“On the 23rd August 1969 the sun was splitting the trees. It was the Saturday after the British Army came into Ardoyne, and 140 homes in the parish had been burned out just seven days previously. The Ardoyne U16 team were due to play the South Antrim Football Final in Casement Park. The club had got a minibus from somewhere to drive over from Ardoyne to Casement Park. The Falls Road was still smouldering as the team minibus drove through it; mills, buses and burnt out cars, but the most important thing for Ardoyne that day was to play the match and to win. They beat St Gall’s 0-9 to 0-4. There is a famous photo that was taken of the team that hangs in the club’s hallway to this day. Of that U16 team, two members were subsequently murdered during the conflict, four had brothers murdered; one had his father murdered and nine emigrated. Over subsequent years, at least five other club members were murdered, while others were imprisoned or emigrated. The heart of Ard Eoin Kickhams was pulled asunder, but we never went under. The success of this year’s senior team, 50 years after that U16 football final, is testimony to the unquenchable spirit of this club. Sometimes a game of football is indeed more than a game of football.” – former Ardoyne Kickhams player and club historian Brian McKee
BRIAN McKee is in the middle of writing a book about Ardoyne, the GAA club and the summer of ’69. He hasn’t come up with a working title yet but the couple of rough draft chapters he kindly shared with me suggests it will be an absolute triumph.
After Ardoyne Kickhams clinched promotion to Division Two earlier this month, he put the above passage on his Twitter page under the heading: ‘The Bravest of the Brave’.
The best thing about these words is that they’re written with heart.
Brian was an U12 Ardoyne player in ’69 and regarded the U16 team as “the big lads”.
Tomorrow, the Ardoyne footballers will play St Patrick’s Lisburn in the Junior Football Championship final at Glenavy (3pm).
Fifty years ago, working-class areas like Ardoyne were hit hard by the social and political upheaval of the day.
People’s lives would never be the same again.
Ardoyne’s all-conquering U16 team of 1969 is a desperately sad and yet defiant prism through which the bloody northern conflict can be told.
You scan the happy, nervous fresh faces of the U16 team before they faced St Gall’s in Casement Park that day and you can almost follow the life narrative of every player.
“It wasn’t just the players that were killed, but the brothers and fathers and those who ended up in prison and those who emigrated,” Brian explains.
Through his meticulous research, key players Raymond Mooney and Ciaran Murphy were murdered. Pat Murphy’s brother was also murdered. Frank and Michael McCallan’s brother suffered a similar tragic fate. Likewise, Brian McCarville's brother was killed.
Liam Corr’s father was another victim. Liam Corr later emigrated. So did John McMahon.
And Pierce Moss, Raymond McClurg, Roy Kerrigan, Leonard Cooke, Danny Wasson and Marty Mallon.
Others tried living away but missed home too much and returned including Davy Wasson and Gerard Rosatto.
It’s a remarkable feat that Ardoyne Kickhams are still in existence today. For years, they never had a pitch of their own.
“Every game we played was an away game,” Brian says. “One thing you were certain of coming back from a South Antrim game every Tuesday night was you were going to get stopped by the British Army in lower Donegall Street.”
The north Belfast club always rallied. In the 1980s, they experienced a bit of a revival, culminating in the footballers claiming the 1989 Intermediate Championship.
In more recent times, the Kickhams claimed Junior Championships in 1994, 2006 and 2012, the latter was one of the last finals played at Casement Park before it shut its doors the following year.
But it was roughly around the mid-Noughties a small band of committed club members decided to raise standards and re-invigorate the youth structures.
“I remember we’d just won the Beringer Cup and everyone was delighted,” explained club member Conor Barnes. “But some of us sat back and said: ‘Is this all we’re about? Winning the Beringer Cup?’ At that stage some of us had kids and wanted them to have a future at the club, a pathway.”
With the ‘Crickey’ pitch on the Cliftonville Road transformed into a floodlit 4G community hub in recent years, the Kickhams has never been in better health.
Fifteen years ago, the club could count on one hand its coaches. Now they have 25 coaches, 23 teams and around 100 kids down at the pitch every Sunday morning.
Historically, north Belfast has been a hive of soccer activity, something the Kickhams has had to contend with.
For instance, the senior team that will line out against St Patrick’s Lisburn tomorrow afternoon will be laced with players from Crumlin Star – a hugely successful intermediate soccer club that consistently brings sporting excellence to the Ardoyne area.
Upon taking the managerial reins in 2018, St Gall’s and former Antrim goalkeeper Paddy Murray acknowledged the dominance of soccer in the area and believed the only way to compete for the hearts and minds of those players was not through lectures or stamping their feet, but success.
Now in his second season, Murray’s philosophical approach is gathering momentum.
Ardoyne have already secured Division Two status this month and are potentially 60 minutes away from a Junior Championship.
Before big games managers preach to their players about the importance of not playing the occasion, but the spirit of ’69 and all those young faces that went before them is actually a fitting reminder to the class of 2019 that sometimes football is more than a game.
It’s about remembering the dark days, when the Kickhams was “pulled asunder” by the tumultuous events of 50 years ago and how the club refused to die.
It’s about remembering the indefatigable spirit of its members, past and present, and chasing every lost cause in Glenavy tomorrow afternoon.
For they were once a lost cause themselves. And just look at them now...
