OK let's try to get the Tyrone board back into good old fashion open debate as it's gone a bit quiet.

East versus west: why the big schmoozle?

Although I'm a proud Tyrone man, as a westerner it's hard to have any affiliation with the east on a social aspect, as the majority of my social life in the west satellites Omagh. Thus school, nightlife, retail, work, if not catered for in my village, are all catered for in Omagh. Personally, there is a similar infrequence with the north of the county regarding Strabane.

Dungannon, Cookstown and the townlands of the east are unknown to me other than how to get to GAA pitches.

The east west divide is accentuated by official borders, Omagh District council stopping at Newtownstewart in the north, Trillick in the west, Greencastle in the east and Ballygawley in the south, Strabane, Enniskillen and Dungannon South Tyrone councils take over respectively.
Incidentally I feel the north Tyrone teams get a bit of a raw deal in the east west debate as they probably count themselves as neither but rather north Tyrone. GAA clubs in Strabane District council area would count Derry as a surrogate town after Strabane.
Similarly, Enniskillen is closer to me than Dungannon or Cookstown.

Is this the main reason for the rivalry, do others have similar thoughts?

Watching the mcrory final was a great experience knowing a Tyrone team would win but it was strange not knowing the clubs of some of the younger St Pats players. I always thought the east west divide held back the county team prior to MH coming along.

Tyrone, as a county, probably has the most unique demographic and area spread anywhere in Ulster. Although there are similar dichotomies in Derry and Antrim with the urban/rural shift, Tyrone is a predominantly rural county with a large east west divide.

Any thoughts? Lets not descend into a silly slanging match but have some intelligent responses.

milo (Tyrone) - Posts: 238 - 06/04/2009 14:30:49    249493

milo dont know if the geographical set up within the county has been the problem though your points especially re north tyrone are very valid, its almost forgotten about, despite some of our most important county players in dooher oneill and mcconnell hailing from there, to name bit a few.

historically the divide has had a lot to do with the make up of the county board the staging of games and the make up of the county team. the west has always felt hard done by and discriminated against in years gone by. the east also has a smaller concentration of large populations in the three major eastern towns which has led to the formation of a lot of clubs and as someone has pointed out on another thread a lot of friends being established especially at the end of the season if relegation is looming. im sure all counties have it look at the oafs across the sperrins they hate each other so much its a joke for the rest of ulster.

reddoctor (Tyrone) - Posts: 1241 - 06/04/2009 17:30:30    249853

As for football terms, the West is easily better however most teams in the East have about 3 quality players on each side. Youth football needs to combine 1A and and 1B or mix them up because 1A teams are much weaker than 1B. But in saying that, I prefer the buzzing cookstown night life rather than cold, wet omagh.

redhand (Tyrone) - Posts: 153 - 06/04/2009 19:25:27    250010

what did the first post say? can you not read

tyronefan22 (Tyrone) - Posts: 183 - 06/04/2009 22:04:48    250191

redhand, how can you justify the west having better footballers than the east? through the years the county team has had by far more dominant players from the east. where are the current county champions from?? yes the east too! besides dromore, which teams have consistently contested the league and championship for the last 2 decades?? eastern teams have! errigal and moy (dungannon district) keep supplying a wealth of county foorballers. ardboe keep supplying some of the best in the country never mind county and my own club had a rake of county players during the nineties and always seem to be represented even now. dungannon academy, holy trinity cookstown and st ciarans ballygawley always contest ulster and all ireland schools football whereas once in a blue moon CBS get a decent result so dont go there.
so i think you will find that your opinion on the west having better footballers might not be the case at all.

moortownspuds (Tyrone) - Posts: 336 - 06/04/2009 22:05:45    250192

Ah now redhand. Im from the west but i dont know about the west being easily better than the east. You have teams like Clonoe, Coalisland, Ardboe, Moy and Donaghmore in the east.
In the west you have Carrickmore, Omagh, Killyclogher, Clann na nGael and Dromore. It would be tight enough i think, with east maybe shading it.

But I will agree with you on the choice of Cookstown as a night out. Far better than Omagh.

Plastic Paddy (Tyrone) - Posts: 664 - 06/04/2009 22:17:28    250213

ok moortownspudhead, lets see, who has dominated senior football for the past few decades, thats right, its carrickmore and errigal(who can be considered west). Youth football has been consistently dominated by west, omagh and dromore seem to be the main teams. in the past 5 years, omagh cbs have got to 3 macrory cup finals, winning two of them and a Hogan Cup, Academy have did the same, so dont talk about 'once a blue moon' get those facts correct mate. Moortown have contributed massively to tyrone seniors, dont make me laugh, lawns and PJ Quinn, quinn is a mediocre footballer. To finish this, i didnt say East tyrone dont have good footballers, but they have limited good players per team, which is obvious through the West winning everything at youth, and before you mention Arboe winning Minor last year, i am already aware of that.

redhand (Tyrone) - Posts: 153 - 06/04/2009 23:07:34    250272

i think that when Tyrone won Sam in 2003 it finaly put an end to the so called east/west divide and i for one was glad because at the end of the day we're all Tyrone Gaels and whilst of course there will always be intense rivalry between lots of clubs, to draw an imaginary East West line is only seeking division that honestly doesn't really exist to the extent that people preach, but then again there are of course those that would disagree with me.

