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

Gaelic football Gaelic football (; short name '')'', commonly known as simply Gaelic, GAA, or football, is an Irish team sport. A form of football, it is played between two teams of 15 players on a rectangular grass pitch. The objective of the sport is to score ...

er and

manager Management (or managing) is the administration of organizations, whether businesses, nonprofit organizations, or a government bodies through business administration, nonprofit management, or the political science sub-field of public administra ...

priest A priest is a religious leader authorized to perform the sacred rituals of a religion, especially as a mediatory agent between humans and one or more deity, deities. They also have the authority or power to administer religious rites; in parti ...

, 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 (

California California () is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States that lies on the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. It borders Oregon to the north, Nevada and Arizona to the east, and shares Mexico–United States border, an ...

. He played Gaelic football for

Grange Grange may refer to: Buildings * Grange House, Scotland, built in 1564, and demolished in 1906 * Grange Estate, Pennsylvania, built in 1682 * The Grange (Toronto), Toronto, Ontario, built in 1817 * Monastic grange, a farming estate belonging to ...

as a youth during the 1940s and would go on to become club president. Fr. Haran spent 58 years as a priest. having been

ordained Ordination is the process by which individuals are Consecration in Christianity, consecrated, that is, set apart and elevated from the laity class to the clergy, who are thus then authorized (usually by the religious denomination, denominationa ...

1956 Events January * January 1 – The Anglo-Egyptian Sudan, Anglo-Egyptian Condominium ends in Sudan after 57 years. * January 8 – Operation Auca: Five U.S. evangelical Christian Missionary, missionaries, Nate Saint, Roger Youderian, E ...

. His first appointment was as

curate A curate () is a person who is invested with the ''care'' or ''cure'' () 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 who are as ...

Roscommon Roscommon (; ; ) is the county town and the largest town in County Roscommon in Republic of Ireland, Ireland. It is roughly in the centre of Ireland, near the meeting of the N60 road (Ireland), N60, N61 road (Ireland), N61 and N63 road (Irelan ...

and

Sooey Sooey (, meaning abounding in the plant sorrel), is a village in County Sligo in Ireland. The village is situated near Riverstown, on the R284 road which runs between Sligo and Leitrim village in County Leitrim. It is the burial place of Provi ...

. He spent most of his priestly life as a teacher, first teaching English at

Summerhill College Summerhill College (aka The College of the Immaculate Conception) is a Roman Catholic voluntary secondary school for boys located in the town of Sligo in north-west Ireland. History The school was founded in 1857 by then-bishop of Elphin, Laur ...

Sligo Sligo ( ; , 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 20,608 in 2022, it is the county's largest urban centre (constituting 2 ...

(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 design ...

Ballina, County Mayo Ballina ( ; ) is a town in north County Mayo, Ireland. It lies at the mouth of the River Moy near Killala Bay, in the Moy valley and civil parishes in Ireland, civil parish of Kilmoremoy, with the Ox Mountains to the east and the Nephin Beg Ra ...

, and spent time teaching at the

University of San Diego The University of San Diego (USD) is a Private university, private Catholic Church, Catholic research university in San Diego, California, United States. Chartered in 1949 as the independent San Diego College for Women and San Diego University ...

in 1968. In 1988, he was posted to

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. He managed St Mary's to their first

Sligo Senior Football Championship The Sligo Senior Football Championship is an annual Gaelic Athletic Association The Gaelic Athletic Association (GAA; ; CLG) is an Irish international amateur sports, amateur sporting and cultural organisation, focused primarily on promoti ...

title; in 1977, they were the first Sligo club to win a

Connacht Senior Club Football Championship The Connacht Senior Club Football Championship is an annual Gaelic football tournament played between senior clubs in Connacht, with one qualifying from each of the five individual county championships. The winners of the Connacht football champ ...

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 Roscommon Gaels GAA is a Gaelic Athletic Association club located in Roscommon in County Roscommon, Ireland. The club provides teams for both hurling and Gaelic football. History The club was founded in 1959 as a result of a merger between ...

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.

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 People from Grange, County Sligo Christian clergy from County Sligo