Updated 12.50
ALL-IRELAND WINNING Tyrone manager Mickey Harte has spoken of the heartbreak he still suffers following his daughter’s Michaela murder four years ago.
Michaela McAreavey, 27, was found strangled while on her honeymoon in Mauritius in January 2011. Nobody has ever been convicted of her murder.
In an interview with Pat Kenny to be broadcast on UTV Ireland tonight, Harte revealed that Michaela’s strong religious faith helps him to cope with the devastating loss.
“I still miss her so so much and in human terms, your heart is broken,” he said.
“On a higher level, I just feel there is a connection – a special connection – and I can only just believe that that’s the work of God and the work of Michaela.
She had such a belief and that gives me great help and great succour at the minute. She so believed in God, believed that that was her purpose in life, to work her way towards God.
The wide-ranging interview also touched on Harte’s remarkable success in leading Tyrone to three All-Ireland football titles, the first of which came in 2003 when Pat Spillane infamously branded their style of play as ‘puke football.’
“To suggest that is was puke football, just because Kerry didn’t win in his eyes, and we were supposed to be ultra-defensive, but we had 9 points by half-time [in the All-Ireland semi-final against Kerry] – I think it was 9-2 – well you couldn’t be totally defensive if you’re getting nine points.
“The game ended up being won by something like 13-6, so we were actually playing more offensive football than Kerry were on the day, because we had the results to show it.”
– “Pat Kenny in the Round” premieres Monday 11 May at 9pm on UTV Ireland.
Delighted for the lad! Would be great if in the future more young Irish players could come back for half a season play some LOI and go back with that bit of experience, seems to have done Eoghan no harm
Ambrose and boyata are both a liability,simunovic still an unknown quantity so I’d say it’s a toss up between o Connell and kolo to partner sviatchenko.would be great to see eoghan nail down a regular spot and continue his progress
That is brilliant news for Celtic and Ireland.
I watched the match – O’Connell showed great character throughout the game.
Can’t but read Rogers interview in his voice
Lads…. were ye watching a different game,,, he was 100% to blame for the goal…. lost his man completely
Blueman, you’re right, the goal was his fault but his head didn’t go down after it as most young players would and he went from strength to strength as the game went on.
It’s a zonal marking system, therefore no man to lose. Although he could have been better for it so could every other defender in the box and if Gordon stayed on his line maybe it wouldn’t have been a goal so 100% is very harsh on the the young fella. For a 20 y/o making his first European start in a notoriously tough place to go he done very little wrong and was one of Celtics better players. If you were watching the match and not just the goal you would have seen that!
O Connell did well all things taken into account,good result to take back to glasgow
Fact is the goal was his fault, you can dress it up anyway you want,… football at the highest level is a harsh game, and goals decide games, if he wasn’t a young irish player playing for celtic , people wouldn’t be raving about his performance and making excuses for his defending for the goal… think we need to take off the green white and gold glasses here…. and I did watch the full game
Blueman there’s nobody bigging him up.if simunovic can be kept fit and playing regularly,o connell won’t get much game time.at the moment he’s the pick of a bad bunch and just a potentially good defender
Blueman get a grip ffs. He’s 20 years of age, made one or two small mistakes in the biggest game of his career to date. Start blaming the young man now and giving him abuse about the goal could shatter his confidence, that’s why he’s being praised. Attitudes like yours is the reason a lot of talented youngsters don’t make it in the game!
Hahaha…. one or two small mistakes???… wouldn’t call losing his man for a goal in a champions lge game a small mistake. … its quite a significant one. If young pros can’t take a bit of criticism they may as well forget about a career in the game…. and I thought he he will let a bit of criticism on the 42 get to him… if he he was that type of character he would never have made it this far
You said people wouldn’t be raving about his performance if he wasn’t Irish or playing for Celtic. Well this is an Irish site and an article about Celtic, so obviously people who have a better understanding of the game than yourself (and people who really watched the game) think he merits praise for his performance! And if you’re a Celtic supporter you should be ashamed of yourself :-/
I am not a celtic fan … I am looking at the game… which I watched in full from an unbiased point of view… it’d obvious your biased towards him, , and if u can’t see he was at fault for that goal than it is you who doesn’t really know that much about football….