Éire Óg Derriaghy GAC () is a

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

club from the outskirts of

Dunmurry Dunmurry (; ) is a suburb, suburban town and townland near Belfast, Northern Ireland. Dunmurry is in the Collin (District Electoral Area), Collin electoral ward for the Local government in Northern Ireland, local government district of Belfast C ...

County Antrim County Antrim (named after the town of Antrim, County Antrim, Antrim, ) is one of the six counties of Northern Ireland, located within the historic Provinces of Ireland, province of Ulster. Adjoined to the north-east shore of Lough Neagh, the c ...

Northern Ireland Northern Ireland ( ; ) is a Countries of the United Kingdom, part of the United Kingdom in the north-east of the island of Ireland. It has been #Descriptions, variously described as a country, province or region. Northern Ireland shares Repub ...

. Founded in 1932, and playing out of Woodlands Playing Fields, Éire Óg Doire Achaidh is the local club for the parishes of St Anne's and Our Lady Queen of Peace, providing

Gaelic football Gaelic football (; short name '')'', commonly known as simply Gaelic, GAA, or football, is an Irish team sport. A form of football, it is played between two teams of 15 players on a rectangular grass pitch. The objective of the sport is to score ...

and

Hurling Hurling (, ') is an outdoor Team sport, team game of ancient Gaelic culture, Gaelic Irish origin, played by men and women. One of Ireland's native Gaelic games, it shares a number of features with Gaelic football, such as the field and goa ...

teams for the children of

Derriaghy Derriaghy, (; also known as Derryaghy), (), is a townland (of 538 acres) and civil parish in County Antrim, Northern Ireland, south-west of Belfast city centre. The townland is situated in the historic barony of Belfast Upper and the civil pari ...

Finaghy Finaghy ( or ; ) is an electoral ward in the Balmoral district of Belfast City Council, Northern Ireland. It is based on the townland of Ballyfinaghy (). There has been a small community living in the area since the 17th century, and it has bee ...

, Black's Road, Glengoland and Cloona. The club has teams from Primary 1 level all the way through to senior level.

History

In 1948 Éire Óg won their only Senior Football Championship title to date. After beating Ardoyne and

Dunloy GAC Dunloy Cú Chulainn's is a Gaelic Athletic Association club located in Dunloy, County Antrim, Northern Ireland. The club is almost exclusively concerned with hurling. The club competes in Antrim GAA The Antrim County Board of the Gaelic At ...

, Éire Óg knocked out the holders, O’Connell’s, in the semi-final winning 1-7 to 1-3, despite a late comeback by O’Connell’s. The winning Ógs team was a very young team - only five of them being over 21 years of age. Éire Óg has contributed many county footballers and hurlers. 1951 was the last year that Antrim won the

Ulster Senior Football Championship The Ulster Senior Football Championship is an inter-county competition for Gaelic football teams in the Irish province of Ulster. It is organised by the Ulster Council of the Gaelic Athletic Association (GAA) and begins in April. The final is ...

. Éire Óg had five representatives in the team - Jimmy Roe, Brian O'Kane, Peter O'Hara and Donagh Forde all started, while David O'Kane was one of the substitutes. Jimmy Roe, Brian O’Kane and Peter O’Hara would go on to start against Meath in the All Ireland semi-final at

Croke Park Croke Park (, ) is a Gaelic games stadium in Dublin, Ireland. Named after Archbishop Thomas Croke, it is referred to as Croker by GAA fans and locals. It serves as both the principal national stadium of Ireland and headquarters of the Gaelic At ...

, but Antrim unfortunately lost 2-06 to 1-07. Brian O’Kane’s brother, Hugh, also played senior county football and was the captain of the first ever

Queen's University Belfast The Queen's University of Belfast, commonly known as Queen's University Belfast (; abbreviated Queen's or QUB), is a public research university in Belfast, Northern Ireland, United Kingdom. The university received its charter in 1845 as part of ...

team to lift the

Sigerson Cup The Sigerson Cup is the trophy for the premier Gaelic football championship among Higher Education institutions (Universities, Colleges and Institutes of Technology) in Ireland. It traditionally begins in mid January and ends in late February. T ...

. The Ógs also had an international soccer player in their team.

Tommy Forde John Thomas Forde (14 March 1931 – 3 January 2012) was a Northern Irish professional footballer who played as a centre half for Distillery, Wolverhampton Wanderers, Glenavon and Ards. Forde also earned four caps at international level for N ...

played for the

Northern Ireland national football team The Northern Ireland national football team represents Northern Ireland in men's international association football. From 1882 to 1950, all of Ireland was represented by a single side, the Ireland national football team (1882–1950), Ireland ...

throughout the 1950s as well as playing football for Éire Óg.

Honours

* Antrim Senior Football Championship **1948 *Antrim Intermediate Football Championship **1985 *Antrim Junior Football Championship **1938 **1979 **2001 *

Antrim Intermediate Hurling Championship The Antrim Intermediate Hurling Championship is an annual hurling competition, organised by Antrim GAA. The championship forms the second-tier of Hurling in Antrim. It is contested by the eleven clubs ranked 9–19 in the Antrim championship sy ...

**1937 **1952 * Antrim Junior Hurling Championship **1932 **1951 **1967 **1974

Notable players

*Tommy Rice - Antrim Hurling Player in 1939. *Peter McGarvey - Antrim Hurling Player in 1939. *Jimmy Roe - Antrim Football Player who won the 1951 Ulster Senior Football Championship. *Brian O’Kane - Antrim Football Player who won the 1951 Ulster Senior Football Championship. *Peter O'Hara - Antrim Football Player who won the 1951 Ulster Senior Football Championship. *Donagh Forde - Antrim Football Player who won the 1951 Ulster Senior Football Championship. *David O'Kane - Antrim Football Player who won the 1951 Ulster Senior Football Championship. *Hugh O'Kane - Captain of the first ever Queen's University team to lift the Sigerson Cup. *

- Northern Ireland International Soccer Player.

References

External links

Éire Óg Doire Achaidh

* Antrim Senior Football Championship {{Antrim GAA clubs Gaelic games clubs in County Antrim