Sport
The major sports in Tyrone are Gaelic games, Association football and Rugby Union.
- Gaelic football is more widely played than hurling. The Tyrone GAA football side has had considerable success since 2000, winning three All Ireland titles (in 2003, 2005 and 2008), they have also won thirteen Ulster titles (1956, 1957, 1973, 1984, 1986, 1989, 1995, 1996, 2001, 2003, 2007, 2009, 2010) and two National League titles (in 2002 and 2003).
- Underage Gaelic football teams have also had considerable successes on the field at both provincial and national level - winning the All-Ireland Minor Football Championship seven times (the most recent, also in 2010) and the All-Ireland Under-21 Football Championship four times.
- Association Football also has a large following. Omagh Town F.C. were members of the Irish Football League until they folded in 2005. Dungannon Swifts F.C. compete in the IFA Premiership. Other teams include Irish League Division One side Coagh United F.C. and Division Two sides Dergview F.C. and Killymoon Rangers F.C..
- Rugby Union is very popular in the county. Dungannon RFC are one of only three Ulster teams currently playing in All Ireland League One. Other teams include Omagh RFC, Clogher Valley RFC, Cookstown RFC and Strabane RFC.
Read more about this topic: County Tyrone
Famous quotes containing the word sport:
“Sweet Auburn, loveliest village of the plain,
Where health and plenty cheered the labouring swain,
Where smiling spring its earliest visit paid,
And parting summer’s lingering blooms delayed,
Dear lovely bowers of innocence and ease,
Seats of my youth, when every sport could please,
How often have I loitered o’er the green,
Where humble happiness endeared each scene.”
—Oliver Goldsmith (1730?–1774)
“If a walker is indeed an individualist there is nowhere he can’t go at dawn and not many places he can’t go at noon. But just as it demeans life to live alongside a great river you can no longer swim in or drink from, to be crowded into safer areas and hours takes much of the gloss off walking—one sport you shouldn’t have to reserve a time and a court for.”
—Edward Hoagland (b. 1932)
“For generations, a wide range of shooting in Northern Ireland has provided all sections of the population with a pastime which ... has occupied a great deal of leisure time. Unlike many other countries, the outstanding characteristic of the sport has been that it was not confined to any one class.”
—Northern Irish Tourist Board. quoted in New Statesman (London, Aug. 29, 1969)