PATSY McLARNON AND THE GREAT DAYS OF DERRY FOOTBALL One of the unsung heroes on Derry's hallowed team of 1958 was corner back Patsy McLarnon. In his book The Football Immortals, GAA writer and historian Raymond Smith recalls a conversation in the International Hotel, Belfast, with two other members of that team of '58, midfielders Phil Stuart and the great Jim McKeever. Derry had beaten a well-fancied Kerry team by a single point in the All-Ireland semi-final that year, 2-6 to 2-5. The decisive goal came late in the second half through their classy wing forward Sean O'Connell. It was a highlight of the game, but not the only one that Stuart would remember: "Phil Stuart vividly recalls that match-winning goal in the rain and recalls too the wonderful covering of Patsy McLarnon in defence, ably backed by Hugh Francis Gribben and Colm Mulholland," wrote Smith. It is worth remembering Patsy later won an All-Star for that performance. Derry were beaten by an experienced Dublin team in the All-Ireland final and would have to wait another 35 years before bringing the Sam Maguire Cup to the banks of the Foyle for the first time. That All-Ireland defeat notwithstanding, the team of '58 has long gone into popular and affectionate folklore in the Oak Leaf County, as will the team of '93 in the years to come. Patsy McLarnon played for Derry for a number of years and went on to make his living as a building contractor. His son Michael also wore the county colours as a minor and was a member of that fine Derry squad which beat Cork in the 1983 All-Ireland minor final. And like his father, he has also gone into the building business. He is a director of the London-based Formark Group, which was established in 1988 and controls four inter-linked companies: Formark Property, Formark Development, Formark Construction and Formark Scaffolding. Michael is Managing Director of the Construction company and a director on the main board. The construction company specialise in top class refurbishment contracts worth up to £1 million and, in addition, also build high-spec, high quality detached house son behalf of the development company. The London housing market has had its up and downs in the eight years since Formark was set up but they are trading in the more affluent end of the scale and are perhaps slightly less vulnerable. "On the housing side," explains Michael, "we found that the market got a little bit flat towards the end of last year. It was a bit quiet after Christmas but we're starting to find interest picking up again. The market that we're aiming at, the quarter million pound bracket, there are people buying houses in it so as long as the house is rightly-priced for the area then we're selling them." They put a lot of emphasis on high quality finishing in their work with more money spent on the interiors - including the expertise of interior designers. On the refurbishments side of their business, the emphasis is again on the upmarket end of things and they would be regular visitors to the more rarefied suburbs of Kensington and Mayfair. Michael's initial exposure to the rigours of the building industry was with his father but he also attended University of Ulster Jordanstown from where he graduated with a Bsc. He went straight to London from college and has been with the Formark group since. They have always tried to run a tight ship at the company and it has enabled them to survive the difficult days as well as prosper in the Thatcherite growth years. "Since '88 we've seen the boom of the property market and the recession that came after it. We've worked our way through it, the directors are very hands-on, but like everybody else we've had to cut our cloth to suit the times." They retain a core management group of about 20 which includes the directors and site managers, and everything else is sub-contracted out. The Thatcherite boom years when it seemed everyone was 'loaded' are almost the stuff of legend now but the glut of money in England - the south particularly - eventually dissipated with the lean, tough years that followed. The late eighties and early nineties were years of retrenchment as business like Formark sat it out and waited for the upturn, which has slowly emerged over the last two years - but not on the same scale as previously. Through settled with a family in London, Michael tries to get back to Derry at least three or four times a year to see his parents, Patsy and Peggy, and his brothers and sisters. Married to Celine, a native of Derry city, they have one boy, Conor, aged four and newly-arrived baby daughter, Ella. Michael was actually born in London but his parents moved back to Magherafelt in south Derry when he was four and he was raised there. South Derry is, of course, a great GAA stronghold situated about 30 miles south of the city. The McLarnons lived just outside the town so they played their football with Newbridge as opposed to Magherafelt. Michael played at all levels for Newbridge, a club that can also boost the highly talented Damian Barton among its members. He played alongside Barton and, indeed, the likes of Dermot McNicholl, Damien Cassidy and most of the other Derry players at either college or county level. His position was full back or centre half back and, being a contemporary of McNicholl's, would have had a few encounters with this explosive young talent. "He would have been the man to watch coming alright!" recalls Michael with a laugh. McNicholl, of course, captained that triumphant team of '83. Michael vied for the number three jersey all that summer eith Paul Bradley but the matter was resolved before the final when Michael picked up an injury, causing him to miss the big day. Needless to say, it was a deeply disappointing experience for him - "gutted", is how he describes his feelings at the time. After the minors he went to Jordanstown where he picked up a freshers medal followed by a brace of Sigerson triumphs on '86 and '87. Those Sigerson teams had a healthy sprinkling of county players such as Ger Houlihan of Armagh, Tommy Maguire from Fermanagh and other counties. Like all Sigerson teams, they were extremely fit and it afforded an ideal opportunity for players like McLarnon to reach exceptionally high levels of fitness. He has very fond memories of those playing days in particular. "It's fantastic to have experienced it. The Sigerson would have been in February/March and we'd have been training from September. We were taking on county teams and beating them. It was a good experience, we had great times," Upon his move to England, Michael joined the St Brendan's club but found the rather lax attitude to training and preparation hard to accept, having become used to the almost professional approach at university level. That, plus his growing business commitments, meant his playing days receded a little prematurely. He does, however, still keep in touch with the Jordanstown GAA club and has weighed in with some sponsorship in recent years. The team manager incidentally on the '86/'87 Sigerson winning sides was one Eamon Coleman who, of course, went on to guide Derry to the ultimate prize in '93. Michael is fully aware of Coleman's contribution to Derry football. "I could relate to a lot of the stuff he was doing because Derry football up to then - they put the pure footballer in, the light, skilful player, and once you sent them down to the Lion's Den in Croke Park, it didn't count for much. And that was one of the drawbacks in the Derry game before Coleman got in. He was able to intrude men like McGilligan and Tohill into the outfit and it was purely the size and strength of that team that won an All-Ireland for them. It was as if the southern football and the northern football had actually swapped over, we had the physically strong teams coming down from the north - Donegal might have been the exception." The subsequent removal of Coleman from the job has puzzled a lot of observers since. "I don't know the full story, but it was sad to see. He was the first one who had actually did anything for Derry football and I felt he was owed a little bit more than what he was shown." Taken from Hogan Stand magazine 26th April, 1006 Tweet

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