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Sad news about Tom Daly, the Cork native who was residing in Warrenpoint who was Down Hurling Officer for a few years.

RIP Tom.


Terrible news. Gentleman. Ar dheis Dé go raibh a anam.

Awful sad. Ar dheis Dé go raibh a anam.

Bryansford hurled in the 1980's for a short while. Think they won a Special Junior Championship. Michael Hanley (RIP), a Tipperary native, was a hurling influence in the local primary schools in the Newcastle area throughout the 90's in relation to the small ball game but I don't think anything formal in terms of establishing it at club level ever happened.

Very interesting, never knew that.

Often times, it seems that it takes one very dedicated person to keep something going, and when they unfortunately pass away or move out of the area, there is no one to keep it going.

Encouraging hurling in schools is a great thing.

Hopefully some day hurling returns to Newcastle. Clann na Boirce were a successful club in the very, very early years of the Down Hurling Championship; would be great to see hurling at the foot of the Mournes again after all these years.

[11,500 population according to the latest census. If this includes the outskirts and surrounding areas, there are other clubs drawing from this population - Saul, Kilclief (who do hurl), Bright, Ardglass, maybe Teconnaught. So perhaps the option would be a new club solely for hurling, to eliminate the complications of players playing football and hurling for different clubs? Maybe the Kilclief club would object, or could they be persuaded to be a part of it? Worth exploring if the whole surrounding area and clubs can be somehow included, as opposed to just the RGU.]

 
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11,500 population according to the latest census. If this includes the outskirts and surrounding areas, there are other clubs drawing from this population - Saul, Kilclief (who do hurl), Bright, Ardglass, maybe Teconnaught. So perhaps the option would be a new club solely for hurling, to eliminate the complications of players playing football and hurling for different clubs? Maybe the Kilclief club would object, or could they be persuaded to be a part of it? Worth exploring if the whole surrounding area and clubs can be somehow included, as opposed to just the RGU.
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I had a look there, but Downpatrick has a population of 21,916, according to the Census on the Northern Ireland Statistics and Research Angency website. The only figure I could find which said Downpatrick has a population of 11,500 is a Wikipedia article which says there is a population of 11,545 (which Wikipedia says is according to the Census, but the Census doesn't mention anything in line with this, and when I clicked on the reference, it took me to a custom table and not the Census figures that were published by the NISRA for 2021).

I'm not sure whether or not this includes areas such as Kilclief and Ardglass etc.

Either way, it is clearly a large population without an outlet for hurling (or with only one outlet if we include Kilclief).

I think you're spot on, a great solution would be to establish a hurling club in the town.

Having dual clubs is great, but there's no point in pretending that some people will never be convinced to join their rival club. Which is understandable.

I think this is partly why clubs like Sean Tracey's, Craobh Rua, Na Magha, etc., are succesful. Sean Tracey's, for example, has players from Clann Eireann, Clan na Gael, and St Peter's, but it is no great stretch to assume if the club had simply come about as say, a Clann Eireann hurling side, they potentially would not have  the same players down to club rivalries.

I think the Clann Mhúrn innovative between the clubs in the Mournes is a great example of how this could be done, and hopefully it works out. 5 rival football clubs, but all feed one hurling club, which removes any complications of say, someone playing football for Ballymartin, but hurling for An Riocht.

I'm not sure how many players Kilclief actually have from Downpatrick, but I would like to think they wouldn't object to the creation of a hurling club in the town. Personally, if such a venture was done, I'd like to see Kilclief remain separate, as the more clubs the better, and it would be a pity to undo the hurling tradition in the area.

You're absolutely right though, it's an idea which is definitely worth exploring. It's an area with a lot of potential for hurling development, and it's a pity that our county town doesn't have an outlet to play our national game.
 

I know everybody is probably more intrigued with the other games happening this weekend, but is there any chance of Ballycastle springing an upset on Loughgiel?

Given the nature of the 3 team group, will Loughgiel hold back for later in the Championship, with Ballycastle going all out to try and ensure they don't finish bottom.

Know it's unlikely, but is it worth discussing?

