Football

'We want to see kids from all backgrounds mixing and making friends' - East Belfast GAC member David McGreevy

Down man and former London footballer David McGreevy is one of the key men behind East Belfast GAC. Picture: James Crombie
Down man and former London footballer David McGreevy is one of the key men behind East Belfast GAC. Picture: James Crombie Down man and former London footballer David McGreevy is one of the key men behind East Belfast GAC. Picture: James Crombie

Brendan Crossan: Tell me a bit about your background.

David McGreevy: I’m 34 years old and I’m a Down man. My home club would be Teconnaught.

I spent eight years in London and I played for London for seven of those years. I was London captain and also won a few club championships. I played corner-back for a good few years, got moved to wing-back, centre half-back and sweeper.

I suppose my strength was seeing transitions and that’s probably why I ended up playing sweeper.

I was playing for Tir Chonnail Gaels until 2012 and I transferred to Kingdom Kerry Gaels in 2013. I won a Championship with Tir Chonnail Gaels in 2012 and win one with Kingdom Kerry Gaels and in both finals they were playing against each other.

I coached kids from all different backgrounds while in London.

With East Belfast GAA, there are a lot of people who will be coming in with no GAA background so I’ve an idea how to coach that because of my experiences across the water and I think I can offer some value to them.

BC: How did you end up in London?

DMcG: My brother and sister were living over there at the time. I was initially coaching for London and then I got into recruitment and I’ve doing been doing that for eight years. I came home November 2018.

BC: Are you still playing?

DMcG: I was still playing for Teconnaught. Last year I was involved in coaching Darragh Cross but I was still playing for Teconnaught. I’m getting old now, so I’m moving away from the pitch and moving ‘upstairs’. I’m a blow-in to Belfast but my girlfriend is from east Belfast.

BC: What were the factors in deciding to start up East Belfast GAC?

DMcG: I was chatting to a friend of mine Richard Maguire about the idea.

He’s part of East Belfast Regeneration projects and he mentioned to me one time before that he helped run courses for people with gambling and drug addiction or people with mental health problems.

I was managing the U16s of my home club. Young fellas at that age are going through big changes in life, they’re leaving school, they’re going into the world of work or going on to do their A Levels.

In my experiences, with some young fellas, they struggle to express themselves. I thought I could up-skill myself… So I started doing a few courses... Anyway, we got into a conversation and I asked him was there a GAA club in east Belfast...[because] the amount of primary schools you drive by, I began thinking about it.

So I said to him: ‘We’re GAA people, we could do this here’. I thought: ‘I want my kids playing football here.’ And I could see the benefits of the GAA, and that was really it.

And because of Covid19 we had time to play with and I reckoned we could definitely set up an U12 team and take them up right through and see what happens and so I put out a tweet and it just went crazy.

(The tweet, posted May 31, read: ‘A new GAA club for East Belfast, if you're interested in playing, coaching or admin (More than likely all 3!) All ages, genders and backgrounds welcome. Please email EastBelfastGAA@gmail.com to register’)

The East Belfast GAC crest features the Harland and Wolff cranes
The East Belfast GAC crest features the Harland and Wolff cranes The East Belfast GAC crest features the Harland and Wolff cranes

BC: Were you surprised by the reaction after your first tweet?

DMcG: I was shocked. Absolutely shocked. And that challenges my perception of east Belfast.

Through this, my perception has changed. Initially, I thought we’ll do well to get an U12 team up and running. East Belfast is a very diverse place.

This club is cross-community, it’s for every community, and we want to come up with innovative ways for non-traditional GAA backgrounds to play Gaelic Games so our children can play sport together and can grow up together.

BC: Judging by social media and mainstream media reaction, this has very quickly become more than just setting up a GAA club...

DMcG: I know what you’re saying but it’s about football, it’s about playing sport and bringing people together. It has to be cross-community.

BC: What do you see as the main challenges that lie ahead for the club?

DMcG: Facilities and maybe getting distracted by things that aren’t about sport. It’s about getting kids out and moving and minding their mental health, bringing them together and just having fun. If it’s going to be about one or two comments getting us down, you have to rise above it.

BC: Do you expect to encounter a lot of negativity?

DMcG: There is no doubting our GAA credentials. We’re most comfortable in our identity that we can make this work. People of a unionist tradition have to be comfortable in a GAA club.

If we don’t achieve that, that means we’ve failed. That means dialogue and asking what can we do.

BC: What would you say to the cynics who think this is a fly-by-night venture?

DMcG: We have a set agenda to get everything done before a ball is kicked over a bar. It’s going to be a superb club that people can come and get involved.

