
The42 has just published its first book, Behind The Lines, a collection of some of the year’s best sports stories. Pick up your copy in Eason’s, or order it here today (€10):
my god Leinster are dull to watch these days
That is 80 mins I’ll never get back. Awful stuff. Good result for Leinster against their bogey team.
Awful to watch. Connacht game is a cracker!
MOC OUT
Well the good news is we’re within 4 points of the top of the table with a few juicy head to heads coming up, but again, performance was terrible.
Makes those two points dropped in Italy last week all the more glaring when we look at how close we could be pushing for top spot.
The sooner Sexton is back and MOC and Gopperth leave this province the better.
Not nother cent of my money will be spent on any Leinster product until moc is gone.
I won’t stand by and watch Leinster fall apart, if the powers at Leinster want to pay Matt O’Connor to destroy everything that Leinster stand for then they can do that without the money I spend.
I will not protest at Leinster games because the players deserve better but I will do is online and through my wallet
Frank you can accept what’s happening and blindly follow matt’s army if you like but I want what’s best for Leinster. We have no given right to win trophies but we can demand that Leinster does it’s best and at the moment this man’s is no where near the standard required.
Buy a Munster jersey? it’s sheep like you that will hand munster the league.
Spoofer O’ Connor has the same game plan for every match
Game plan? What game plan? It looked like 15 players playing off the cuff? Stark contrast to Schmidt’s definite a well thought out game plans. Note to Leinster CEO – no more premiership coaches please.
As two dimensional as it is it’s still a gameplan: 1) Aggressive Line Speed in defence 2) Kick chase to pressurise back 3, and that’s it!
It’ll work against some teams, and sadly might even win us another Pro 12 (although doubtful), but it won’t stand up to Toulon or Clermont
Hard fought win well done Leinster from a Munster fan …roll on Dec 26th in Thomond park
I’d say you’re feeling confident Kevin…?
From a Munster fan, who’d gives a fu*k!
MOC and Gopperth are killing Leinster. Truck loads of of talent being wasted through a draconian style of play. It’s a crime against Irish rugby after the way the same players played under Smidth! I actually wasted 80 mins of my life watching that shite. This coming from a Galway man.
MOC and Gopperth suit the limited player pool at Leinsters disposal. You can only work with what you have and MOC is getting the best out of the group.
Really summed up my opinion on O’connor when the stadium announcer accidentally said jordi murphy was replacing kirchener at full back and I though it was a legit sub because of MOC persistent stupid decisions both player wise and tactically. The sooner he is gone the better, never been so bored in my life watching a leinster match.
I genuinely was close to falling asleep…it was awful
I think the ECup will be the focus for the next couple of weeks, hopefully all Irish teams are successful.
Turgid stuff – depressing how far Leinster have regressed under MOC.
Leinster win a penalty from 10 yards out with two mins to go – chance to scrum it again and send the Ospreys B team home with o points.
Couldn’t believe they took the penalty kick – winning by 6 points instead of 3 points is worth….. nothing extra. A dull, no risk, conservative decision, befitting the gameplan.
Laboured, boring and lucky!
There was another game happening only up the road earlier in the day where the Leinster a’s were playing. Despite an inferior opposition, Girv Dempsey had them throwing the ball around at every opportunity and at times it was a joy to watch with some really exciting back play.. A far cry from that boring rubbish that happened in the RDS. A shame that more were not there to see them play.
Was at that game, it was a great show alright
Who won? Who shone?
Well in the Leinster A match the whole team were great, in the Ospreys game I would say jack Conan, and one or two others were good
67-12. Agree with Jamie, the whole team were serious contributions and again it was just simple free flowing rugby, € 10 to watch an exhibition! Cian Kelleher and Mick McG took their tries very well. Being able to watch the in person you really see the leaders on the pitch. Marsh and Macken ran the show yesterday. People give out about Macken saying he can’t pass, bashes it up the middle etc, etc well anyone who was there yesterday will see that the lad has got a serious footballing brain and can really play. Granted the opposition were not exactly Champions Cup level but the point being that girv is obviously a coach that wants to play an expansive game and this brought out the best in them. Same for Marsh. Even if MOC is gone next season, with Sexton back and Mads there he will continue to find it difficult to break into the team.
Marsh has got serious vision, possibly even more raw talent in certain aspects of his game than either of the two internationals ahead of him. Similar to George Ford. However sadly we may never get to see at the very highest level.
Missed the Leinster game because I was out. Glad I didn’t rush home after seeing the comments here. Glad they won it though. Caught the second half of the Connacht game and it was a cracker. Really delighted to see them doing so well this year. Given the qualification for Europe from pro 12 is heavily stacked against them, I’m delighted to see them doing so well. It would soften the cough of the English if all 4 Irish provinces were to qualify for champions cup next year without one being “gifted” the spot. Being honest, if they don’t get in next year and sebre do, it really makes a mockery of the new “fairer” qualification system.
Sorry, Zebre. Slip of the finger there.
It’s like watching England
Sky sports
Leinster’s kicking game was really poor today. You can really see the difference between the quality of box kicks when Ireland and Leinster play. There was hardly a single contestable kick from Reddan and when it was kicked well, it wasn’t chased with any real intent. The whole second half seemed to revolve around the Ospreys pinning Leinster in their own 22 and Leinster then kicking it back to them.
Whilst this was a good result for Leinster, their performance left a lot to be desired. Unfortunately, this has been the case too often this season.
What happened to Leinster?
Incredibly boring to watch.
Nacewa, Sexton, BOD, Cullen, Hines, Rocky Elsom, Thorn all left, D’arcy, Reddan, Boss, Ross and Jennings hit their mid thirties while Fitzgerald, SOB and Strauss became permanently crocked. It’s quite obvious why Leinster are in the state they’re in but some fans choose to deny reality and laughably blame MOC and Gopperth for their woes.
Not for the first time. Not even a mention of connachts game today on thescore.ie. why?
My mistake. Made this before the Connacht articles came out
Is ‘The Swerve’ being groomed for top dog?
We hope so!!!
This isn’t on TV is it?
Tis
On TG4 and Sky Sports 2 but too late now!