Eamonn O'Hara retires

[Donnellys Hollow]

Fine player. Sligo will miss him.

[Fear ón Srath Bán]

Top player, who deserved a more fitting county exit.

[ross4life]

All the best to him in his retirement. Sounds like he wanted to carry on but Walsh had no plans for him. I'd say he'll back some day as Sligo manager in the meantime he can top up on the excellent tan of his 

[IolarCoisCuain]

my favourite memory of ohara was when i felt most proud of him more than any other day in a sligo jersey, a day of darkness when his heart and desire shone brightly in the face of certain annihilation, i am talking about breffni park 2010, down v sligo, in the second half when most threw in the towel, O Hara was still competing as gamely as ever, still catching, still takling, still running, in the face of certain heavy defeat O Haras effort never dropped, the other 14 had given up long ago, stopped trying but O Hara, no, not acceptable to him, once he has that jersey on his back he gives it everything all the time, even when its toughest, even when its impossible he's still there putting his body on the line, what a hero, for us Sligofans THAT is always enough (pity we still dont get that too often) but it was always guanrteed with him, because hes cares about Sligo and more importantly he shows his love for Sligo every time he wears that jersey, he's lifted my heart so many times, hes always given me hope, now he is gone, thank you, thank you, doesnt even come close to the gratitude i feel for being lucky enough to watch you through the years.

A 220 word sentence. Sligonian, you're feeling fairly raw about this one.

For my own two cents, Eamon O'Hara was a warrior, a credit to his game and his county. He'll be missed. One of the greats.

[muppet]

Nice one Sligonian.

We used to have 'what player would you sign for your county' type threads on the board in days gone by. I used always mention O'Hara.

As a neutral he was a great player to watch, no matter where he played, when your team playing against Sligo your supporters would hush when O'Hara got the ball, mainly out of extreme concern, and for Sligo supporters it must have been worth the entrance fee alone to watch him.

Great player and good luck to him.

[Wildweasel74]

Only seen him near the end of the line 3/4 yrs ago, best player came out sligo since kerins, great ability to outfield men much bigger than him and had speed and scoring ability to burn. Time waits for no man, even the very best

[Lar Naparka]

When i think of Eamonn O Hara i think of those ball carrying skills, those scores, those catches, those hits, etc.. he put everything on the line for us, everything, there was no holding back, no fear, no mercy, no respect of the oppositions, he changed our mentality, our hopes and dreams rested on his shoulders. Boy were we lucky he was a Sligoman. I feel blessed to have witnessed him play for us but today i am so sad, this is a travesty, our best player since mickey kerins has been forced into retirement by a manager who in my opinion has disgraced the county in the last 15 months and should be long gone but enough wasted words on him.

I remember Eamonns first championship game in 1994 away to Mayo, he got taken off at ht, in fact i remember him playing against Antrim in 93 league before christmas, there were 3 supporters at that game in total..i have many memories of eamonn, but the main one is surprising, my favourite one is not is his mazy runs against mayo in 2000, or his one man show in 2002 first half against tyrone or armagh, or his awesome goal against galway in 07 which does justice to his skill...my favourite memory of ohara was when i felt most proud of him more than any other day in a sligo jersey, a day of darkness when his heart and desire shone brightly in the face of certain annihilation, i am talking about breffni park 2010, down v sligo, in the second half when most threw in the towel, O Hara was still competing as gamely as ever, still catching, still takling, still running, in the face of certain heavy defeat O Haras effort never dropped, the other 14 had given up long ago, stopped trying but O Hara, no, not acceptable to him, once he has that jersey on his back he gives it everything all the time, even when its toughest, even when its impossible he's still there putting his body on the line, what a hero, for us Sligofans THAT is always enough (pity we still dont get that too often) but it was always guanrteed with him, because hes cares about Sligo and more importantly he shows his love for Sligo every time he wears that jersey, he's lifted my heart so many times, hes always given me hope, now he is gone, thank you, thank you, doesnt even come close to the gratitude i feel for being lucky enough to watch you through the years. U owe Sligo nothing, it would be great for us to give you the send off you deserve and see you in black and white again but a last if not best of luck in all your future endeavours. Sligeach abu....

Arrah, feck the full stops- or the lack of 'em!
You got your message across very well. It's a fitting tribute to a great player

[SLIGONIAN]

Thanks lads, i may have got a bit carried away with the memories, man i am going to miss that feeling of excitment when O Hara gets on the ball..Sligo GAA will live on but we are at a low ebb at the minute. But at least i'll see him play for Tourlestrane which is an honour in itself aswell to watch them.

Also clearly something happened during this week as he was interviewed and no intention of retiring 3/4 days only to retire yday, only in Sligo GAA but no doubt we'll find out.

[Declan]

A top player and good luck to him in his retirement.

[rrhf]

Eamon O Hara - Man of Connaught

[Syferus]

Eamon O Hara - Man of Connaught

I knew he wore black and was quite a tanned man but I thought it was just a coincidence.

[muppet]

Surprised this thread doesn't have this goal on it: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G5ZjZUmrDBQ

[Mano]

Nice one Sligonian.

We used to have 'what player would you sign for your county' type threads on the board in days gone by. I used always mention O'Hara.

As a neutral he was a great player to watch, no matter where he played, when your team playing against Sligo your supporters would hush when O'Hara got the ball, mainly out of extreme concern, and for Sligo supporters it must have been worth the entrance fee alone to watch him.

Great player and good luck to him.

Ye nearly got him too. He was on the verge of transferring to Knockmore in the 90's but had a change of heart at the last minute.

[magpie seanie]

I remember the first time I saw him. We had an very good U-14 team and Eamonn's school (where one of our mentors taught) had a good team at that age. We played a challenge match in our place and things were going our way. Eamonn got a bit frustrated and sat down briefly in disgust. The ball came his way and he hopped up, got the ball, slalomed his way through our defense and whizzed a rocket shot past my right ear before I could move (not unlike his most famous goal!). At that point I reckoned the hype I'd heard about him even at that age was justified.

When he was county minor I recall him having trouble with a dislocated shoulder on a few occasions and thought - God, that could be an issue for his senior career. How wrong was I! He had a multitude of injuries over the years and still played almost 20 years senior intercounty. Superhuman to be honest.

I think I had the honour of playing on the same side as him once - in a county U-16 match in Oxfield.

Sligonian made great points about the Down match and how when we had him in our ranks we always had hope. We'll never see his likes again in a Sligo jersey unfortunately.