Urris celebrates 40 years of GAA
29.10.09
by
Damian Dowds, Inishowen
Independent
GAELS in the parish of Clonmany gathered in the
Ballyliffin Hotel on Sunday night to celebrate the 40th
anniversary of the founding of the Urris GAA club in
1969. With plenty of silverware won at underage level
this year, and the seniors still in the running for a
promotion play-off place to Division 2, there was much
to celebrate. The club’s founding members were honoured
with a special presentation on Sunday night, and in this
special feature the Inishowen Independent focuses on a
storied team from the club’s illustrious history.
The club was just ten years old when it made its first
major breakthrough, winning the county Junior Football
Championship in September 1979 defeating Gaoth Dobhair
by 2-13 to 1-2 in O’Donnell Park, Letterkenny.
“It was our semi-final against St Eunan’s juniors that
was the making of that team, in fact, it was probably
the making of the club as a whole,” manager Colm Toland
recalled last week. |
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Having defeated
Cloughaneely and Kilcar in earlier rounds, Urris were
drawn against the Letterkenny side in the semi-final.
The initial meeting between the sides finished level,
and the replay also finished level after extra time. “We
drew the second one through a penalty from Michael Grant
in the last kick of the game,” Toland recalled. The
third game was tight again and went to extra time with
Patrick Grant scoring the winning point.
“We had a good young team, and had been building nicely
during the 1970s,” Toland said. “And we were training
harder than many senior teams at the time.”
A keen student of the game and a former county player
himself, Toland, like most Gaelic games followers in the
country, was enthralled by the Kerry-Dublin rivalry of
the 1970s. On trips to the capital, he would go and
watch Kevin Heffernan put the Dubs through their paces.
Once, while attending a wedding in Killarney, he went to
watch Kerry train under Mick O’Dwyer.
“We’d been narrowly beaten by Glenfin, who went onto win
the junior title, in 1978 and we knew that we weren’t
too far way,” Toland said. “We trained very hard all
through the following season. We were young and the
players gave a great commitment to it.”
The county final was largely one way traffic. Urris led
by 0-3 to no score when their star forward, Gerald Friel,
bagged a goal. They led by 2-7 to 1-1 at the break, the
second goal coming from the boot of the veteran Jim
Quigley.
“Quigley was one of the best players Inishowen ever
produced,” Toland said. “He had been a star with St
Eunan’s College and then played with Donegal throughout
the 1960s. He’d more or less retired from the game, but
I coaxed him back and he was a huge asset to us.”
But for some exceptional goal-keeping from the Gaoth
Dobhair goalkeeper, Urris’ final margin of victory could
have been every greater and they certainly weren’t
flattered by the 2-13 to 1-2 scoreline.
“We had huge support in Letterkenny that day,” Toland
recalled. “The match had been announced at Masses in the
parish that morning and with it being a beautiful
September day a huge crowd travelled.”
Excited Urris supporters celebrated long and hard on the
O’Donnell Park pitch after the win before a large
motorcade of cars and buses made their way back home.
“It was the first time that people in the club realised
that we could compete at county level,” Toland said.
“The club never looked back after that.”
The Urris team on county final day, 9 September
1979, was: John Friel; Patsy Devlin, John M Friel, John
Friel; Mario Comiskey, Michael Grant, Dan N Friel; Paddy
O’Donnell, Pat Grant; Des Kemmy, Joe McLaughlin, John
Farren; Pat Grant, Gerald Friel, Jim Quigley. Subs:
Richard Enright, Gerry O’Kane, Owen McGonigle.
For full coverage of all your weekend sport, read the
Inishowen Independent. |
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