Slaughtneil Club Three for Two Bid Drawing Massive Interest

On Sunday the remarkable Slaughtneil GAA club from Derry continued their run when the footballers defeated a fancied Kilcoo from Down in a first round Ulster Football Championship tie. Their All Ireland winning camogie team are out this weekend. We are running out of words to describe the Club’s achievement and commitment.

The previous Sunday at Derry’s Owenbeg complex, 6142 spectators paid in to watch the Ulster Senior Club hurling semi final. Antrim champions Dunloy faced Slaughtneil who are bidding to win 3 Ulster senior titles for the second year in a row. Estimates of the real attendance were much higher, this figure doesn’t include juveniles under 16 who aren’t charged entry or the large number of people delayed by traffic who were admitted free when the gates were thrown open at half time. The total number was easily well over 7000.

The mega attendance at an Ulster club hurling match has prompted raised eyebrows, much discussion and more than a few column inches in the national press. Why were so many people at a hurling match in Ulster?

It wasn’t any great surprise to anyone who was present, most of whom were devoted followers of the small ball. First of all Dunloy and Slaughtneil are two tight close knit GAA communities that epitomize all that is positive about the GAA in Ulster. They are also typical of many clubs who strive to do the best they can for their young people and members. The pride in the jersey in both clubs is palpable. That is no surprise.

Dunloy Cúchulainns

In Dunloy village, there’s a whean of shops as the locals might say, the school, the chapel and then the GAA club. The Cúchulainns club has a clubhouse, two full size pitches, a floodlit 4g training area planned and then  its indoor academy which is the cherry on the cake. There is a new generation of Dunloy hurlers being raised in the academy with year round access to an indoor 3g pitch that is the envy of others. It’s not just the facilities; the Cúchulainns young hurlers are coached and mentored by the likes of Sean ‘Patch’ Mullan, Shane Elliott and Gregory O’Kane. Men who soldiered with Dunloy in their glory days. The crop of players coming through has youth, skill and confidence in their side. They also have a thriving environment. This weekend many of the same lads tog out for Dunloy in an Antrim Intermediate football final. It is all consuming.

Slaughtneil Robert Emmets

Across in Derry sitting on the side of Carntogher lies Slaughtneil. In effect the GAA club is Slaughtneil, it is a state of mind, and a sense of belonging, because geographically players live in that community in the lea of the mountain, but extending also down into Maghera and Swatragh and over towards the Glenshane. In the middle of the Derry countryside you suddenly come upon the Emmet’s club. Slaughtneil also have two match pitches, a couple of decent training areas, a super covered stand and generous club rooms with a hall. In the middle of the car park rises a hurling wall. It is a modest setting, adequate and able to accommodate the large numbers of young Gaels that play there. The club offers football, hurling and camogie and has dominated the field in Ulster over that couple of years in each code. Ladies football is not on the menu. Probably just as well they haven’t taken to it for the other clubs in Derry.

Having won their inaugural Ulster senior hurling title last season, Slaughtneil added a first in Ulster senior camogie before annexing their second Ulster senior football title. Twice the footballers have fallen just short in an All Ireland final. They have dominated Derry and will be a force for years to come.

Most of the hurling team can draw their love of the game and their allegiance from a group of diehard coaches, pre eminent among them the late Thomas Cassidy. Hurling people in Derry will tell you of underage fixtures when Thomas pulled into the car park in his bus, spilling a horde of young hurlers out ready and able to hurl. That bus travelled far and wide giving children the opportunity to hurl in GAA grounds across Ulster and farther afield. The fruits of that dedication have been seen over the last few years glowing in the silverware that has been brought home to the hall in Slaughtneil. For years that hall also was a Mecca, the Slaughtneil was a frequent gathering spot for teenagers with a passion for the GAA and teenage romance. 

Thomas passed away last year, but his fingerprints are over the club. His sons and daughters are stalwarts in the club’s teams, his brothers and sisters embedded in Club life. The Emmets are chaired by Sean McGuigan, a well known referee and decent man. Club players contribute to underage coaching and take pride in their club. It’s not rockets science but it is a simple effective model that works well, as it does in so many other clubs. The Irish language is also an essential ingredient in the mix adding to the sense of place and identity.

When Clubs Collide

When these two giants of the Ulster club scene collide, there is no question that folks will be drawn to the game. And Owenbeg’s stadium pitch is ideal for a game of this magnitude, it is compact, atmospheric, scenic. But observers of Ulster club hurling aren’t surprised. These games will attract crowds, there just aren’t enough of them. But that’s for another day.

The spectators were a who’s who of Ulster hurling. Drawn to watch Slaughtneil, the question on a few lips is the drive for hurling there or has it been diluted by the temptation to pursue football? As Dunloy stretched out an early lead it looked like the Derry men were struggling, but it was a matter of time before they clicked into gear. And when they did? Slaughtneil are a strong physical outfit but their hurling was excellent, sharp crisp skills. Good movement on and off the ball. Gerald Bradley and Cormac O’Doherty superb. 

Dunloy now know where they need to focus their resources. There’s no doubt these two teams will clash again and again in the coming years. The challenge to others is how to match them, the challenge to Ulster GAA is to maximise the clear interest in Hurling and the challenge nationally to realise that the game has a passionate following in the northern province.

To anyone sitting patiently in the Owenbeg traffic for up to an hour after the game finished, the size of the crowd was no surprise. The only regret is that there aren’t more opportunities to watch games of this magnitude.