Patsy Forbes Nowadays involved in the Derry G.A.A. set up but very much part of Tyrone Football Folklore There are two names which are synonymous with Gaelic football in the Ardboe area of County Tyrone. One is McGuigan, the other is Forbes. Patsy Forbes played with great distinction in the white jersey of Tyrone right through the sixties and in to the early seventies, he captained Ardboe to their first ever Senior County Championship success in 1968 and he is currently team manager of Magherafelt across the border in County Derry. He was also a selector for the Derry Under 21 side which won this year's Ulster Championship and is one of Ulster's most knowledgeable G.A.A. veterans. Which is exactly why we decided to drop in for a brief chat. Born and reared in the Ardboe area, Patsy moved to Magherafelt in 1970 after having married local girl Maura three years earlier. He first came into the Ardboe Minor team at the unlikely age of fourteen before moving gradually up through the ranks. Patsy met with success early in his career and quickly developed a knack for winning ways. In his four years as a Minor he reached the county final on all four occasions, winning two Tyrone Minor Championship medals in 1958 and 1960. He captained the club to Minor Championship success in '60 and also won two Minor League medals before waving farewell to his Minor days with Ardboe. Patsy captained the Tyrone Minor team in '59 and '60 (Incredibly, that match went to a second replay. It took the Ardboe lads three matches to settle the issue!) and picked up an Ulster League medal with the county team. Forbes had become a regular on the Ardboe Senior team by the time he was only sixteen years old. He captained the 1968 team that made the historic breakthrough by bringing the club their first ever Senior County Championship. This year the Ardboe O'Donovan Rossa club celebrated the Silver Jubilee of that magnificent achievement. They won the 1968 final against Coalisland on a scoreline of 1-8 to 0-7 at Dungannon on Sunday, September 15th. That team which put Ardboe's name on the O'Neill Cup for the first time ever was honour at half time during this year's Tyrone County final clash of Errigal Ciaran and Moortown. Patsy also captained his club to their second Senior football title in 1971 and was an important part of the side which went on to record the three in a row of '71,'72 and '73, bringing Patsy's Senior County Championship medal count to four which were collected within the space of six years. Great going by any player's standards in any county! Representing his native club in the 1973 Ulster Club final, the Ardboe star also picked up seven Tyrone All-County League medals during the course of his accomplished playing career. Looking back on that career, Patsy tells us that 'winning that first Championship medal in '68 as captain was the greatest experience of all." The present day Magherafelt team boss made his Senior inter-county debut for Tyrone in 1960 when he was introduced as a substitute for a Lagan Cup game against reigning All-Ireland kingpins Down. He remained in the panel right up until 1972. "We lost that game against Down who always seemed to beat us back then," recalls Patsy. :"Cavan and Down would've been the two best teams in Ulster but Down were really the team - we never seemed to get past them." indeed, Tyrone rarely got a look in in those days. During the sixties Down won six Ulster Championship titles, the other four going to the Cavan men. As well as his first county Championship victory with Ardboe Patsy's debut for Tyrone is another game that brings back fond memories. "The first game out against Down was something special. I also always enjoyed playing against Derry. There has always been a good healthy competition between Tyrone and Derry", he says. When Patsy first started to play with his club he lined out in the forwards, before moving back to midfield and their back again to the centre back berth. With Tyrone he also moved back from the forward line and finished his playing days as a wing back. Forbes certainly wasn't the tallest character ever to pull on the white shirt, but what he lacked in inches he atoned for with sheer commitment, enthusiasm and dedication. He played hard but fair, always giving one hundred per cent. Patsy Forbes rated Derry's Mickey Niblock and Down's Colm McAlarney as two of the toughest opponents he ever played against. As a player he was very friendly with fellow clubmen Paddy Wylie, Kevin Teague and Colm O'Neill, and he also had a good relationship with fellow clubman Frank McGuigan. The Tyrone Senior football team may not have met with any amazing level of success, but they were all great comrades and the 'craic' was always ninety. Even now - some twenty years since Patsy last played competitive football for the Tyrone Senior team - he is as spritely as most twenty year olds! In athletics he recently triumphed in the All-Ireland Over 40's 100m and 200m events, and followed those wins up with victories in both disciplines in both Over 45 and Over 50 age groups. That Over 50's win came last year. In 1990 he captained the Tyrone Over 40's to the All-Ireland final and marked Tommy Carew in the defeat at the hands of Kildare. Forbes, who took up rugby later on in his career at the age of 36, continued to play up until the age of 47. He feels that the style of Gaelic football has changed significantly since he first burst onto the scene in the sixties. "I think it's easier played now. As long as you can run fast and move about a bit, you'll get the ball given to you. In my day you had to be able to field the ball and the third man could hold you off, so you had to be very determined. If you have speed now it's easier to get into the game. It's more possession football