East Belfast GAA Club- Guests of Honour at the Dublin County Final

Images courtesy Paul Barrett 

Dublin County Board were delighted to welcome East Belfast GAA club to Parnell Park on Sunday as guests of honour at our Go-Ahead Ireland Senior 1 Football Final. 

Founded in May 2020, the club has made huge progress in a short space of time and co-founder, David McGreevy shares their remarkable story with us here …

The Journey So Far……

Overcoming adversity and building a strong community

In May 2020, I sent an early Sunday morning message to my friend Richard Maguire about starting a GAA club in East Belfast. It was thought that it would be a slow journey, gradually building up solid structures and foundations, a club our kids could eventually play for, but, as the saying goes, “the best-laid plans of mice and men often go awry.”

A Gmail account was set up along with a Twitter profile and a tweet was sent out. The response was immediate - emails started pouring in, and they haven't stopped since. By lunchtime that day, a camogie team was formed. By the evening, a men’s football team and within a week ladies’ football and hurling teams were formed.

In just two weeks, Down GAA held a County Board meeting to ratify East Belfast as a GAA club, with unanimous support from all the clubs. Shortly after our first set of fixtures was received, with our men’s footballers scheduled to play St Michael's Magheralin. Five weeks and five days after that first tweet our very first game was played.

In that short time a board was appointed, meetings held to hire coaches for all teams, GAA emails were set up, transfers processed, and financing had to figured out as it wasn’t possible to open a dual signatory bank account. Board members had to personally loan the club money to cover player memberships and insurance. Safe training facilities were found, equipment was secured and one set of jerseys was sourced.

In the first weekend of matches four teams played across three different codes, but with only one set of jerseys! The BBC even showed up to the first camogie match, where many of the players had never stepped onto a GAA pitch before. Due to the lack of knowledge Google was used to find out what a “skort” was after the camogie board emailed to complain the players weren’t wearing them!

Despite no competitive wins in that first season, the enthusiasm never waned. East Belfast GAA Club continued to grow, eventually adding reserve, third, and even fourth teams across men’s and ladies' football. The following season, East Belfast started to make waves. The men’s football team secured the club’s first competitive win against St Michael's, and the Camogie team made it to a championship final, which they won the next year. The hurlers reached their championship final last year and are aiming to go one better this season.

Image courtesy Eamon O'Callaghan 

However, growth came with its challenges for East Belfast GAA Club. One major obstacle was the lack of GAA pitches in East Belfast - Belfast itself is short by around 40 pitches according to Belfast City Council’s last pitch strategy plan and we have added to this already considerable headache. But alongside these challenges came friendships and relationships between people who may have never met otherwise.

The initial plan had been to focus on youth teams, but it was 2020 and Covid delayed the ability to complete safeguarding checks. This had to wait until the following season. The fourth season of our youth teams has just finished, with boys’ teams up to U10 and girls’ teams up to U14. Toddlers are coached through our Gaeltots section, offering physical literacy coaching on Saturday mornings. The second generation of players are coming through, with sights set on minor championships in 2038!

Like any GAA club, East Belfast GAA Club has faced a lot of challenges. Struggles in 2024 are unique, but just like any other club, the positives far outweigh the negatives. And we'll keep working toward bringing our communities together.

We would like to thank the Dublin County Board for their kind invitation to join them in Parnell Park on Sunday and allow our young members experience a big match day outing. 

We also appreciate their ongoing support for our efforts in promoting Gaelic Games in East Belfast.