Donegal Town RFC set to celebrate significant milestone

Donegal Town Rugby Football Club will celebrate their 50th anniversary on Saturday week (December 9th) with a celebration dinner and dance in the Central Hotel, Donegal Town.

Formed in 1973, the club has many significant achievements during the past 50 years and in the present year they are marking their special birthday on the field with seven wins from seven games in the Ulster Provincial North League.

Donegal Town Rugby Club as we know it was founded on 6 February 1973 by Roy Irwin, Charlie McGinty (ex Magee's from Townawilly) and Jack Ramsey. Alrick Thompson subsequently joined them. It is the oldest rugby club in County Donegal.

The first official Annual General Meeting took place on 22 May 1974. Roy Irwin and Alrick Thompson were elected Captain and Vice Captain respectively.

Canon A.B. Stewart was elected President; Capt. Jimmy Hamilton, Vice President; John Hamilton, Secretary; Paddy Meehan PRO and Derek Little, Treasurer.

Annual membership was set at £1 and non playing members charged the sum of 50p.

Aerial view of Donegal Town RFC home pitch at The Holmes

Former playing member, captain and PRO, Trevor Johnston, gives a background to the club and has some amazing facts about the game being played in the south Donegal area long before Gaelic football became the main sport.

“Donegal Rugby Club was originally formed in 1887 with Townsend Gahan who worked for the Congested District Board elected as their first captain. Townsend lived in Magherabeg House. He was the father of Maureen Gahan who was born in Donegal in 1900.

“Maureen was a founder member of the Irish Arts Council, a vice President of the RDS. The Maureen Gahan Museum of Irish History was opened in An Grianan, Termonfeckin in 2011.

“The matches in 1887 were played in the Milltown, subsequently the site of Timoney's picture framing business. The match opponents back in those were Ballyshannon Ernes and Ballyshannon Swifts. Incredibly Ballintra fielded four teams:- Brownhall, Ballintra Hibernians, Ballintra Fusiliers and Ballyalla Blazers. Games in Ballintra attracted crowds of over a 1000 spectators.

“So ecstatic were Ballyalla to win a match that local tailor Joe Gallagher composed a poem.

The Ballyalla Blazers

The playing of football was the whole brag of Ballintra,

They thought their match they would never meet more.

Till the Blazers from the Glen, sullied fown the road like men 

And left the conquering heroes feeling sore.

“Interestingly the Donegal Town club in 1893 decided to operate as a Rugby and Assocation Football club. It is probable this club is also the forerunner of Donegal Town FC. The club jersey at that time was blue with a crimson diagonal band.  

“Townsend Gahan moved to Castlebar in late 1900 and with his departure the club died away.

“Donegal Town Rugby Club as we know it was founded on 6 February 1973 by Roy Irwin, Charles McGinty (ex Magee's from Townawilly) and Jack Ramsey. Alrick Thompson subsequently joined them. It is the oldest rugby club in County Donegal.

The first official Annual General Meeting took place on 22 May 1974. Roy Irwin and Alrick Thompson were elected Captain and Vice Captain respectively.

Canon A.B. Stewart was elected President; Capt. Jimmy Hamilton, Vice President; John Hamilton, Secretary; Paddy Meehan PRO and Derek Little, Treasurer.

“Annual membership was set at £1 and non playing members charged the sum of 50p.

Donegal Town RFC - Ravenhill Cup winners 1981 (Tommy Lindsay Cup). Back row, Peter Fenton (played on the wing that day), Neilis McInaw, Alan Johnston, Barney McGroary, Bob Walsh, Willie Kerr, Conor McBrearty, Albert Morrow, Trevor Johnston (played second row that day). Front, Kevin Barry, Pauric Gillespie, Diarmuid Barry, Liam Brown, Eamon Friel (capt), Charlie McGinty, Des Daly, David Lyttle, Sean Gillespie

FIRST MATCH

In early February 1973, the newly formed club travelled to Sligo Grammar School to play their first match. They lost by 7 points to nil. The Donegal panel was: Charlie McGinty, Roy Irwin, Barney McGroary, Gordon Robinson, Trevor Johnston, Derek Little, Jim Dwyer, Albert Morrow, Austin Coughlan, Victor Kearney, Liam Brown, Peter Sweeney, Paul Duncan, Billy Johnston, Hughie Travers, Frankie Griffin, David Bustard, Norman Camier (Old Wesley), Walter Latten (Sligo). 

