Club History of St Brenda’s Camogie Club, Ballymacnab. Co Armagh Ballymacnab is a small rural area approximately 5½ miles from Armagh heading for Newtownhamilton. The area is steeped in history and folklore, none more famous than the story behind the ‘Bull’s Track’. This is a landmark at the junction of the main Armagh/Newtownhamilton road and the Ballymacnab Road that leads off to the beautiful Seagahan Dam. A large stone marks the spot where it is claimed a large black bull landed after having been flung from neighbouring Armaghbreague Mountain by an angry St Patrick after the same bull had knocked down the church he was building in the ‘Breague for the third consecutive night. A clear mark of the Bull’s Foot remains to this day and recent refurbishment work to the landmark has highlighted the Bull’s Track as a place of tourist attraction as well as one where the locals can sit and watch the busy traffic pass by as they pass on their own worldly words of wisdom as well as enjoy each others craic.

Camogie was first played in the Ballymacnab area around 1934 but this team broke up in 1936 with players continuing to play with local club Whitecross. In the late 1930’s a parish league was formed for the girls of the Parish (Ballymacnab is in the Parish of Kilcluney, other local clubs that make up the Parish are Granemore and Clady). While this parish league was in existence (1938-1940) there was a lot of interest and enthusiasm for the game of camogie in Ballymacnab. The Ballymacnab girls who participated in the Parish League also played matches against neighbouring teams such as Keady. These matches carried with them all of the rivalry and keen competition that is associated with neighbouring clubs in today’s game. The Ballymacnab team of the late 1930’s was not registered with the County Board and hence did not take part in any of the Armagh County competitions. When the Parish league ceased in 1940, the camogie team ceased to function in Ballymacnab.

For a number of years no camogie was played in Ballymacnab, until, around 1957, the camogie cailini of Ballymacnab took to the field once again. A meeting was held in Ballymacnab Hall and St Brenda’s Camogie Club was founded. The new St Brenda’s Club entered the Armagh County Board Competitions and training became a more regular and organised affair. This all paid off then the ‘Nab’ girls won their league playoff in 1959 by beating the famous Blackwatertown club, the outstanding team of that era.

The following year, 1960, saw the Ballymacnab girls finish top of their league once more and carry off a set of county trophies, a sure sign of the spirit and dedication of a camogie cailini wearing the Nab jersey. However, after this short successful run, Ballymacnab experienced another lean period and the game was dormant in the area once again until 1968 when the club was reformed under the Chairmanship of the present Club President Brendan Harvey, and since them has grown from strength to strength. The Committee Members who had the vision to re-establish the current club back in 1968 were Brendan Harvey (chairman), Ann Fearon (vice chairman), Maureen McCone (secretary), Una Harvey (treasurer), Teresa Harvey, Kathleen Fearon, May Fearon and Joe Halpin (committee members).

The club got off to a flying start and the senior players of 1968, in their first year of playing together, won the junior league thereby earning promotion to the senior league. The following year was another great year for St Brenda’s and they had a number of victories in this season. The team reached the final of the County Senior Championship and were unfortunate to be defeated in a thrilling final. In 1970, two St Brenda’s players, Alice Beagan and Kathleen Fearon, were members of the Armagh County Team which reached the All Ireland Junior Championship final for the first time. Incidentally the Nab’s first player to represent the county was also a Beagan (Briege Began was part of Armagh County’s first Ulster Championship team in 1961).

During the early 70’s, the girls from Ballymacnab got great enjoyment out of playing their national sport although their efforts were not rewarded with trophies. The Club was represented on the County by Alice Beagan and a very young Mary Donnelly, who was to become one of the most prolific names in Ulster Camogie and indeed further afield through the 70’s, 80’s, 90’s and even was a handful for many’s a fullback in the new Millenium.

1974 saw the arrival of Joe Fullen on the scene. The legendary Joe could be compared to big names of contemporary managers such as Mike O’Dwyer, Joe Kernan, Sean Boylan and Ger Loughnan, such was his approach to the game, the club and how things could and should be done. Joe was a 110% man who gave and demanded nothing more than 110% in anything to do with the club, and despite Joe’s own physical disabilities he was able to motivate and generate a new army of players and committee members for St Brenda’s that were to take all before them in their stride.

In 1974 St Brenda’s won their first underage trophies by taking the Juvenile (u-14) league and championship double. This success was to be the start of a long, enjoyable and very successful journey for the club and for many of the players in this juvenile squad. The 1974 Juvenile Champions list reads: Ann McKenna, Jacinta Beagan (captain), Sally McCone, Mary Cosgrove, Marie O’Toole, Agnes Mackin, Mary Kennedy, Pauline O’Hare, Pauline Beagan, Rita Harvey, Ann Cosgrove, Pauline McCone and Eileen Martin.

Under the watchful eye of Joe Fullen and the expert tutelage of Brendan Harvey and Aidan Reynolds, St Brenda’s finished the 1975 season with no less than five sets of trophies- Post Primary League, Juvenile League & Championship, Division 2 league and Intermediate Championship. This was bettered in 1976 when the Club won 6 competitions and were very narrowly beaten in the County Senior Championship final. A pattern was emerging as the 1974 juvenile squad were moving through the ranks whilst new younger players were coming onto the scene. The 1976 successes were in post primary league, juvenile league and championship, minor league and championship and division 1 league. Again, senior championship glory was snatched from the Nab in another thrilling and close county final. It was hardly surprising that St Brenda’s were awarded the Club of the Year in 1976.

