From Strain’s Holme to winning the All-Ireland - 60 years years of Termon GAA

Termon GAA this weekend celebrated their 60th anniversary. The club marked the landmark occasion with a gala ball and awards banquet in the Mount Errigal Hotel, Letterkenny on Saturday night.

President-elect of the GAA, Jarlath Burns, was the guest of honour. Like so many clubs that took their first tentative steps in the 1950s and ‘60s Termon has grown to one of the most active and top clubs in Donegal.

The first moves in the formation of what is now Termon GAA club were made by two young local men who mooted the idea with local schoolmaster Danny McBride.

Danny McBride was a native of Gweedore, who by this stage had become a real power in Gaelic Games in Donegal.
Master McBride, not a man to let the grass grow under his feet, swiftly called a meeting and Donegal’s newest GAA was formed shortly after.

James Trearty, who was not long out of short trousers and who later went on to play for the club for more years than he cares to remember, was at that meeting.

“The first meeting was in the home of Jimmy Peoples, on the Milford Road in Kilmacrennan. The holding of meetings in pubs back then was frowned on by the GAA,” recalls James Trearty.

“I was only 14 at the time and to the best of my recall, there were 14 or 15 people at the meeting. Danny McBride, Paddy the Cope, Paddy Friel and Danny Kelly were elected as the three main officers.

“That was the start of it and the new club, which was called St Colmcille’s in its early existence. The name was only changed to Termon several years later.

“The club began with just one junior team and we drew our players locally from Kilmacrennan and Termon. Glenswilly had no team at the time so we also drew players from Gartan, Churchill, Glenswilly and down as far as Creeslough. There was no intermediate football back then. There was only junior and senior and the bulk of the clubs were junior clubs. I think in our first year there were 32 teams in the junior championship. And it was that way up to 1977 with the introduction of the intermediate championship.”

Donegal was divided into divisions back then and Termon found themselves in the old west division playing against Gaoth Dobhair, Falcarragh and Dunfanaghy. Back in those early years, the club played most of their games in a field on the outskirts of Kilmacrennan on the Milford Road.

“The field was owned by a local farmer, Hugh Strain and the field was called Strain’s Holm. It was the late 1960s before we acquired the current playing field at the Burn Road. In those early years as well I remember we played games in a community field in Churchill as well.”

Ten years after being formed the club made its first big breakthrough on the playing field with the winning the club’s first championship success. That was in the junior championship final of 1973.

“We beat Glencolmcille by a point in that final which was a huge result for us because they were highly fancied and most of the Glen team went on the win the senior championship five years later in 1978

“I was in midfield along with Colm McFadden senior. The game was played in Ballybofey and we won a tight game by a point 0-11 to 0-10.

“Bernie McLaughlin, Christy McCafferty and Joe Kelly from Glenswilly were on that team too. Bernie, Colm and myself had played county U-21 a few years earlier and Paddy Murray was the manager/coach.

“Paddy worked in St Conal’s Hospital and he came on board a few years earlier as manager/coach and he played a huge part in our success and in moving on the team and the club. Paddy was a great coach and trainer and he brought great organisation to the training and how to approach games. Up until Paddy came on board training was very haphazard and there was no great organisation to it.

“He also brought a number of players from other clubs in the county who were working with him in St Conals. He was also a good reader of the game and he always knew who the danger men were on the opposing team. I remember before the 1973 junior final telling us that Glencolmcille had three big players, John McGinley, John O’Gara and John James McLoughlin.\

“He drummed it into us that if we marked those three lads tight we would win the game. I’m not sure if we succeeded in that but we won the game. Paddy was a brilliant manager and coach and I think I can safely say we would not have won that championship if he had not come on board.

“It may be only the junior championship in some people's eyes but it was an important and big win for the club so soon after being formed. And we owe it all to Paddy.”

Termon were back in the junior final again three years later in 1976 but went down to Killybegs. And over a quarter century after that first championship success Termon was back in the championship winners’ enclosure again. This time in the intermediate championship of millennium year when they overcame neighbours St Michael’s, in a replay. And they claimed a second intermediate success in 2012 when they defeated Aodh Ruadh in the final.

All through the 1900s and the early ‘00s, Termon was firmly established as they began to reap the rewards of great work being done at underage in the club.

And with championship success at U-16 and minor football in recent years, Termon are now a force at underage football in the county.

“There is great work going on with underage football. Daireann Gibson, Jim Bonner and Liam Cunningham along with many others are doing Trojan work at underage football.

“And of course the lady footballers have enjoyed phenomenal success in the space of a short few years.
“The All-Ireland club success in 2014 beating Mourneabbey from Cork in the All-Ireland final in Tuam was a huge success and a huge day for the club.

“It was the club's greatest achievement in the six decades since it all began with the first meeting in the home of Jimmy Peoples on the Milford road. That success is a tribute to the work of Jimmy McGlynn and all those who worked so hard to get the ladies game up and running and to Christy Gillespie, the principal in Termon NS.

“Christy is from Kilcar and won a number of senior championships with Kilcar. Christy played a huge role in bringing on the likes of Geraldine McLaughlin, Emer Gallagher, Nicole McLaughlin and many more through to the players they are today.
“Tribute also to Francie Friel, who managed and coached the girls to that All-Ireland success and all the coaches who worked with the girls up through the age groups.”

Looking back on the last 60 years the club has made huge strides and given the amount of activity and the big numbers of young boys coming through every year at underage the club can have nothing but a bright future.
“Those of us that played with the club in those early years might not have enjoyed the same level of success as nowadays.
 We had a few high days and many low days but we have great memories too and fun days also. Like the day we were playing Dunfanaghy, down in Dunfanaghy. Back then the administration of referees was not as good or as organised as it is today and we didn’t always have neutral referees.

“That day in Dunfanaghy was one of those days so when that happened a coin was tossed to decide whether one of our members or a Dunfanaghy member refereed the game. Dunfanaghy won the toss and their man took the whistle. He duly did and it was a close game.

“We were winning by a point with time almost up when the referee awarded them a dubious close in free and a chance to draw the game. But the next thing the crossbar plunged to the ground broke in two. “There were great efforts to tie it back up with a rope but we objected to the game finishing with the free on health and safety grounds and so we won the game.

“One of our lads had broken the crossbar and all I will say is that he is a prominent Glenswilly man. Another memory I have from those early years was when we first moved to play at the Burn Road.

“It was after we won the junior championship in 1973. We played the great St Joseph’s team in a league game at the Burn Road. That was in the days before there was a dressing room and there was no bridge across the Burn.

“Players togged out in their cars and then waded across the Burn before they put on their socks and boots. And then after games players used to wash themselves in the Burn.

“I remember seeing the likes of Brian McEniff, Mickey McLoone, Seamie Granaghan and Declan O’Carroll all wading through the Burn and thinking what they must be thinking given the facilities they had in Ballyshannon and having played in Croke Park, and its top class dressing rooms and showers.

“Now I look at the Burn Road and the big new state-of-the-art clubhouse almost complete and the spectator stand and think we have come a long way in 60 years.”