A few weeks later Donegal travelled to play Sligo Rugby Club. The match was played at Summerhill College and we were beaten by 30 points to 10. We scored our first ever try through Frankie McMullin, kicked our first ever conversion by John Hamilton and Trevor Johnston kicked our first ever penalty.

In September 1973 in our first home game we beat Sligo Seconds by 12 points to 4 in Brown's field, Ballydevitt. The team was: Frank Ward, Trevor Johnston, Derek Little, Pat Hughes, Eamon Harvey, Charlie McGinty, John Hamilton, Roy Irwin, Albert Morrow, Tom Morrow, Victor Kearney, Alrick Thompson, Kevin Silke, Frankie McMullin, Paddy Meehan.

The seeds for a Rugby team had been sown and under the captaincy of Trevor Johnston, Donegal entered the Ulster League in 1976. The colour red was chosen for our jerseys (changed to red hoops at a later date). A badge was designed by Trevor and we got our first club tie.

“It was a big challenge entering the league. The club scoured the area for players. At one stage we had three or four players from Finner Camp. One of them was an excellent snooker player. Unfortunately he was quicker around the snooker table than he was around the rugby pitch,” said Johnston.

“We began to see a gradual improvement and with the introduction of a number of new players such as Eamon Friel, Kevin and Diarmuid Barry, Ray Dunne, Michael Reilly, Eamon Chesser and Jim King, and we had a successful season.

“The Club was making steady progress on the field but it had no permanent base drifting from ground to ground and pub to pub.

“Home matches were played in such places as Clar, Ballydevitt, Drumrooske, The Hospital Field and Rossnowlagh with changing facilities in the Donegal Golf Club, Tullcullion, The Cinema Rooms, Four Masters GAA club and the National Hotel.

“The Club was lucky at that time to have a vibrant ladies committee led by individuals such as Hilary Irwin, Leah Meehan, Valerie Thompson, Mary Brown, Mary Kearney, Anne Friel and many others too numerous to name. They organised draws, a Rugby Queen competition and a raft of other fundraising events.

“Under the guidance of our President, Matt Collins we purchased our grounds at the Holmes from Thomas McGarrigle in 1980.  

“Work started on a new clubhouse, erected by Eamon Friel in the Summer of 1981. It cost over £40,000.

“In the same year a Seconds team captained by Liam Brown joined the Ulster League. Shortly afterwards a Thirds team also took root.

“On Sunday 3 October 1982, the Clubhouse was officially opened by club member and President of Ulster Branch, IRFU, Tommy Lindsay.

“A Donegal Presidents XV captained by Neilis McInaw and including Eamon Friel, Ulster players Mark McFeeley, Ian Crowe and Irish international Harry Steele took on a St Mary’s side that included Irish internationals Tony Ward, Paul Dean and Shay Deering (brother of our club member Eamon).

“Since the club's formation it has graced the hallowed turf of Ravenhill on three occasions - Ravenhill Cup 1981; Harden Cup 1988 and Forster Cup 1989. The Club has an unblemished record there winning all three finals. Throughout the years there has been a history of success with the club winning numerous cups/leagues at 7, 12 and 15-a-side level, as well as progressing through the Ulster leagues to the heady heights of Junior Rugby.

“The Club now has an excellent clubhouse with a floodlit pitch, a gym and a suite of changing facilities. Players from 1973 will well remember changing behind the ditch out at Clar and washing muddied legs in a tar barrel of cold water.”

"Mr Donegal Rugby Club", Victor Kearney. The man who keeps the club ticking over. He was voted Ulster club person of the year two years ago. Victor has been there from 1973. He spends so much time in the club house, some people thinks he lives there.

