Tyrone manager Mickey Harte has confirmed that neither he nor any of his players will be giving interviews to RTE this year.

It will the third year in succession for the Red Hands to boycott RTE after it aired a distasteful comedy sketch on the John Murray Show in the aftermath of Michaela Harte's tragic death in Mauritius in 2011, which the national broadcaster was forced to apologise for. The Tyrone manager had already boycotted RTE over what he felt was the unfair treatment of commentator Brian Carty following Micheal O Muircheartaigh's retirement,

When asked at last night's Ulster SFC launch in Belfast if there had been a change to Tyrone's stance, Harte said: "Yep, that's right. No further answer required."

RTE will broadcast Tyrone's eagerly-awaited Ulster SFC quarter-final against All-Ireland champions Donegal on May 26, and Harte has reiterated his view that the game should be played in Clones rather than Ballybofey, which has a much smaller capacity.

"I just said for the sake of the number of people who wanted to watch the game, Clones would have been the better venue but Donegal had the call on it, they were drawn out first so they had the right to look for it and obviously the Ulster Council awarded it to them.

"I've no complaints about that at all. I'm just saying it will be difficult for all those who want to get to the game in Ballybofey and that's probably unfortunate but we can't change that now.

"The idea that there is a limit on the people that can get in there makes more people want to go to it. It's a double-edged sword, isn't it?" he is quoted as saying in the Irish Examiner. Tweet

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