Draperstown Celtic F.C.
| Full name | Draperstown Celtic Football Club |
|---|---|
| Nickname(s) | DC, The Half Hoops |
| Founded | 1968 |
| Ground | Cahore Playing Fields |
| Chairman | Paul McCallion |
| Manager | Chris Hickson |
Draperstown Celtic is a football club from the village of Draperstown, County Londonderry, Northern Ireland. The club, founded in 1968, plays its home matches at Cahore Playing Fields. Club colours are green and white.
It would be perhaps inaccurate to begin any history of Draperstown Celtic Football club by simply beginning in 1968. Despite the fact that we are celebrating the 40th anniversary of the club in its present form, there was certainly a history of football in Draperstown long before the “current” Celtic club was established. The early 1900s would appear to be the actual beginning point to the formation of organised football in the area with archives showing Draperstown Football Club competing in the South Derry and District League. Indeed that league was won by the club in both 1908 and 1909. While the club continued to develop with varying degrees of success, the formation of St. Colm’s Gaelic Club in 1933 was to prove a very attractive alternative.
However, in 1936 Draperstown, playing in green and white hoops with a home pitch where the Moykeeran Housing estate now stands, had their most successful season, winning every competition in which they entered. That team, captained by John McGuigan, contained other players such as Denis McNamee, Alec Barclay, Michael Kelly, Bobby and Matt Taylor, and Mick and Matt Regan who went on to play for Belfast Celtic. However the sporting momentum switched to Gaelic and as a result the soccer club finally no longer existed.
It was almost 30 years later when the next version of organised soccer in Draperstown came into existence. While football was being played on the Fairhill by large numbers it was not in any way organised but there was a desire for an organised team to be re-established. 1967 saw John Joe Bradley, Jody McGuigan and John Burke amongst others attempt to form such a team and as a result Draperstown Reds or Draperstown Utd was formed wearing red shirts. New clubs don’t always run smoothly and this was also the case for the newly formed Draperstown Utd. And in the next year 1968, following a well attended meeting in the AOH hall, Draperstown Celtic F.C. came into being, once again wearing the green and white hoops.
The first competitive season for Celtic was tough. With no home pitch all games were played away, and unsurprisingly they finished bottom of the league. Difficulties continued both in and off the field of play with the added difficulty of attempting to secure a home pitch. This was to change in September 1971 when Celtic would establish their home pitch in a field owned by Billy Cassidy on the Tobermore Rd. beside Burns’ shirt factory. Only a matter of weeks before that came the first of Celtic’s cup successes when a John Andrews hat-trick powered the side to a win over Tobermore Utd. in the Tobermore cup final played at Maghera High School. That team included such players as Mickey Joe Gallagher, Mick McKee, Gerry McKenna, Lenny Kelly, and Mickey “Red” Kelly Draperstown were now a team to be reckoned with and this was further established with the team being promoted from Division 2 of the N.W.league and winning the Division 1 title the following year Some would argue that this was the finest team Draperstown had with the likes of Seamus McKee, Paddy McDaid, Eamon Mc guigan, Jimmy and Mickey McGlone and Charlie Phillips to name but a few. That team was managed by Colm McGuigan who was to achieve a unique sporting double that year when he also managed St.Colm’s to win the Derry Senior Championship with many of the Celtic players in the Ballinascreen side.
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