Liatriom where impressive on Sunday considering they had 2r3 key players sidelined. You have to remember they were playing a really impressive and strong Portaferry so I think the management team will be happy enough. I expect they will beat Bredagh this weekend.
The Ards teams playing Down D1 are not really a reserve team - pretty much the first team minus county players which can be a 3rd of the team - that's my experience anyway
Great post Splash - 1 update is a new Mourne Hurling club set up last year starting at primary school ages. Also good to see Saul do the same.
Great point about about St Kevins plus some other clubs with large memberships numbers already offering Camogie e.g. Mayobridge, Kilkoo, Ballyholland etc

Thanks lad, appreciate it.

The Mourne Club is a great idea and I'm glad to see they're going well. Woudont know as much about Saul but hear it's going well still.

Someone said would St Kevin's players not play for Castlewellen? I'm not sure, but I know a couple lads from the area playing for different clubs (none Castlewellan), and the majority seem to be Carryduff.

The intermediate is not quite as exciting this week, but could still throw up a shock or two.

Shamrocks will travel to Kilclief, and Clonduff will host Warrenpoint.

Last year's Junior Champions, Kilclief, will want to make a statement win. However they don't seem as strong as they were last year, and whilst Shamrocks have also regressed from where they were a few years ago, it's still very hard to see past them as the best team in the Intermediate at the moment. The few years they  spent in the Senior Championship will probably serve them well.

Clonduff have been massively struggling this year. Understandable given the tragic circumstances around the club, recently. With low numbers and a poor league campaign, it is hard to see them doing much damage to a strong Point team who really want to target getting an Intermediate Championship.

Unfortunately, there's not too much more that can be said for this week's Intermediate action. Shamrocks and the Point are realistically a good bit ahead of Kiclief and Clonduff.

I think the problem with the intermediate is the lack of teams in it. There's only a few teams in the county, and there's a big enough gulf between teams going up from junior (like Kilclief) and meeting teams coming down from Senior (like Shamrocks).

I think the only real solution is we need more teams so we can expand the championships- although that is far easier said than done.

The intermediate championship should throw up some interesting clashes this year, with a mix of Div One, Div Two, and potentially Antrim league teams once the senior clubs come down later on in the championship. Realistically though, it is hard to see past whoever comes down from the senior championship meeting in the final.

Should be an interesting championship, all the same.

Thanks for this splash, what way would you like the county board to increase teams? Where would you target?

No bother Truth. Hope you found the read interesting.

It's of course very difficult to start hurling teams and takes a long time, and the County Board can't force clubs to field hurling teams. I think we should put the emphasis on offering football, hurling, and handball to everyone in the county and go from there.

There's a lot of areas I think could be targeted for hurling growth, and in different manners.

I think for a start we've a scope to promote hurling in our urban areas.

If you think of the major towns in the county- Newry, Downpatrick, Newcastle, Banbridge, Kilkeel etc., the only one that has a team is Newry. (I wouldn't count Kilclief, Castlewellan, and Ballyvarley as being hurling clubs in those towns, they are different clubs people from Downpatrick, Newcastle and Banbridge would have to travel to to play hurling).

Downpatrick in particular is a place with major potential I would say. A large, nationalist town, with a lot of Ards people attending school in the town.

I also think any club that fields a camogie team would be fit to field a junior hurling team. Others may disagree, but in my opinion, the resources, or at the very least, the foundations, are already there. Ballyholland, Mayobridge, Kilcoo, and An Riocht all compete in the Senior Camogie Championship. Surely it wouldn't be impossible to introduce underage hurling alongside underage camogie?

One example that comes to mind is St Kevin's. The club is exclusively a camogie club. No football, no hurling, purely camogie. Surely there should be a discussion about offering hurling? (I understand the situation surrounding St Kevin's and that it's not as simple as that, and it draws its players from Teconnaught and Drumaness etc., the run in with the county board a few years ago, but I still don't think any of that prevents the club offering hurling).

Resurrecting hurling in clubs where it used to be is also something I think should be looked at by the county board.

Darragh Cross had a particularly strong hurling team in the relative recent past. Glenn and Rostrevor had hurling teams around that time, too. There's others, but those are ones that spring to mind.

There's a lot that could be done to promote hurling in the county, and there's no quick fix, and it'll take a lot of persuasion, but it's possible.

If every club that offered camogie offered hurling, large urban clubs like RGU and Bryansford fielded clubs, and a few parishes resurrected the game, we would double the amount of hurling clubs in the county. This would be huge, and it would allow us to expand the championships to more than 4 teams, and would lead to more competitive and more interesting championships across all grades.

