Russell Gaelic Union, Downpatrick is a

Gaelic football Gaelic football ( ga, Peil Ghaelach; short name '), commonly known as simply Gaelic, GAA or Football is an Irish team sport. It is played between two teams of 15 players on a rectangular grass pitch. The objective of the sport is to score by kic ...

and

ladies' Gaelic football Ladies' Gaelic football ( ga, Peil Ghaelach na mBan) is a women's team sport. It is the women's equivalent of Gaelic football. Ladies' football is organised by the Ladies' Gaelic Football Association. Two teams of 15 players kick or hand-pass a ...

club based in

Downpatrick Downpatrick () is a town in County Down, Northern Ireland. It is on the Lecale peninsula, about south of Belfast. In the Middle Ages, it was the capital of the Dál Fiatach, the main ruling dynasty of Ulaid. Its cathedral is said to be the bu ...

County Down County Down () is one of the six counties of Northern Ireland, one of the nine counties of Ulster and one of the traditional thirty-two counties of Ireland. It covers an area of and has a population of 531,665. It borders County Antrim to the ...

Northern Ireland Northern Ireland ( ga, Tuaisceart Éireann ; sco, label= Ulster-Scots, Norlin Airlann) is a part of the United Kingdom, situated in the north-east of the island of Ireland, that is variously described as a country, province or region. Nort ...

History

The Club House at the Thomas Russell Park GAA Club - geograph

The first

Gaelic Athletic Association The Gaelic Athletic Association (GAA; ga, Cumann Lúthchleas Gael ; CLG) is an Irish international amateur sporting and cultural organisation, focused primarily on promoting indigenous Gaelic games and pastimes, which include the traditional ...

club in Downpatrick was founded in 1896, ''Clan Na Gael'', mostly a

hurling Hurling ( ga, iománaíocht, ') is an outdoor team game of ancient Gaelic Irish origin, played by men. One of Ireland's native Gaelic games, it shares a number of features with Gaelic football, such as the field and goals, the number of p ...

team.

began to be popular in the 1910s. The games were outlawed during the

Irish War of Independence The Irish War of Independence () or Anglo-Irish War was a guerrilla war fought in Ireland from 1919 to 1921 between the Irish Republican Army (IRA, the army of the Irish Republic) and British forces: the British Army, along with the quasi-mil ...

(1918–22), but teams were refounded in 1924 and the ''St Patrick'' club affiliated in 1926. Downpatrick won their first

Down Senior Football Championship The Down Senior Football Championship is an annual Gaelic football competition contested by top-tier Down GAA clubs. The Down County Board of the Gaelic Athletic Association has organised it since 1903. Kilcoo are the title holders (2022) def ...

in 1935. In 1938–39 they moved to Leatham's field at Ballymote and renamed themselves ''The Thomas Russell Club'', after Thomas Russell (1767–1803), executed at Downpatrick for his role in the Irish rebellion of 1803. Players were harassed by policemen of the

Royal Ulster Constabulary The Royal Ulster Constabulary (RUC) was the police force in Northern Ireland from 1922 to 2001. It was founded on 1 June 1922 as a successor to the Royal Irish Constabulary (RIC)Richard Doherty, ''The Thin Green Line – The History of the Royal ...

, who uprooted their goalposts and sent officers to their games to intimidate them. In 1949 they became the ''Russell Gaelic Union''. Russell Gaelic Union won further county titles in 1972 and 1978 In the 1990s the team experienced great success both at a team level with RGU Downpatrick and more widely on the Down county team. Downpatrick won three county titles in four years, and reached the final of the 1993

Ulster Senior Club Football Championship The Ulster Senior Club Football Championship is an annual Gaelic football competition played between the top clubs in Ulster GAA. The trophy awarded to the winners is the Seamus McFerran Cup ( ga, Corn Shéamuis Mhic Fearáin). The winners and th ...

, losing to

Errigal Ciarán Errigal () is a mountain near Gweedore in County Donegal, Ireland. It is the tallest peak of the Derryveagh Mountains and the tallest peak in County Donegal. Errigal is also the most southern and the highest of the mountain chain called the ...

. A ladies' team was founded in 1997. In 2015 the club's grounds on Old Course Road were named as Down's second grounds (after

Páirc Esler Páirc Esler ( , ; also ga, Páirc an Iúir ) is a GAA stadium in Newry, County Down, Northern Ireland. It is the home of the Down Gaelic football and hurling teams and the Newry Shamrocks GAA club. The ground has a capacity of about 20,000. ...

Newry Newry (; ) is a city in Northern Ireland, divided by the Clanrye river in counties Armagh and Down, from Belfast and from Dublin. It had a population of 26,967 in 2011. Newry was founded in 1144 alongside a Cistercian monastery, althoug ...

) and received £10,000 in funding from

Down District Council Down District Council was a Local Council in County Down in Northern Ireland. It merged with Newry and Mourne District Council in April 2015 under local government reorganisation in Northern Ireland to become Newry, Mourne and Down District C ...

. RGU Downpatrick attracted some minor controversial press comment in 2018 when a brawl broke out at a league match against Ballyholland Harps. Both clubs were banned from the 2019 championship.

Honours

Gaelic football

(6): 1935, 1972, 1978, 1990, 1991, 1993 *Down Intermediate Football Championship (1): 2005 *Down Junior Football Championship (2): 1961, 1984 *Down Minor Football Championship (7): 1961, 1962, 1969, 1971, 1972, 1976, 1983

Hurling

*Down Junior Hurling Championship (1): 1945

References

External links

Official page
Gaelic games clubs in County Down Gaelic football clubs in County Down {{Ulster-GAA-club-stub