Cyril Haran (7 February 1931 – 25 June 2014) was a

Gaelic football Gaelic football ( ga, Peil Ghaelach; short name '), commonly known as simply Gaelic, GAA or Football is an Irish team sport. It is played between two teams of 15 players on a rectangular grass pitch. The objective of the sport is to score by kic ...

er and manager, priest, scholar and schoolteacher. He managed the Sligo county team.

Biography

Cyril Haran was born in February 1931. He had three sisters: Grace Liddy (who predeceased him), Margo (based in Sligo at her brother's death) and Sr Vickey Haran (based in the U.S. state of California at that time). He played Gaelic football for Grange as a youth during the 1940s and would go on to become club president. He taught English at Summerhill College in

Sligo Sligo ( ; ga, Sligeach , meaning 'abounding in shells') is a coastal seaport and the county town of County Sligo, Ireland, within the western province of Connacht. With a population of approximately 20,000 in 2016, it is the List of urban areas ...

(where he was known as "Cyrilly" or "Dosser"), as well as training the school's soccer and Gaelic football teams. He also taught at

St Muredach's College St Muredach's College is an all-boys secondary school on the banks of the River Moy in Ballina, County Mayo, Ireland. It was founded in 1906 to provide a Catholic education for boys in the Killala Diocese. The school building, which was designe ...

in Ballina, County Mayo, and spent time teaching at the

University of San Diego The University of San Diego (USD) is a private Roman Catholic research university in San Diego, California. Chartered in July 1949 as the independent San Diego College for Women and San Diego University (comprising the College for Men and Schoo ...

in 1968. He managed St Mary's to their first Sligo Senior Football Championship title; in 1977, they were the first Sligo club to win a Connacht Senior Club Football Championship title. In 1978, he managed St Mary's to a Sligo Football Championship semi-final against Grange, won by Grange in a replay. He managed the Sligo county team between 1983 and 1985. Other teams he managed were Roscommon Gaels and St Michael's. He was noted for telling his teams: "Lads, winning isn't everything", then to pause and follow through with "It's the only thing". His enjoyments included literature and fishing. The Very Reverend Fr. Haran spent 58 years as a priest. He was ordained in

1956 Events January * January 1 – The Anglo-Egyptian Sudan, Anglo-Egyptian Condominium ends in Sudan. * January 8 – Operation Auca: Five U.S. evangelical Christian Missionary, missionaries, Nate Saint, Roger Youderian, Ed McCully, Jim ...

and went on to be

curate A curate () is a person who is invested with the ''care'' or ''cure'' (''cura'') ''of souls'' of a parish. In this sense, "curate" means a parish priest; but in English-speaking countries the term ''curate'' is commonly used to describe clergy w ...

in Roscommon and Sooey. In 1988, he was posted to Grange as CC and became parish priest of Ahamlish and Inishmurray in 1997. His retirement came in 2003. He received a celebration Mass and presentation. He spent it at Streedagh until he died from a short illness at the North West Hospice in June 2014 at the age of 83. His funeral was held at Church of Mary Immaculate, Grange, and he was buried afterwards in Sligo Cemetery.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Haran, Cyril 1931 births 2014 deaths Gaelic football managers Gaelic games club administrators 20th-century Irish Roman Catholic priests Irish schoolteachers Sportspeople from County Sligo Teachers of English