Frank had an understated approach to life. The external facts of his life are sufficiently-known: exemplary husband and father; West End-trained bespoke Tailor; senior championship winning Gaelic footballer with “the Reds” of Trillick and a regular county man; accomplished traditional fiddle player; farmer; and keen huntsman.

    Frank was a gifted wing three-quarter man (either side) whose two-footed ability, natural fitness and selfless approach meant that he was a regular for Tyrone and for Trillick (with whom he won a Senior County Championship medal in 1937) for over a quarter of a century.

    Apart from running his farm, Frank was also widely known as “The Tailor”, and his tailoring skills, acquired from his father, Paul and perfected in the Tailor & Cutter Academy in London’s West End, were in repeated demand from lifelong clients throughout Ireland and the U.S. However, Frank’s lifelong passion was traditional fiddle music. Although he greatly enjoyed the crack of playing for many years with “The Moonlight”, the renowned Dromore/Trillick showband in the 1950s and ‘60s, he was at heart a hard-core traditional musician who favoured the Tyrone/Donegal/Scottish style of unaccompanied fiddle playing; and he was a skilful exponent of the Paganini-rivalling compositions of the great James Scott Skinner of Aberdeen and Shetland.

    Frank was wholly self-taught as a musician, and his abilities to sight-read and to transcribe music at speed as it was being played were unusual among traditional musicians of his generation. Frank’s music was recorded by R.T.E., and by the Irish Traditional Music Archive Centre in Dublin.

    Frank’s abiding legacy to all who knew him is the set of priorities and values he exemplified in his way of living. Those priorities and values found expression in Frank’s unusual degree of practical and psychological self-sufficiency. Frank made his own clothes; grew most of his own food; and made his own entertainment and friends through football, music and hunting. Frank respected your freedom - he would neither judge you nor offer intrusive advice or opinions. Equally, he valued his own freedom - in the nicest possible way, your opinion of him didn’t concern him.

    Frank’s business and social contacts throughout his long life sensed and responded to this - it was difficult not to be at ease in the company of a man who was instinctively uninterested in trivialities about what you were, possessed or earned - and who felt no inclination to take anything from you. Your secrets and concerns, whatever they were, were probably safer with Frank than they were with yourself. Further, whilst he was an exceptionally well-read and literate man, Frank, typically, made few allusions to either the extent of his literary, political and philosophical understanding; or to the importance of spiritual values in his life - these were all personal matters, pursued for their own sake; and not to be cheapened by debate or ostentation.

    Frank was an outdoors, all-weathers man - his lifelong physical fitness and good health stemmed in part from his enthusiasm for outdoor work and sport - provided these were of the total-involvement variety. In all of these aspects of his life, Frank well understood the importance of balance - play was as important as work; sedentary pursuits were always balanced by outdoor activities; and privacy was as important as socialising. Frank worked hard and played hard; and, like all people who pack as much as possible into each day and live life to the full, you felt enriched by his company - if he ever had doubts about any matter in his own circumstances, he wouldn’t have seen the point in burdening you with the details; and, in any event, it would never have occurred to him to even seek your opinion, never mind your assistance. Frank’s innately-hospitable and courteous nature may have been influenced by his life-long tradition of freely providing musical entertainment to others - or by his being a strong man who was at peace with himself and in his world. Either way, his unfailing inclination was to brighten your day with his droll and subtle sense of humour (which could on occasion be missed, but he wouldn’t ever labour a point); and to send you on your way with a greater sense of your own abilities and potential than before you met him.

    Frank was the eldest son of Paul and Catherine McCann, Liffer, Trillick. He married Mary McCusker of Tattymoyle, Fintona in 1964.

    He is survived by his wife, by his brothers Gerald and Kevin, by his daughter Mary, by his sons Sean and Francis, and by his grandsons, Sean and Neil.