South Belfast playing fields will host County level teams from all four GAA codes as part of a local club’s 50th anniversary celebrations.
In a massive coup for Bredagh GAC, Down will field football, ladies football, hurling and camogie sides to take on the “top opposition in Ulster”.
The matches are set to take place around October as part of a series of events the club is organising to mark 50 years since a small group of “local enthusiaists” with “vision and ambition” formed Bredagh GAC in 1971.
Bredagh says it is “thanks to these forward-thinking Gaels and all our volunteers we have grown into one of the largest GAA clubs in both County Down and the province of Ulster”.
Since then, Bredagh has grown from a men’s football club to a massive organisation boasting hundreds of players across all four codes and all age groups.
A video recording some of the club’s history has been produced by NIAVAC as part of the anniversary.
The club adds: “It is hard to capture 50 years of Bredagh in a 20 minute production. For us it’s more a reminder of where we have come from, where we are now and our plans for the future.”
Recalling the early days Club Secretary Ciaran O’Keffe pays tribute to the “guts and determination” of the early volunteers, adding that 350 people turned up to the first fund raising dinner dance, showing the “club was a success even before a ball had been kicked”.
As well as the Down matches, other events to mark the club’s anniversary include an exhibition at the local parish centre of Bredagh memorabilia, a 5k race, family fun day and a masters golf event as well as a Gala Dinner in the Whitla Hall.