That's my 2 cents anyway. Im sure alot of people will say it's wishful thinking and I should give over and just let clubs focus on football, but I think it's a pragmatic way of thinking about it, and at the very least, it's discussions we should be having.

The same can be said of football in hurling clubs and handball. There's no reason we shouldn't be talking about offering Gaelic Games to everyone.

I wouldn't agree Downpatrick has any potential in terms of hurling. It could be easily argued that for such a large population the RGU have seriously underachieved in football for a very long time. I doubt there would be a strong enough interest for hurling or the playing numbers to sustain it.

They had a hurling team at junior level and underage teams for years. Only stopped in the last 20 years.

Darragh Cross stopped fielding after 2000 - I remember Ballela playing them in the junior quarter final in 2000 (then played RGU in the semi), Rostrevor stopped late 90s - same for Drumaness. St Johns, Kilcoo, Mayobridge & Glenn all played in the 80s.

There are over 20,000 people in Downpatrick.

It's understandable a small parish not being able to field. Downpatrick is simply too large to use this excuse.

I would definitely agree though, they are massive under performers in football. You'd think there'd be at least two clubs in the town? Anyway, discussion for a different day.

Proximity to the Ards, the hurling culture in the school, etc. These all mean Downpatrick is a better shout than somewhere like Saval or Drumgath.

It's a terror how long it is since those clubs all played hurling, but it is within living memory. That's a massive advantage.

FYI Newry is getting it's own dedicated GDO, so they better promote hurling as well or else they'll be getting it on Twitter.

I think we're also getting a hurling GDO for the whole county.   

Overdue for manys a year.

Is it a Newry GDO, or an Urban GDO? Newry is a problem of its own which probably warrants an entire thread.

- Mitchell's needs to be saved.
- No team in Newry is playing football above Division 3, and no team in the Senior Championship.
- Hurling massively underperforms in Newry.
- What to do about Ballyholland?
- Are Armagh going to reap the benefits more than us?

Newry is a vital clog in the Down GAA machine. Maybe it does need its own GDO?

A little Hurling on Down Gaelic football TV would be nice. Downpatrick is too big to be without camogie or hurling . This is a pressing concern that the new GDO needs to address. A few years ago, St Pats also won the Mageeann Cup.

You're right, Truth. It would definitely help.

Also think making the Down games more accessible would be a step in the right direction.

Understand Ballycran is the spiritual home of our hurlers at this point, but it's hard to get too for a lot of the county. Nobody wants to drive an 1h+ to watch a game unless they're serious about it.

Downpatrick maybe would be a compromise? Still close to the majority of players, but a lot easier for people from South Down to get to?

The intermediate is not quite as exciting this week, but could still throw up a shock or two.

Shamrocks will travel to Kilclief, and Clonduff will host Warrenpoint.

Last year's Junior Champions, Kilclief, will want to make a statement win. However they don't seem as strong as they were last year, and whilst Shamrocks have also regressed from where they were a few years ago, it's still very hard to see past them as the best team in the Intermediate at the moment. The few years they  spent in the Senior Championship will probably serve them well.

Clonduff have been massively struggling this year. Understandable given the tragic circumstances around the club, recently. With low numbers and a poor league campaign, it is hard to see them doing much damage to a strong Point team who really want to target getting an Intermediate Championship.

Unfortunately, there's not too much more that can be said for this week's Intermediate action. Shamrocks and the Point are realistically a good bit ahead of Kiclief and Clonduff.

I think the problem with the intermediate is the lack of teams in it. There's only a few teams in the county, and there's a big enough gulf between teams going up from junior (like Kilclief) and meeting teams coming down from Senior (like Shamrocks).

I think the only real solution is we need more teams so we can expand the championships- although that is far easier said than done.

The intermediate championship should throw up some interesting clashes this year, with a mix of Div One, Div Two, and potentially Antrim league teams once the senior clubs come down later on in the championship. Realistically though, it is hard to see past whoever comes down from the senior championship meeting in the final.

Should be an interesting championship, all the same.

Thanks for this splash, what way would you like the county board to increase teams? Where would you target?

No bother Truth. Hope you found the read interesting.

It's of course very difficult to start hurling teams and takes a long time, and the County Board can't force clubs to field hurling teams. I think we should put the emphasis on offering football, hurling, and handball to everyone in the county and go from there.

There's a lot of areas I think could be targeted for hurling growth, and in different manners.

I think for a start we've a scope to promote hurling in our urban areas.

