It's no secret that Joe Brolly is opposed to Mickey Harte's recent appointment as manager of the Derry GAA footballers.
A member of Derry's only ever All-Ireland winning team, Brolly made his feelings abundantly clear on social media when the appointment was first leaked in September, and has expanded on those views in recent weeks.
The ex-RTÉ pundit is not the only one to have question marks surrounding the arrival of a Tyrone man through and through to take charge of their bitter Ulster rivals.
Harte's former players Seán Cavanagh and Owen Mulligan have both raised eyebrows at the move, while Kerryman Éamonn Fitzmaurice has doubts about how well the pair will fit from a footballing perspective.
This week, Brolly and co-host Dion Fanning invited former Dublin manager Pat Gilroy on their podcast Free State to discuss the bombshell arrival of Mickey Harte in Derry - and Brolly explained in emotional detail why he is so opposed to the appointment.
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Joe Brolly: "F*ck them and f*ck Mickey Harte"
Speaking on his podcast Free State this week, Joe Brolly debated the merits of loyalty within the GAA with Pat Gilroy and Dion Fanning.
Dublin man Gilroy said that he could not wrap his head around Mickey Harte's decision to abandon his home county and take charge of their fiercest rivals, a sentiment echoed by Brolly, who said that he had proposed a rule change which would prevent outside managers in the GAA.
Brolly then went on to give a passionate speech in which he recounted the many painful experiences endured by the Derry All-Ireland winners of 1993, and the collective pain shared by the county at the deaths of manager Eamonn Coleman and wing-back Colm McGurk from that team at young ages.
In a near-five minute speech, an audibly emotional Brolly said that an outside manager simply could not understand those collective experiences of grief, and explained that this was partly why he was so opposed to the appointment of Tyrone man Mickey Harte:
5-minute speech by Joe Brolly about Harte's appointment
I'm 54 now, I look back at my life and it's not about the winning or the losing.
The core of it all is loyalty, was loyalty. I think of shouldering Eamonn Coleman's coffin, tears running down my face. I think of sitting freezing in Navan watching Derry playing Meath in a league game, with Eamonn, when his life was ebbing away and he was very frail. Wearing his wee woolie hat. Savouring that time we were having together.
Or our beloved comrade Collie McGurk. Lavey, Derry to the core. I was coming away from a Derry match in Croke Park whenever Johnny [McGurk] rang me to say - I can still feel my heart sinking - 'Collie's not going to make it.' I couldn't believe it. What do you mean he's not going to make it? All of us there at Collie's wake, and at his funeral, the guard of honour, all wearing our Derry blazers.
I think of Séamus Heaney laughing his head off, Collie telling him stories about Dungiven and Lavey's great battles...the great Derry poet giggling as Collie showed him his four broken fingers that he got hurling against Dungiven.
We've had to suffer. Johnny going to prison, Éamonn Burns going through cancer treatment. All the ups and downs of life together. It's all about the deep heart's core.
The Derry board is squandering all our inheritance, all our Derryness, all our Bellaghy-ness, our Dungiven-ness, our Slaughtneil-ness...all the things that we laboured for for our community.
He's a stranger to us, and he shouldn't be near us. The Derry board is a caravan of fools. Fuck them and fuck Mickey Harte.
READ HERE: Joe Brolly Has Made His Displeasure With The Mickey Harte Appointment Pretty Clear
It is an extraordinary and powerful listen, and puts the grievances of Joe Brolly and many Derry GAA fans of his generation into perspective.
Despite the backlash, the Mickey Harte move to Derry will continue apace, and will no doubt be one of the biggest stories of the 2024 intercounty season. He follows Rory Gallagher as permanent manager - a Fermanagh man who left under a cloud as Derry's most successful manager in modern memory midway through the 2023 season.
A National League assignment against Tyrone will be one of his first ports of call when next year's intercounty action gets underway, and his arrival at Celtic Park is assured to garner more reaction from both sides of the divide between now and that highly-anticipated reunion.
Featured image: Sportsfile
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