GAELIC Games are played around the globe but the GAA has struggled to put down lasting roots in traditionally less receptive areas of this country, so Gaels everywhere will wish the new East Belfast club every success when they take the field for their first competitive match tonight.
The new Down club takes on St Michael’s, Magheralin in Division 4B (behind closed doors because of Covid-19 regulations) almost 50 years after its predecessor, St Colmcille’s GAC, became a casualty of the Troubles.
It was Down-born former London player Dave McGreevy who came up with the idea of rekindling GAA interest in the predominantly Unionist area of the city and, despite limited early resistance, East Belfast GAC forged ahead with their plans with spectacular success.
Manager Shea Curran has now assembled a senior panel of 72 players (the envy of many a club) which include Belfast natives, men from Down, Armagh, Derry and Tyrone and others from as far afield as Wexford and Dublin.
Most have played Gaelic Football before but many haven’t and the numbers at training and the enthusiastic attitude of everyone associated with the club established an extremely encouraging launching pad.
“The thing that sold it to me was that this is a bunch of fellas coming together who want to play sport,” said Warrenpoint native Curran.
“I just see it as an exciting project and I was honoured to be asked to get involved in it. I have worked a lot with underage players and dipped into a few senior set-ups so I was delighted to get the opportunity to set up the club’s first senior team.
“I’m extremely proud of the effort all the fellas have put into the training – there’s not one person who has complained, they have all just got the head down.”
Malone Rugby Club have offered their grounds but East Belfast haven’t decided on where home games will be played as yet. They are delighted to be taking the field tonight but it’s clear that the ambitious club don’t intend on just making up the numbers - they want to compete from the throw-in and throughout this season.
“We’re under no illusions that it’s going to be tough,” said Curran.
“We’re coming up against teams that are going to know these leagues inside-out but I also know these leagues inside-out and the other teams don’t know East Belfast. We are going in as an unknown quantity and I like that.
“I understand that it’s not going to happen for us overnight but I am ready to embrace this challenge and this team is going in to really compete in Division Four this year and in the junior championship.”
Already, after just a handful of weeks’ training, a team spirit has been established among players who’d never met before they turned up for the first session. Curran has been delighted to see them helping one another out and encouraging each other on.
“One of the lads jarred his knee at training and I turned round and there were two players treating him!” he explained.
“One is a doctor and the other is a physio so you can see the camaraderie between the fellas already. At the start I knew one person so I had to get to know all the names and most of the boys were the same.
“You could hear them asking each other: ‘What’s your name? Where are you from?’ It’s class to see it happening, sometimes you just have to stand back and watch it.
“You see players helping out their team-mates and it’s all about them coming together and playing sport and, whether they’ve played before or just starting, it’s great to see them all embracing this new challenge starting a new club in a community that hasn’t had one for a long time so I’m just delighted to be part of that.
“I’ll be excited to watch this club develop and grow over the years. I’m excited to see where this club is capable of going.”
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PAT McKeown, from Inniskeen in county Monaghan, will be keen to see the fledgling East Belfast GAC flourish.
Pat’s father Paddy swapped his native Louth for Belfast in the 1940s and found a job as a barman in the Errigal Inn. He played in the shadow of Samson and Goliath, the Harland and Wolff shipyard cranes, for St Colmcille’s, the original GAA club in east Belfast.
“Funny enough the other day I came across a picture of daddy and the team,” explained Pat.
St Colmcille’s disbanded in the 1950s but was reformed in the 1960s on the back of Down’s All-Ireland success and continued into the early 1970s. The club was targeted repeatedly during the Troubles with attacks on its premises and, with levels of intimidation making it dangerous for players to get involved, the decision was taken to disband the club.
Tonight marks a new chapter in the history of GAA in east Belfast and Pat hopes that, this time, it is permanent.
“My father went down and met up with the boys in Belfast and they played football,” he said.
“I don’t know if they ever won anything but they played and that’s the main thing so I hope East Belfast do well.”
