Clan Og
The Davitt Park Souvineer booklet issued on the 1st June 1947 stated that underage
football in the North Armagh area was formed in 1933 with seven teams competing at minor
level. The Kickhams (Derrytrasna),Kevin Barrys (Tannaghmore), Granuaile (Derrymacash),
Gaedheal Uladh (North Street), Shamrocks (Aghagallon), McKelveys (Waring Street) and the
Geraldines (Edward Street). McKelveys won the league competition and the Geraldines won
the championship for which the Dr. Dowling Cup was awarded. So even at that early stage
in underage football, a team from the Clans area was first to get their name on a
championship trophy.
The league continued in 1934 with Harry McGarry as secretary and John O'Neill as treasurer
but after this, minor football lapsed and it was not until 1940 that a new league was
formed with Fr.Dan McGeown as chairman and Alf Murray as secretary and treasurer. Clan
Na Gael took part and they had to wait until 1945 for their first success in winning the
league/ but in a play off for the area championship they were defeated by Wolfe Tones. The
Clan Na Gael minor panel then was John McAlinden,Ray McGibbon,Jim D.Seeley,Eddie
Smyth,Tommy Coleman,Brian Lavery,Johnny McCann,Gerry McStay,Philip McStay,Dennis
Seeley,Sammy Coleman,TommyMcKenna,Paddy McKenna,Sean McCann,Jim Murtagh Jim
McLarnon and Brendan Smyth. Several of these players still had two or three years to play
at minor level so it came as no surprise when the success continued.
The Clans won the league and the Murray & McEvoy Cup in 1946 and the same two competitions
again in 1947.This was the year that the first County Minor Championship competition was
played with Keady the eventual winners. Keady had a great young team which won all
before them in South Armagh and a league play off took place between them and Clan Na
Gael to decide the overall winners of the Armagh minor league. The game was played at the
recently opened Davitt Park and Clans won the game by 3-2 to 0-3 due to the inspiration of
Jim D.Seeely who played a captain's part scoring 2-1 of Clan's total.
Schoolboy's football first began in 1943 with Clan Og competing but without any
success,though it has to be said that all other teams, bar one were in the same situation
due to the fact that Master Tom Keville's Emmetts dominated all before them winning the
league for eight years on the trot. But the Clans had their "pound of flesh" against the
famed Emmetts when in May 1953 they beat them in the Neilly Moore Cup final at Freecrow
on a Saturday afternoon.Clans team on that occasion was AidanMorrow, David Harvey,Jim
Green,Harry Gallery,Seamus Lavery,Brendan McEvoy,Jim McGuinness,Donal Ryan,Seamus
McKee, Kieran Scullion,Joe Menary,Padge Scullion and Seamus McGibbon.The Minor team had
a very successful year in 1951 lifting the Murray & McEvoy Cup,the league and the county
championship and contested the next four minor championship finals but lost out in each.
Information on underage games during the late fifties and early sixties was scarce but a
new era was dawning for Clans. The Shankhill Estate was built just a stone's throw from
Davitt Park and a legion of young players flocked to the club.St.Pauls School also opened in
1963, and ,with former Clan's player Harry Hoy in charge of the school teams, success was
bound to come to the club.
With the school leaving age raised to sixteen a juvenile league was formed doing away with
the schoolboy league and Clans were successful winning the league in 1963 ,64 and
'65.Players such as Colm McKinstry,Danny Treanor,Sean Lavery,Martin Kavanagh,Kevin
France,Sean and Jim O'Hagan,Sean J.Moore,Jimmy Smyth and many others blended together
forming a minor team that collected three minor county championship titles in a row '65,'66
and '67 with the juvenile team winning the first County Juvenile Championship final in 1965.
Those were the glory days for the underage footballers of Clan Na Gael and it was these
same boys who later helped the Clans seniors to become one of the best ever football
teams in the county if not the whole of Ireland.
The juvenile title won in 1965 is the only title won at that grade to date.They have
contested a few other finals but without success.
Underage football in Clans was at a low ebb for most of the seventies but in 1978 a serious
attempt was made to get it back up to scratch again.Up until then, much of the work with
the young players was left to a few, with Harry McGarry still to the fore. Several more
members volunteered to help out with the running of the underage teams and since
1978,until the present day,with the exception of 1980, the teams have always collected
silverware of some sort. There has been many success's in the North Armagh leagues and
championships.Too many in fact to record in this short history but which you will find in the
achievements page on this site.
The minors had to wait a further twenty three years before their next success in the
championship stakes.In the second half of the eighties they contested the championship
final in 1986,1987 and 1989 without success but they came through fighting to lift the title
three years in a row in 1990,1991 and 1992 and once again several of the players from
these teams graduated to senior level and assisted the senior team in winning two more
championship titles in 1993 and 1994.