And once that’s done we’ll be talking to Ulster GAA about a five-year plan.

BC: There has been some conversation about what place the Irish tricolour flag will have and Amhrán na bhFiann at East Belfast GAC. What’s your thoughts?

DMcG: There are valid points made by people that they don’t get involved in the GAA because of these reasons.

They are important points and dialogue is important. It’s important the GAA evolves as well. Whatever that entails, let’s have dialogue.

It’s important that people who aren’t part of the GAA do have that voice, and maybe we could provide that voice in terms of what is the best direction moving forward.

With the likes of Linda Irvine (the club’s inaugural president) involved, we need direction from her about east Belfast.

BC: How did Linda Irvine get involved?

DMcG: Ten minutes after I tweeted the message, Linda sent me a message.

She’s a very confident, inspirational person and she’s someone I need to listen to and she will help us in terms of what we need to do to outreach and show that we’re serious about this. She’s just a fantastic person.

BC: Have you had any assistance from the GAA?

DMcG: Paul Donnelly of Gaelfast has been an immense support to us and Down secretary Sean Og McAteer has been very helpful since we got up and running. So we’re very thankful to both Paul and Sean Og.

We got a really nice message on Twitter from former President Sean Kelly.

You remember he changed Rule 42 to allow non-GAA sports into Croke Park. Other GAA people have reached out to us as well, but we have to help ourselves as well.

BC: How many teams do you expect to have in the beginning?

DMcG: We were thinking of an U12 boys team but it looks like the numbers we’re going to have we could field men’s football, ladies football, hurling and camogie…

The people getting in contact are asking: ‘How can we help?’ People have been just so positive.

There was one guy who got in touch and said: ‘I don’t know what I can offer but I just want to be involved.’

They say in the GAA if you’re standing around looking for a job you won’t be standing around for long.

BC: What expertise will the first committee have to progress the club?

DMcG: Our chairman is a managing director of a Law firm, he has 30 years’ experience. He’s the man that will cross the T’s and dot the I’s. He’s great contacts across Belfast so he’ll be doing a lot of outreach work, which is fantastic as that’s what we’re about.

We’ve a chartered accountant so we need a treasurer and we’ll draw up a constitution... there are people want to make donations but there’s no chance.

We’ll not be taking any donations until everything is in place and we have proper governance in place.

Our secretary is a guy who was working in his own club in Waterford who has just moved up to Belfast.

He’s started clubs in Galway before, so I think we’ve got the right people with the right skills sets.

We’ll not be coaching any children until the right safeguards are in place but I do know who we’ll be bringing in.

They actually work in that field already, in a special school in Belfast. That’s exactly what we need.

There’s no GAA club out here and we just thought we could build something. East Belfast is a very diverse place and we just wanted to get our teeth into it.

BC: What’s your title?

DMcG: Delegation is the best form of management! I’m aware that this is a huge project here and I know I need to get the right people with the right skills sets in the right positions.

This is not going to be easy. This is not going to be David McGreevy GAC, it is East Belfast GAC.

BC: Malone Rugby club has offered the loan of their facilities…

DMcG: They reached out to us. It was very, very kind of them. But we need to get our own pitch somewhere in east Belfast. But Malone said we could use their pitch in the winter.

BC: You say the vast majority of people have been supportive…

DMcG: Ninety-nine percent positive. People can see the big picture and they can see how important something like this is. It should’ve happened a long time ago.

BC: Has the GAA at an official level offered any advice or encouragement?

DMcG: Antrim and Down have got in touch. We’ll be in touch with the Ulster Council as we can’t expect everyone to reach out to us, we’ve to do it ourselves.

BC: Do you feel the GAA can do more in terms of making the association more cross-community?

DMcG: It’s difficult because it’s just systemic. I have my own club. If Covid19 wasn’t happening I would be minor manager of my own club,

I’d be playing with my own club, I’d be busy five nights a week...[nearby] you’ve Bredagh, you’ve Carryduff and St Paul’s who have all done brilliantly and they’ve been on the phone offering help in any way they can.

The GAA is about creating communities and it was kind of a perfect storm.

You have two lads living in east Belfast, who are GAA men. You’re not going to get people from non-GAA background saying: ‘Let’s start a GAA club.’ It’s a difficult thing to do.

BC: What’s the club’s dream?

DMcG: To provide opportunities for different communities so they get to know each other, and I think we can create a community and everyone is getting the physical and mental health benefits.

It would be great to see young kids from all backgrounds all mixing and making friends with each other and growing up playing sport with each other.