Portadown Tir Na Nog 70 years old this year!

[T Fearon]

I'm hearing there will be a week long celebration in August!

[JUst retired]

Will there be a walk with the Garvaghy Rd. orangemen taking part?

[T Fearon]

Very few coming out of Tir Na Nog clubrooms are able to walk anywhere,might be a stagger down Garvaghy Road though

[BennyCake]

Where was TNN's original pitch, T? The hurling pitch out the Moy Road?

[T Fearon]

No.Before they used the hurling pitch,they played on the small pitch on up the Moy Road,near the roundabout,right beside the school,and the adjacent "hut", now occupied by the scouts,was the clubhouse/ changing rooms.

[BennyCake]

No.Before they used the hurling pitch,they played on the small pitch on up the Moy Road,near the roundabout,right beside the school,and the adjacent "hut", now occupied by the scouts,was the clubhouse/ changing rooms.

Ah, Drumcree school's old pitch? The one like a hill?

[T Fearon]

That's the one! Though you've got me thinking. The school was built in the mid 60s so I am assuming that pitch and wee hut was there long before the school? Must enquire about that one!

[BennyCake]

That's the one! Though you've got me thinking. The school was built in the mid 60s so I am assuming that pitch and wee hut was there long before the school? Must enquire about that one!

You're going back too far for me! Lol. That was one hell of a pitch. Standing at one goalmouth, you couldn't even see the other lol.

I presume they then moved on to Ballyoran? Wasn't the current pitch where Sam McCready grew his roses, who later emigrated to New Zealand? I hear he was the biggest Rose grower in the southern hemisphere. 

By the way, which came first - Ballyoran estate or the current pitch?

[T Fearon]

There was a ten year period between the wee pitch (though it was still used occasionally) and Ballyoran,during which time the club moved rapidly from Div 4 to Div using the hurling pitch at Selshion (on down the Moy Road as you referred to previously).I remember clearly the night the new pitch was opened in August 1986, with the late Cardinal O'Fiaich blessing it before Armagh played All Ireland Finalists Tyrone in a challenge match.Hard to believe it was 27 years ago! Ballyoran Estate had been built in the late 60s,long before the club relocated to the site.

Mc Gready's Rose Nurseries were just off the main Garvaghy Road,about half way down,facing Churchhill Park,no where near the current GAA pitch.

[BennyCake]

Now that I think about it, I'm pretty sure I've seen the programme from the official opening. So, Yes you're Right. It's not that long ago really. I always assumed it was built much earlier.

But I can still recall SFC games being played at the hurling pitch. And that was only late 80s, early 90s.

[T Fearon]

I remember Armagh playing Derry in a foootball challenge game at the Hurling pitch in 1983!

[Oraisteach]

I seem to recall playing hurling on a short pitch, so short that the puck-outs would land in the opposite square.  Am I imagining things, or is that possible at all?

[T Fearon]

Sounds like the small pitch on Moy Road beside the school,which was the original home of Tir Na Nog GFC.

[BennyCake]

T, don't know if you seen it but there's a piece about Portadown in today's (Thursday) Irish News. Page 23, a piece written in 1945. It speaks of Drumcree GAA. Was that the original name or Tir na nOg?

[T Fearon]

Didn't see that.Club was formed in 1943 and played in Drumcree area so must have been