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A history of Bredagh Most clubs in Ireland have had a special day to mark the opening of their new pitch. Most clubs except our club - Bredagh GAC in Belfast. Instead, we had a special match to mark the closing of our pitch. Everyone who had served the club from it's inception in 1971 through to the closing of the Ravenhill Road pitch on December 7th, 1998, was invited to play. It was a sad day, but one we knew was coming. The Nuns owned the land and wanted Bredagh off it, so that they could build a new million-pound nursing home. Of course the club had tried everything to hold onto the pitch. We even had a meeting in Belfast City Hall with Sammy Wilson of the DUP. On another occasion, Reg Empey of the Official Unionists was part of a City Council delegation to attend a Site Meeting at the pitch. The Unionists found themselves in quite a predicament - should they support the GAA club or the Church!

Made Homeless It was all to no avail, and the then Bredagh Chairman Bill Gardner* remembers clearly a feeling among some members that the club would not survive into the new Millennium. "The future looked bleak, as we had been made homeless. We had no pitch and no clubhouse. The camogie team folded, our men's team was relegated and we didn't put out teams the following season at Under-16 and Minor". There was no hope of buying new land for a replacement pitch, unless Bredagh won at least several million pounds in the Lottery. The dressing-rooms were gone as well. Years of fund-raising had gone into them, but they were demolished. We never had a clubhouse to start with. During the Troubles, it simply would not have been wise to have had a sign over a door on the Ormeau Road reading - 'Welcome to Bredagh GAC'.

Relegation To make matters worse, the Senior team ended up in Division Four of the All County Leagues - a lowly position for a club that had played in Division One and reached two Down SFC semi-finals in the late seventies. One of the reasons for the decline was the fact that Gaelic games all-but disappeared from local schools in the eighties. Bredagh's problems were many and varied, but the committee decided that it's target in the first year after losing the pitch was to survive on the pitch. That is, to fulfil our fixtures. Winning games would be a bonus. Other clubs kindly re-arranged games and/or let us play home matches at their pitch. It was far from ideal, but we kept going. Bredagh eventually settled into playing home games in Council-owned Playing Fields called Cherryvale, not far from the original pitch.

Back to Square One Then the club took a step forward by launching an ambitious Youth Development Programme. However, because of the absence of Gaelic games in the local schools, the Programme had to begin at Square One. "It may sound unbelievable but the majority of kids in the schools did not have the first idea about Gaelic football", recalls current Chairman Liam McGarry. "They didn't even know what colours Down wore".

Get a Kick out of Bredagh An 11-week Summer Scheme was arranged to introduce boys and girls to Gaelic football, with a catchy title chosen by 10-year-old Colum Coyle - 'Get a Kick out of Bredagh'. The Scheme was a a major success. 215 children aged from 6-13 turned out every week to learn the skills of Gaelic football. County jerseys were presented as prizes and special guests added to the fun. Down midfielder Alan Molloy, Fermanagh's Paul Brewster, and ladies football stars such as Eilis Gormley from Tyrone and Michaela Downey from Down helped out. "On the last day, we even sold 40 Down jerseys", remembers Liam McGarry. "They know what colours to support now". There was also a Coach Trip to a Championship match at Casement Park, and Bredagh boys and girls featured in a television advert for the BBC's Championship programme in August. They wore a variety of county jerseys to help explain how the Back Door system worked.

All-Ireland Champions Bredagh ladies gave the club a much-needed lift at just the right time. We were proud to have no fewer than six players on the Down team that won the All Ireland Junior title in Croke Park in 1999, beating Galway, including team captain Jacqui Clarke. The Bredagh Belles were also equal partners in the Summer Scheme. In fact, their novel coaching ideas put the men to shame! Bredagh has also fostered good relations with South Belfast neighbours Cooke Rugby Club. Twenty boys from each club learned the skills of one another's sport in a 'Millennium Boys' Scheme in 1999. Some of the Bredagh boys on that Scheme tasted success in 2001 as the club's Under-16s landed an East Down B Championship, after a thrilling extra-time victory over Ardglass. The return of silverware to the club after a lengthy absence was another welcome boost and a reward for the years of hard work at youth level. Team mentors Sean Rafferty, Gerry Conlon and Pat Matthews, all had sons on the team, while other players to star were team captain Rory McCaughey, Man of the Match Paul Alexander, Kieran Murray, Henry Deasy, CJ Carson, Michael Thompson and Kieran McArea. Significant progress has been made in local schools. Bredagh now has a policy of staging it's Youth Presentation Nights in the schools, and there are courses available to children in football, hurling and camogie. "It's a matter of getting everything into place so that the club helps the schools and vice versa", explains Bill Gardner. "Then with great support from parents and club members, we can provide a meaningful structure whereby Gaelic games will benefit in the long-term".

2002 - A Bumper Year Bredagh has no intention of sitting on it's laurels, for 2002 is sure to be a bumper year. For the first time, Bredagh will field a girls football team, as well as boys football teams at all under-age levels. And, there's a Hurling/Camogie Academy pencilled in for April-June - another first. We have fabulous youth sponsors in HELM, while other club backers include Zuni, Fila, and BT. You need help from as many areas as possible to survive and thrive, and it's the same with our membership. As with most city clubs, Bredagh has a mixture of natives and 'blow-ins' from counties as far apart as Cork and Westmeath. They all have one thing in common - keeping Gaelic games alive and well in Belfast. Long may it continue.