EARLY DAYS

There was plenty of learning to do in the early years with many of the players playing the game for the first time. Trevor Johnston remembers one of the first matches in Sligo. “Mick Doherty, an army man who lived in Cluain Barron, Ballyshannon was on our team in the second row. He didn’t know too much about rugby. After half-time there was a scrum and when we were packing down someone asked ‘where’s Mick?’ When we looked around we saw that Mick had packed down on the Sligo side and was pushing against us. He didn’t know that you had to change sides.”

The Donegal Town side would have had some players that went to Sligo Grammar School and some other schools where rugby was played. “I remember Pat McGee and Conor McBrearty had played rugby at school. People like that gradually came in.

“It was hard going in the early days, travelling to play in Belfast with half a team, a couple short anyway, but you kept going.”

There was a good community spirit around the team with a good mix of denominations and it was a time when the Troubles were raging in the north.

“There was one player who I nearly dreaded taking away to Belfast at the time. Every time we were stopped by police and they heard the name Kevin Barry, it was ‘right, everyone out of the bus’.

Johnston remembers a game when there were five Barrys on the field for Donegal Town - Diarmuid, Kevin, John, Donagh and Rory. “Five Barrys on the field and all I can say is that it was noisy.”

When put to him that three Gillespies would be a match for them, he laughs.

Like many others who have watched Donegal Town RFC over the years, he points out that Eamon Friel was one player who had the potential to have played at a much higher level. Peter Fenton was another according to Johnston. He felt that Friel could have made it if he had been coached from an early age.

“Pound for pound, the toughest player I ever played with was Pauric  Gillespie. He played in the back row and nobody ever went past Pauric. He would take down a man twice his size.”

The match reports in the Donegal Democrat were penned by Johnston and always had a humorous anecdote.

“We had a number of guards playing and some of the reports for the Democrat we had to give a false name. They weren't supposed to be crossing the Border.

“Conversely, you had a team down from Belfast with a couple of police officers or prison wardens. You always knew that when you would go down to the clubhouse on a Saturday and you would see a Garda car. You would know that there was someone from the PSNI playing. But there was never any trouble.

"The strangest one we ever had was one day we went up to play the RAF Camp in Down. We arrived there and we had to send our team list beforehand to them. Whatever happened, it was not forwarded to them and they wouldn't let us into the ground in the minibus. And they wouldn't let the referee in either.

"By the time the whole thing was resolved it was too late to play rugby so we all went into the bar and got full.”

Johnston says that great friendships were made over the years and he pays particular tribute to a man who he says epitomises what the club is about.

"I met my wife through the rugby club. Victor (Kearney) did too. Victor Kearney is Donegal Town rugby club with respect. He spent his life in that club and that was acknowledged a few years ago when he was honoured with the volunteer award.”

The playing panel came from Glencolmcille to Bundoran and in the early years there were a lot of clubs springing up in Donegal. “You had Rockhill, Letterkenny, Sheephaven. I remember playing rugby in Dungloe and Burtonport. The McElwees would have been playing for Dungloe. Some hardy men up there.

“There was also a famous game in Glencolmcille. Rory O'Donnell from Carrick would have been involved and he put a lot into the club in early days.”

Asked to name the top three players that he played with in the club, Johnston says: Eamon Friel definitely; Peter Fenton and probably Miles Gillespie, a back row forward from Boyle in Co Roscommon.

Donegal Town Rugby Club has come a long way in 50 years. Reflecting back to the astonishing fact that 1,000 people turned up to see a rugby game in Ballintra in the late 1800s, Johnston said there was a direct link from those teams to the Donegal Town team.

“There was a Brogan on one of the Ballintra teams, an uncle of the late Ned Brogan, whose grandsons, the Gillespies, played for Donegal.

“There was also a WJ Spence on those teams who would have been a grand uncle or great grand uncle of mine.”

So on Saturday December 9th, Donegal Town RFC will celebrate their 50th anniversary, but the tradition of running with ball in hand can be traced back much further.

Tickets for the special dinner dance can be purchased through the Donegal Town website www.dtrf.com