St Brigid's stirring success story in Belfast

By Cian O’Connell

“Mol An Óige is the club motto,” St Brigid’s GAC chairperson Eunan Conway explains about the emphasis placed on assisting emerging talent in the Belfast club.

“There is no point having a motto if you don't follow the thing through. So, praise our youth, and they will come through.”

Founded in 1998, St Brigid’s, who recently captured the Antrim SFC for the first time, are busy preparing for Sunday’s AIB Ulster Club SFC Quarter-Final against Edendork. The Tyrone club are in similar territory.

The links between the clubs are strong. When Edendork edged out Errigal Ciarán in a dramatic Tyrone SFC Final replay, Conway joined the celebrations. “Although, I'm a Tyrone man originally, I have to confess my wife is Edendork,” he laughs.

“So, the match brings added tension in our house. When Edendork won, I was down at their club rooms that night. I was celebrating their success with family members. I watched it on TV; I left Belfast to go to their clubhouse in Edendork.

“There is a big connection between the clubs. Four or five people heavily involved in our club are originally from Edendork. Brian McGuckin, who manages Edendork, his two brothers managed us two years ago.

“One of our mentors, Mickey Slevin, is an Edendork man. You've links everywhere. Even though we're 50 miles apart in geography, we're quite close. You've loads of family connections.”

It means this is a truly special time for St Brigid’s. Conway, though, doesn’t forget the distance that has been travelled since 1998. Six years later, St Brigid’s fielded at adult level. “We certainly have made progress, our dreams have come true, so to speak,” he reflects.

“We formed an adult team in 2004. Now we've four codes with nearly 1300 members, so it has grown quite rapidly. There has been a total change.

“It's totally different to Edendork, which is saddled between Dungannon and Coalisland, hotbeds of Gaelic Football. Traditionally, there wouldn't have been any Gaelic Football in our area.

“There wasn't a team. It wouldn't be renowned for playing Gaelic Football. So, for the club, it has been transformative.”

In South Belfast, St Brigid’s commenced with juvenile teams in 1998. “I was one of the people involved in starting the club,” Conway recalls.

“We trained on a disused rugby ground, we trained on council pitches. The thing I'd say, and I may be wrong on this, but I suspect - as we currently play on a council pitch - we may be one of the few teams who won a county championship, who plays on a council pitch as our home pitch.”

The challenges are significant, but St Brigid’s find a way. “We partner up with Harlequins sports club,” Conway says.

“They were formally an All-Ireland League rugby club; they've hockey teams and American football teams there. We played our gaelic matches on a pitch they have, but now we use it more for training than playing. That's one of the areas we started in.

“We've used YMCA pitches, a whole host of council grounds. We've been nomads since the club started and we've got a lease from the council for the pitches we have at the moment. We want to embark on our own pitch development in south Belfast.”

That is the ambition. Talented footballers continue to represent the club. Past, present, and future inter-county stars combine. “We won the Junior in 2004, the first year we played Junior football,” Conway recalls.

“We went up and won the 2006 intermediate. We've been up and down a couple of times. Joe Brolly would've played for us in 2006, James Loughrey, who went on to play for Cork, played for us. We've several homegrown county players.

“Mark Sweeney, who plays for St Jude's in Dublin, and his brother, were homegrown players - our first generation of players to play at minor level and follow through.

“At the moment, we've five senior Antrim players, all homegrown. Shea Downey, who plays with Derry, had strong family connections with the club.”

A thriving underage section is key. St Brigid’s compete strongly for silverware at most level. “We're the current U20 football champions, our minor team were beaten in this year's championship semi-final,” Conway says.

“We're the current U16 county football champions, we won the U14 divisional championship, and the county final is yet to take place. Our U12s won a divisional championship. It would be fair comment to say that we're strong at underage football.”

The manner in which people have collaborated during the past three decades still provides a source of inspiration for Conway. “The grá for Gaelic games is huge,” he responds.

“A lot of people come from traditional Gaelic clubs. My own club is Clan na Gael in north Tyrone. A lot of the club members are from rural areas in Ulster, who came to live and work in Belfast, and I'm going to have to say spread the good news of Gaelic games to the next generation. It's a bit like the urbanisation story all over again.

“You look at Cuala and Castleknock, it's the same on a more defined scale as Belfast is slightly different type of a city than some of the others.

“It's the same story. In the primary school at home in Dunamanagh, Stephen O'Neill is the principal, you'd probably have 85 kids.

“In our parish boundary here we'd probably have the equivalent of 850 kids to pick from. It's part of the urbanisation of the country, it's where the work is. A love of Gaelic games is being passed on.”

For the past four years, St Brigid’s have employed a full-time coach. It was another important step in the development of the club. “Shea Campbell, who plays for our senior football team, is involved, and as we speak he's probably carrying the cup around into some of our feeder primary schools,” Conway says proudly.

“We're going into non-traditional GAA schools playing games. We've ladies’ teams and hurling going on. They're all very excited seeing a cup. Everyone now can see it on the TV, even if they weren't at the match. Corrigan Park was sold out on the Friday night in advance of the county final.

“Rossa, who we managed to beat, are a traditional club in terms of titles in hurling and football.

“There is a great buzz, to use a modern phrase, around our area, and it's helping to revitalise Gaelic games in Belfast which was probably the poor relation in terms of the major cities in Ireland when it comes to success in Gaelic games.

“We've what we call Fun Sunday at 12 o'clock at Harlequins, we'd have maybe 300 or 400 kids playing. He helps organise that and coach the coaches as well as find time to play senior football.

“He's a great lad, we had a guy before him Joe McCarney, he's in England doing a PGCE. The model has worked for us. We're probably one of the few to fully pay for this ourselves, but we want to invest in our youth.”

St Brigid’s Ladies Footballers have reached the past two Antrim deciders, further illustrating the progress. “We were defeated by Moneyglass, who were beaten in the All-Ireland senior ladies final,” Conway says.

“We keep four codes going and they're all equally as important. We just want to take Gaelic games forward.”

Five primary schools benefit from the coaching, and good relationships have been formed. “It was brave, but it would've been a foolish decision not to do it,” Conway remarks.

“The youth is the future. We need to provide our kids with the best possible coaching that we could, and it was the best way forward.

“Our own club member is highly motivated and has the time to do it. He runs the Cúl Camp, Halloween Camp, and three or four other camps during the summer too.

“It gives kids a great opportunity to develop their skills and their affinity with the club, to move the club on to a sound foundation at underage.”

The work carried out since 1998 is now being reflected on the playing pitches of Antrim and Ulster.