that's being played", he feels. The former Tyrone star thinks that the recent rule changes such as the introduction of the quick free have improved the game and he believes that reducing the number of players on a team from fifteen to thirteen might make the game even faster and more entertaining. At the age of twenty-one Patsy started up his own business in Ardboe, and he currently, employs seventy people as proprietor of twin companies 'Forbes Kitchens' and 'Forbes Furniture', manufacturing kitchens, fitted bedrooms, upholstery and school furniture for the whole Irish market and also for England. Throughout his life, Patsy has always had a very good relationship with the folk just across the county border in Derry. "I've always had a great relationship with the people of Magherafelt through work. I knew Patsy Breen from the football and I brought him to Ardboe in '68 to coach us and we built up a great relationship. In 1972 he was Chairman of the Derry County Board and we beat Bellaghy who were All-Ireland champions in the Ulster Club Championship. Because of his divided loyalties, Patsy decided to remain a spectator that day. "I'm also a very good friend of Derry Senior selector Danny McKeever", he explains. Patsy first acted as manager of Magherafelt for two years in 1982 and '83 and while his heart still remains back home in Tyrone, Derry are very much his secondary team. "I still support Tyrone but outside that it's Derry all the way! It's the same with Patsy Breen and Danny McKeever - they'd both have a fancy for Tyrone. But if Derry and Tyrone were playing each other on Sunday there'd be great competition". In 1991 Patsy helped Mickey Donnelly and Sean McGuckin to coach and train the Ballinderry team. Patsy is optimistic that the O'Neill county could have a very bright future on the football field. "There's no doubt about it. They've recently won couple of Ulster and All-Ireland titles at Under 21 level and it's just a matter of them getting the team together and getting the right breaks. I believe there's a very bright future for Tyrone. The 1992 National League final against Derry was a very close game. Derry have come on since then. And the players are still there, so there's no reason, with the present management team, why we shouldn't come through as a top team again. It's very competitive in Ulster through", he says. Since moving to Magherafelt in 1970 the Ardboe man has always remained involved with the local G.A.A. scene in Derry. He was co-manager of the Senior team with Malachy McGucklan in '82 and '83, winning the League in '82 and reaching the county final the following year. Along with Martin Dillon Patsy managed the Magherafelt Minor team to a county Championship title last year - and that same pair are the current supremos of the Magherafelt Senior team. "We're team building at the moment. We've got a very dedicated bunch of fellas and we have a very big selection of players to pick from. The future looks good. We're going to have a very good first team and a good second team", explains Forbes, adding that his native Ardboe Under 21s who triumphed in this year's Tyrone Under 21 Championship, are also looking good for the future. Things are looking rosy! Patsy, who helped to train the Derry Under 21 side which won this year's Ulster title, was delighted with the success. "I was very pleased. I won the Ulster Minor title three years previously I felt that they had some excellent players to call on this year and was disappointed when we lost to Meath in the semi final. I always felt we'd go all the way. We had a very good game against Cavan and a terrific Ulster final against Down who had beaten reigning All-Ireland champions Tyrone - so we had good reason to think we'd go the whole way", he admits. Forbes has five brothers, all of whom played for the Ardboe club and two of whom represented Tyrone. Mickey John and Phelim Hugh both played for the county at Minor, Under 21 and Senior level. Mickey John played and Phelim Hugh was a substitute on the Tyrone side that won the Ulster title in 1973. Liam Oliver, Gerry Vincent and Eamonn all played for Ardboe. Married to Maura, Patsy has three children - two girls and a boy. His son Brian was on the Magherafelt Minor side that won the Derry Championship last year. He is currently studying at Queens University in Belfast. In his earlier days Patsy Forbes was a bit of a Chris Eubank - he represented Ulster in the boxing ring as a light middleweight! The former Ardboe man was thrilled with Derry's spectacular triumph in the year's All-Ireland Championship. "It was brilliant", he enthuses. "It was unbelievable because Derry had been trying so hard for three years. The manager, the team and everybody concerned put in a great effort. I was delighted for Peter Quinn too. It was great to see him handing Sam over to an Ulster captain for the three years of his presidency. Patsy has great words of praise for two men who have done tremendous work for his native Ardboe club over the years. Local solicitor Pat Duffy was club secretary at fifteen and has been a great ambassador for the club all his life, while Father Smith, who and was highly respected during his stint there. "He was a true blue Ardboe man and a true blue Armagh supporter", says Patsy. Pat Campbell, Jim Curran, Mickey Devlin, Tommy Quinn and Jim Quinn are a few other Ardboe parishioners who have worked hard for the parish all their lives and whose effort Patsy holds in the highest esteem. "There are so many other names I'd like to mention but if I started we'd be here all day!", he says. He has had a great relationship with the G.A.A. all his life - long may it continue!!! Written by the Hogan Stand Magazine 5th Nov 1993 Tweet

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