Glen GAC

Watty Graham's GAC Glen
An Ghleann
Founded: 1948
County: Derry
Nickname: Wattys
Colours: Green, White and Yellow
Grounds: Watty Graham Park
Coordinates: 54°50′23.44″N 6°41′17.98″W / 54.8398444°N 6.6883278°W / 54.8398444; -6.6883278Coordinates: 54°50′23.44″N 6°41′17.98″W / 54.8398444°N 6.6883278°W / 54.8398444; -6.6883278
Playing kits

Football
Ladies
Senior Club Championships

All Ireland Ulster
champions		 Derry
champions
Ladies' football: – – 6

Watty Graham's GAC Glen (Irish: An Ghleann) is a Gaelic Athletic Association club based in Maghera, County Londonderry, Northern Ireland. The team draws players from Maghera and some surrounding townlands. It currently caters for Gaelic football, Ladies' Gaelic football and Camogie.

Glen is also committed to Scór, and won the All-Ireland Scór na nÓg dancing. It also won the Ulster Scór Sinsear dancing.

Underage teams up to U-12's play in South Derry league and championships, from U-14 upwards teams compete in All-Derry competitions.

Gaelic football

Watty Grahams Glen continue to fulfil the mandate of the GAA and fields Gaelic football teams at U6, U8, U10, U12, U14, U16, Minor, Reserve and Senior levels. The Senior team competes in the Derry Senior Football Championship and Division 1 of the Derry ACFL.

Glen underage continue to dominate the Derry scene and in 2009 they won, U12 Indoor Meadowbank Tournament, U13 Championship, U14 League, U14 Championship, U14 7's, U14 Stephen Quinn Trophey, U14 Ulster Feile, U15 Derry Og Sport, U15 Ulster Og Sport and U16 League & U18 League Runners Up. In the 2011 season honours included the Under 16, Under 18 Derry Football Championships as well as the Ulster Minor Football Championship.

Well known players

Camogie

Glen fields Camogie teams at U12, U14, U16, Minor and Senior levels. The senior team competes in the Credit Union Derry Premier League.

Ladies' football

Glen Ladies football club was formed in 1995.[2] The club has won the Derry Senior Ladies' Football Championship 11 times and currently have won nine in a row.

Watty Graham Park

The club's home ground is Watty Graham Park. It was opened 1982 by then GAA President Paddy Buggy.[3] The first game held there was an over-35s game, which was followed by an inter-county match between Derry and Armagh.[3] Celtic Park in Derry City is officially recognised as Derry's main county ground,[4] but Watty Graham Park along with Dean McGlinchey Park in Ballinascreen is regarded as one of two secondary stadia[4] and has hosted a number of National League and Dr. McKenna Cup games in recent years. Watty Graham Park can currently has a capacity of about 6,000 people.[3]

History

The Watty Graham club evolved from the Pearse's club formed around 1933, when Fr Anthony Doherty among others arranged a South Derry league. The club reached the 1944 South Derry final and a few of their players represented Derry.[1]

After the folding of the Pearse's club, Watty Graham's GAC Glen was officially formed in 1948. In the early 1950s it competed in a number of South Derry Finals and in 1953 they defeated St John's Mullan (a townland of Ballinderry) to win the South Derry Junior Championship. They won the same title six years later defeating The Loup in the final.

In 1964 they won the South Derry Junior and Derry Junior Football Championship by beating Littlebridge (part of the modern day Ógra Colmcille club) and Sarfield's respectively.[1] The side repeated this feat in 1966 by beating The Loup in the South Derry Junior final before going on to win the Derry Junior final. The 1970s proved a barren decade for Watty Graham's and they have little apart from a McGlinchey Cup success in 1974 to show for it.[1] Glen opened a new social club in Maghera in April 1976.

The club won its first Derry Intermediate Football Championship in 1980. They overcame Drumsurn in the final by 0-06 to 0-03. Glen won a second Intermediate Championship in 1983 defeating Drum in the final.[1]

In 1985 Watty Graham's won the All-Ireland Óg Sport title. They competed in county, provincial and All Ireland phases to come out winners. Two years later they won the Derry Minor Football Championship with a success over Ballinascreen. The same year Glen won the Larkin Cup and also the Senior Division 1 League. The side added another Larkin Cup in 1995. Glen won their fourth and fifth Junior Championship in 2004 and 2005, the competitions this time won by the Glen Thirds team. This same Thirds team went on to win three in a row by winning the Thirds Championship in 2006.

After a prolonged period of dominance in Underage football, on 1 January 2015, Glen won their fourth successive Ulster Minor Championship - an achievement unlikely ever to be matched.

Honours

Senior

Under 21

Minor

U-16

U-15

U-14

U-13

Ladies' Gaelic football

Note 1: The above lists may be incomplete. Please add any other honours you know of.
Note 2: Most of the Ladies' honours are only updated as far as 2002. Please add any other honours you know of.

See also

External links

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 "A history of the Watty Graham Club by Eamonn Higgins". Archived from the original on 2007-08-23. Retrieved 2007-09-07.
  2. ↑ "A brief history of Glen Ladies' Gaelic football team". Archived from the original on 2009-08-08. Retrieved 2007-09-08.
  3. 1 2 3 Scott, Ronan (20 March 2009). "Glen next stop on Derry magical mystery tour". Gaelic Life. p. 5.
  4. 1 2 Scott, Ronan (13 February 2009). "'Screen to win back hearts of Derry fans". Gaelic Life. p. 3.
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