Russell Gaelic Union, Downpatrick is a

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

ladies' Gaelic football Ladies' Gaelic football () is an Irish team sport for women. 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 round ball toward ...

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. Down Cathedral, Its cathedral is sai ...

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 552,261. It borders County Antrim to the ...

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 ...

History

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

The first

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

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 ...

team.

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

Irish War of Independence The Irish War of Independence (), also known as the Anglo-Irish War, was a guerrilla war fought in Ireland from 1919 to 1921 between the Irish Republican Army (1919–1922), Irish Republican Army (IRA, the army of the Irish Republic) and Unite ...

(1918–22), but teams were refounded in 1924 and the ''St Patrick'' club affiliated in 1926. Downpatrick won their first Down Senior Football Championship 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 The Irish rebellion of 1803 was an attempt by Irish Republicanism, Irish republicans to seize the seat of the British government in Ireland, Dublin Castle, and trigger a nationwide insurrection. Renewing the Irish Rebellion of 1798, struggle o ...

. 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 ...

, 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, losing to Errigal Ciarán. 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 in

Newry Newry (; ) is a City status in Ireland, city in Northern Ireland, standing on the Newry River, Clanrye river in counties County Down, Down and County Armagh, Armagh. It is near Republic of Ireland–United Kingdom border, the border with the ...

) 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 Co ...

. 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

* Down Senior Football Championship (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 Sport in Downpatrick {{Ulster-GAA-club-stub