Successes continued in 1977 through all the ranks but still the Senior County Championship title eluded the girls from the Nab, loosing again in a close county final, their second final defeat in a row and the third in the history of the club. It seemed that the much coveted Fr Tom Soraghan Shield for Senior Champions (named in honour and memory of the great gael Fr Tom Soraghan who had been so instrumental in the successes of the great Blackwatertown team of the 1960’s) was not to come to the girls of Ballymacnab. However where skill and commitment were in abundance within the ranks of the Nab cailini, so was determination and so in 1978 the girls from the Nab set out to achieve their dream and achieve it they did! The wait was over and there was much to celebrate when the Fr Tom Soraghan Shield finally came to St Brenda’s Ballymacnab after an exciting final against a determined team from Annaghmore.

St Brenda’s run of successes continued at all age groups but the dominance of the Senior team was demonstrated when they recorded three successive County Senior Championship titles in 1978, 1979 and 1980. Indeed in 1979 the Club won all three of the senior championship competitions in the county- Junior Championship, Intermediate Championship and Senior Championship. Having made a clean sweep of the top three county championships as well as a number of other successes, the Club was awarded the Club of the Year for a second time in four years.

Having made a name as being the most successful club in County Armagh in the late 70’s, St Brenda’s went on to maintain their proud record during the 1980’s, winning a further 6 out of 9 senior championship titles (1982, 83, 86, 87, 88, 89) plus a number of underage competitions. The success of the club at senior level was beginning however to be reflected by a dwindling of club successes at underage levels as other clubs were emerging who were putting much higher emphasis on their underage structures. This pattern continued in the 1990’s where, whilst the Nab were still the team to beat at senior ranks, the Club’s successes at underage continued to be less predictable. The Fr Tom Soraghan Shield returned to Ballymacnab in 1992, 1995, 1998 and 1999. The 1992 season was marked by the appearance of Ballymacnab in the Ulster Club Final, a game that was cruelly snatched from their grasp by an equallising goal three minutes into injury time by Geraldine’s of Portglenone Club (Co Antrim Champions). The dream was not to be as Portglenone won the replay on a four point margin.
By the late 1990’s a new batch of very young players was beginning to bear fruit from the hard work that was being invested once again in the underage teams and the underage development activities of small number of committed and dedicated coaches was beginning to produce successes. This work culminated in the greatest single victory of the club’s history when in 2001 St Brenda’s were crowned All Ireland Feile Division 3 Champions in Co Cork, a glorious moment for the Club and all those who had been associated with this success and with the Club down through the decades. The Management team behind this momentus victory were Gerard Gribben, Arlene Donnelly, Paula McGuigan and Shauna Mone. St Brenda’s All Ireland Winners in 2001 were Mairead Short, Catherine Toner, Ciara Hayes, Stephanie McParland, Shauna Grugan, Laura McBirney, Shauna McKee, Catherine Short, Paula McGuigan, Edel McParland, Paula McManus, Colleen McGuigan, Niamh O’Hare (capt), Emma McParland, Aileen McParland, Emma O’Hare, Natalie Gray, Erin O’Hare, Carina McKee, Michaela King, Geraldine Gray, Mairead McClelland, Andrea McGivern, Ciara McArdle.
To emphasis St Brenda’s strength and abilities at underage levels, this achievement was again repeated in 2003. Many of the same girls collected their second All Ireland medal. The 2003 team was Catherine Toner, Shauna Grugann Aoibheann Doyle, Hannah Hughes, Ciara McArdle, Edel McParland, Shauna Smyth, Natalie Gray, Emma McParland, Geraldine Gray, Mairead McClelland, Corina McKee, Aileen McParland, Colleen McGuigan, Maria Corr, Aideen Canavan, Emma McManus, Erin O’Hare, Louise Toner, Orla O’Hare, Ashling Toner, Elisha Mines, Bronagh Hughes, Aisling Nugent. The management team was Shauna Mone, Paudi Beagan, Gerard Gribben and Paula McGuigan.

In more recent years St Brenda’s has continued to be a very strong and successful club across all underage levels but success at Senior Level has eluded us. That mould was broken in 2006 when the Senior Team stormed their way through the Ulster Club Shield final taking home the Club’s first title at Ulster Club level. The makings are there for the coveted County Senior title to return to the Nab in the very near future.

We in St Brenda’s are proud of our past and optimistic about our future. We are regarded as one of the most progressive clubs in County Armagh and were recognised for our work both on and off the field of play by being Highly Recommended in the prestigious Irish News Club Awards in 2004. We take pride in our continual effort for improvement and enhancement and this approach was refllected in 2005 when we supported three of our senior members through the National Coaching and Training Certificate to become Master Tutors, so that they can take their coaching skills across the country to train up new camogie coaches to foundation and level 1 standards. There are presently less than twenty such qualified tutors in Ireland, we in our proud little patch in Ballymacnab can claim to have three of them!

St Brenda’s Camogie Club has played a large part in the lives of many people in Ballymacnab and we hope that it will continue to provide a platform where positive friendships are formed and developed, happy memories are carved, actions and emotions of pride and respect are emitted and received and the memories and aspirations of those that have laid the ground for our club in the past will be honoured and carried forward into the future.

Written by Sally Rafferty (nee McCone) with grateful acknowledgement of the original manuscript by Marie McManus (nee O’Toole)