If you think of the major towns in the county- Newry, Downpatrick, Newcastle, Banbridge, Kilkeel etc., the only one that has a team is Newry. (I wouldn't count Kilclief, Castlewellan, and Ballyvarley as being hurling clubs in those towns, they are different clubs people from Downpatrick, Newcastle and Banbridge would have to travel to to play hurling).

Downpatrick in particular is a place with major potential I would say. A large, nationalist town, with a lot of Ards people attending school in the town.

I also think any club that fields a camogie team would be fit to field a junior hurling team. Others may disagree, but in my opinion, the resources, or at the very least, the foundations, are already there. Ballyholland, Mayobridge, Kilcoo, and An Riocht all compete in the Senior Camogie Championship. Surely it wouldn't be impossible to introduce underage hurling alongside underage camogie?

One example that comes to mind is St Kevin's. The club is exclusively a camogie club. No football, no hurling, purely camogie. Surely there should be a discussion about offering hurling? (I understand the situation surrounding St Kevin's and that it's not as simple as that, and it draws its players from Teconnaught and Drumaness etc., the run in with the county board a few years ago, but I still don't think any of that prevents the club offering hurling).

Resurrecting hurling in clubs where it used to be is also something I think should be looked at by the county board.

Darragh Cross had a particularly strong hurling team in the relative recent past. Glenn and Rostrevor had hurling teams around that time, too. There's others, but those are ones that spring to mind.

There's a lot that could be done to promote hurling in the county, and there's no quick fix, and it'll take a lot of persuasion, but it's possible.

If every club that offered camogie offered hurling, large urban clubs like RGU and Bryansford fielded clubs, and a few parishes resurrected the game, we would double the amount of hurling clubs in the county. This would be huge, and it would allow us to expand the championships to more than 4 teams, and would lead to more competitive and more interesting championships across all grades.

That's my 2 cents anyway. Im sure alot of people will say it's wishful thinking and I should give over and just let clubs focus on football, but I think it's a pragmatic way of thinking about it, and at the very least, it's discussions we should be having.

The same can be said of football in hurling clubs and handball. There's no reason we shouldn't be talking about offering Gaelic Games to everyone.

Oh - cheers splash.

Not a bother

In the senior we're now getting down to the nitty gritty.

Bredagh and Liatroim is a must win game for both if either want to secure an away semi-final in the knock out stages.

Bredagh have improved as the competition has went on and Liatroim have flattered to deceive, but with Ballycran in their last game they will need to win this.

If Bredagh fail to win it then they're down into the intermediate championship. I think they might pull off a win here though.

Carryduff gave our lads a scare last Saturday and were allowed to play some decent hurling. This is also a must win game for Ballycran and I just don't see Ballycran being as stand-off ish as our lads were and will probably secure the victory here but it won't be plain sailing.
If Carryduff can get the home victory then they will have put the cat among the pigeons and will have secured one of the two remaining semi-final spots and that'll leave a three way battle for the final semi-final spot.
I'm expecting Ballycran to bandage up their walking wounded to see them over the line.


Our game v Portaferry is a meaningless game and we'll be looking to rest our minors and also those carrying a few knocks and strains. Portaferry will win this pulling up as they've the much stronger panel to contend with injuries etc etc.

Bredagh v Liatroim is for me the hardest game to call in the entire tournament. Both teams are off where they were but Bredagh seem to be going through something of a transitional period and I think Liatroim will throw everything at them to give themselves the best chance of making it to the knockouts.

Would love to see Carryduff shocking Ballycran and opening up the championship, and whilst Ballycran have been far from their best this year, it's hard to see Ballycran not coming out on top, and will be more cautious after the scare Carryduff gave Ballygalget.

I'm expecting to see a replay of the Portaferry/Ballygalget game in the final unless Ballycran have been holding back for the knockouts.

Have Carryduff plated Liatroim JC?

Played in the first round in Carryduff. Liatroim won by 10+

The intermediate is not quite as exciting this week, but could still throw up a shock or two.

Shamrocks will travel to Kilclief, and Clonduff will host Warrenpoint.

Last year's Junior Champions, Kilclief, will want to make a statement win. However they don't seem as strong as they were last year, and whilst Shamrocks have also regressed from where they were a few years ago, it's still very hard to see past them as the best team in the Intermediate at the moment. The few years they  spent in the Senior Championship will probably serve them well.

