18/09/2026
🏆Pauric McGovern Memorial Cup 🏆
Tomorrow in O'Connell Park see's the conclusion of the Under 10.5 Pauric McGovern Memorial Cup, which seen 17 teams across the county take part in the tournament, the majority of which will attend and compete tomorrow in his memory. Porry would be extremely proud that there is a tournament played in his honour. Porry was a Derrylin legend known wide and far and his absence is still profound in our club and community to this day, 10years on from his passing. How he would have love to be involved in our current club fundraiser, we can just imagine the phonecalls we would all be receiving every day "bring me to Dromore, I can sell 300 tickets this evening, there is a big match on!"
We would like to wish all competing teams the best of luck tomorrow and we hope you all play the game in Porry's spirit, which was hard, with bravery, fair, with a smile on your face and make sure to make friends after it.
The O'Connells meant a lot to Porry, Porry meant more to the O'Connells!
The following tribute was penned by his good friend and lifelong teammate Vincy Martin
*Pauric McGovern – The Legend*
The first Organised/Competitive game played by Pauric was in 1969 when a Derrylin U-14 team competed in the Fermanagh Under-age League for the first time and it was quite memorable, as it was a winning start – beating neighbours Kinawley by a large margin. Unfortunately the next game was not as a pleasant experience, as St. John’s (a combination of Devenish and Belleek) beat us by a hefty margin, but the football seed was implanted in Pauric and he went on to play for another thirty plus years.
From U-14 to Juvenile, to Minor, to U-21 teams, Pauric manned the goals and was never afraid to come out and clear a high ball and his fellow defenders know all too well his power in the air, with Thomas McGoldrick and Vincent Martin probably still carrying the battle scars, when the “Boul Podge” flattened all in front of him! Making his senior debut at just over Seventeen Years of age he quickly established a fearsome reputation as a formidable shot stopper and not a man to shy away from a 50-50 challenge, indeed the tougher the challenge, the more Pauric enjoyed it. Winning a Division Three title in 1974 was the start of a long illustrious career ensuring the Green Flag was never over-used. A Junior League and Championship was secured in 1985 with Pauric proving to be practically unbeatable in goals.
Despite having played for so long, his upward trajectory on the football was to move up even higher with Intermediate Championship titles secured in 1986 and 1987 and promotion to Division One of the Fermanagh Senior Football League at the end of 87. A McCreesh Cup title was secured in 19991 and who could ever forget the point-blank save in the dying moments of the game when Raymond Moffitt weaved his way through only for Pauric to get his finger tips to the ball and deflect it over the crossbar and save the day. Next year the Campbell Cup was won, when the O’Connell’s defeated neighbours Teemore in Kinawley, a particularly sweet moment for Pauric! Two years later, he had the distinction of scoring six points against Ederney when lined out at full forward. However, it will be as a goalkeeper that he will be always be remembered.
As his club career was starting to grind to a close, Pauric turned his attention to Fermanagh Masters (over-40) and along with Vincey Martin, Liam Wallace, Paddy Reilly (both Teemore) and Paddy Maguire (Kinawley) thoroughly enjoyed the training, the craic and the banter after the games. Always willing to play no matter what, there was no such thing as player burn-out in the make-up of Pauric, He was always willing to play and nothing would deter him or hold him back from the football pitch.
From a long football career to selling raffle tickets and Club Lotto’s’, his ability to sell and source money was second to none and indeed there was many a Club from both inside and outside the County who utilised the knowledge of Pauric to ensure that they knew what house they re calling at to maximise sales. His mantra for selling a £10 Ticket was, “shure, it is only the price of a pint and a packet of Fags”. He would have travelled probably half of Fermanagh and a large portion of Cavan selling Club Lotto Tickets with Dromore in Co Tyrone having a particular place in his heart. Whilst we would not have recognised many of the players, we felt as if they were personal friends from the description and stories from Pauric. A truly remarkable character in the best possible sense was Pauric and his honesty, integrity, service and devotion to his club could never be overstated.