Rahilly_Man (Tyrone) - Posts: 361 - 06/04/2009 23:14:47    250283

redhand, no call for the insults!! anyway, you obviously dont remember anything before the early 2000's do you? i never said that moortowm contributed massively to tyrone seniors, what i did say is that moortown during the nineties had always 4/5 players on the senior panel - but as you seem to be only a young lad, you wouldnt remember would you?
errigal ciaran are in east tyrone, carmen in mid tyrone - despite what you think, meaning errigal belongs to the east. during the nineties and infact until killyclogher won the champoinship, besides carmen who are mid tyrone, it was always east tyrone teams contesting the league and championship, once again - despite what you think! the fact of the matter is mate, you came out with utter nonsense in the first place with a biased opinion about west tyrone having better teams and footballers when infact they dont really. as for omagh cbs - fair play to them, but their success has all been in recent yrs, were they heard of 10 yrs ago??

moortownspuds (Tyrone) - Posts: 336 - 07/04/2009 01:27:19    250390

besides redhand - what has loughmacrory ever won?? and at the minute its a moortown man trying to progress that club of yours!!

moortownspuds (Tyrone) - Posts: 336 - 07/04/2009 01:29:13    250392

Moortown potatos.... maybe you should focus your energy on the Malachys and address the many problems they seem to have from top to bottom... bad field, poor facilities, headless hens in charge of things and very middling players who are far too big for their boots. Thats just for starters.

BIG SACKS (Tyrone) - Posts: 1681 - 07/04/2009 09:53:06    250472

red hand -i dont know how u make out the west of the county are EASILY BETTER than the east so let me remind u of some of the great players the east have contributed to tyrone football...all stars ...kevin mccabe,,frank mcguigan,,plunket donaghy,,damian ohagan,,fay devlin,,cormac mcanallen.. rip,,philip jordan,,sean cavanagh,,owen mulligan,,peter canavan,,davy harte,,enda mcginley,,now u may say errigal is not the west but thats another debate,,anyway add to that the likes of eddie devin rip,,jim devlin rip,,,jody oneill,,iggy jones.. rip,,,tom sullivan,,,tom fox..rip,,, john joe hagan,,,add to that brian mcguigan ,,tommy mcguigan,,ciarn corr,,sean mcnally,,,,,,,to name but a few, there are others as u know and i know that the west has produced their fair share of great players as well but to say the west is EASILY BETTER is totally wrong ,,wouldnt u agree by looking at the facts ,,,dessie ...tir eoghain abu

dessie (Tyrone) - Posts: 211 - 07/04/2009 10:27:43    250508

FAO redhand

I suggest you go invest in a map, there is absolutely no way Errigal Ciaran are a western club.

flumpo (Tyrone) - Posts: 100 - 07/04/2009 11:48:06    250607

i believe one of tyrones greats richie "the barber" mcgirr hails from augher which is in west tyrone

donthaveaclue (Monaghan) - Posts: 45 - 07/04/2009 11:58:30    250626

flumpo i meant errigal were east the west was a mistake but some might disagree i personally say its east ,,and i dont need a map i have a sat nav thank u lol ,,dessie

dessie (Tyrone) - Posts: 211 - 07/04/2009 12:17:45    250649

sorry flumpo i thought u were talkin to me and i see it was red hand u were replying to ,,sorry

dessie (Tyrone) - Posts: 211 - 07/04/2009 12:26:13    250659

Carrickmore are not a west Tyrone Team. Go look at a map - we are as much to the East if not more than errigal Ciaran.

RuaHughONeill (Tyrone) - Posts: 110 - 07/04/2009 13:19:55    250744

Errigal Ciaran are not a west or east tyrone team.

South Tyrone.

spoonman (Tyrone) - Posts: 24 - 07/04/2009 14:33:18    250836

RuaHughONeill
County: Tyrone
Posts: 34

At underage level the Grade A and Grade B are divided into whichever side of the County that team is from. Carrickmore are always on the West side at underage with the likes of Omagh, Dromore, Killyclogher etc....
I've never seen Carmen in the same side as Ardboe, Coalisland etc....

Plastic Paddy (Tyrone) - Posts: 664 - 07/04/2009 15:48:21    250976

Do you know why that is PP. When the county was split into West Tyrone and East Tyrone leagues originally Carrickmore played in East Tyrone...but due to the lower number of clubs in the West of Tyrone it was decided to transfer Carrickmore (which at that stage also took in Loughmacrory) into the West Tyrone league to make it more competitive (History of GAA in Tyrone by Joe Martin). The same occurs today - geographically Carrickmore club is in the mid/east region of Tyrone - but for numbers and competitiveness the County board retains the club within the west. For example its much further to Dromore, Aghayarn, Trillick, Strabane etc than it is to Coalisland, the Moy, Donaghmore etc. Sure isnt our two nearest neighbouring clubs Pomeroy and Galbally.

Dungannon is part of Fermanagh and South Tyrone - but its neither in Fermanagh or South Tyrone; its there to create a balance. As is Carmen. But its not a west Tyrone club by any means

RuaHughONeill (Tyrone) - Posts: 110 - 07/04/2009 16:00:47    250998