Clonduff have been massively struggling this year. Understandable given the tragic circumstances around the club, recently. With low numbers and a poor league campaign, it is hard to see them doing much damage to a strong Point team who really want to target getting an Intermediate Championship.

Unfortunately, there's not too much more that can be said for this week's Intermediate action. Shamrocks and the Point are realistically a good bit ahead of Kiclief and Clonduff.

I think the problem with the intermediate is the lack of teams in it. There's only a few teams in the county, and there's a big enough gulf between teams going up from junior (like Kilclief) and meeting teams coming down from Senior (like Shamrocks).

I think the only real solution is we need more teams so we can expand the championships- although that is far easier said than done.

The intermediate championship should throw up some interesting clashes this year, with a mix of Div One, Div Two, and potentially Antrim league teams once the senior clubs come down later on in the championship. Realistically though, it is hard to see past whoever comes down from the senior championship meeting in the final.

Should be an interesting championship, all the same.

It's the best time of the year, with the Junior and Intermediate Hurling Championships beginning this week.

Starts with the biggest hurling derby this side of Strangford Lough with Ballela v Ballyvarley on Thursday night, in Ballyvarley. Ballela have spent the last few years in the Intermediate Championship, but will be far from favourites for the Junior this year.

Both teams had poor enough league campaigns, both finishing at the bottom of Division Two. Ballela seem to have picked up after a particularly bad year last year, and despite a bad league, it's been a big improvement. Johnny McCusker is still solid for them, but the big addition this year is the return of former county dual star, Mal Magee

Ballyvarley seem to have taken a step backwards from the progress they made last year, and seem to have struggled after losing their best player to Liatroim.

These teams played only once in the league, with Ballela coming out on top, but both will have changed a lot since then.

Should be a hard hitting, brutal match, and would expect to see a couple cards dished out.

If Ballyvarley can keep the frees low, they're probably a better team and will be able to out play Ballea. However, giving away frees is giving Ballela scores on a plate, and if Ballela can feed the ball through their main men and keep ticking over, they should win.

It's always interesting to note these teams are amalgamated at underage right the way through until senior. They seem to do quite well, too. You would wonder what the future holds a


Saturday sees Castlewellan host East Belfast. This time last year, East Belfast produced the shock of the year when they dumped JHC favourites, Castlewellan, out of the championship.

A lot has changed since then. Castlewellan had a good league in Division One, and cemented their status there for next year with wins over Clonduff, Newry Shamrocks, and impressively, Ballygalget.

East Belfast will join them in Division One next year, after managing to secure promotion to the top flight in only their fourth year of existence. They've come a long way, and are no longer plucky underdogs and will be expecting to win the Junior Championship and continue their rise.

That loss really hurt Castlewellan last year, but it was probably a necessary learning experience and they'll not want to be caught out twice. They have some great hurlers in the ranks, with the captain of Down's All Ireland B Champions amongst them.

East Belfast have no shortage of impressive hurlers, and will be confident going into this. They probably have the strongest overall forward line in the competition, which will cause problems for most teams.

Both of these teams realistically need to get out of the Junior Championship to continue their development, and I wouldn't be surprised to see these two meet again in the final.

It is still quite an open Junior Championship. Both Castlewellan and East Belfast will feel they need to win, Ballela feel like something of a 'one last ride' team with their old guns back, and Ballyvarley are well fit to mix it with any of those teams and could be hiding in the long grass.

It may not be as fast or as pretty as the Senior Championship, but it'll be just as interesting to watch, if not more, given how open it is.

The talk on here of Ballykinlar over the past couple days got me thinking- what is the situation of the Ballykinlar club at the moment?

I was under the impression the club had folded, with them not fielding a team in Division 4 this year. Similar to Newry Mitchells. 

But their social media is still active. They have raffles and monthly draws, and, most interestingly, according to their Facebook, there were membership fees for this year.

This would mean the club is still going? But it simply does not field an adult men's football team in the ACFL?

Do they field underage teams?

There's bound to be a couple fellas in the area who would be playing football- do they simply play for neighbouring parishes like  Dundrum or Bright?

If Ballykinlar fielded a team next year, what would be a successful year for them?

Very unique situation for a club, and hope that some day they do return to competitive football.

Regardless of anyone's opinion on choosing Ballykinlar as the site of a centre of excellence, if the project does indeed come to fruition, would it encourage an uptake of GAA in the area and a revival of the club?