HENRY Joy McCracken’s GAC in North Belfast looks certain to be a welcome new addition to the Antrim Hurling League for the 2021 season and beyond.
The new club has a catchment area across the shadow of Cave Hill which includes the Greencastle, Bawnmore, Whitewell, Newington, Newlodge and Cavehill neighbourhoods of the city and it takes its name from Presbyterian-raised United Irishman Henry Joy McCracken (1767-1798) who was born in High Street and is buried in Clifton Street cemetery.
Already it has attracted a large and enthusiastic senior squad and the club is currently awaiting affiliation from the Antrim County Board but with county chairman Ciaran McCavana already voicing his support that should be a formality. The club also has plans to field underage teams with eight coaches lined up to begin bringing through young players.
Off the field, ‘Henry Joy’s’ has appointed a full committee and hopes to have their first set of jerseys delivered later this week, so these are exciting times for the fledgling outfit – the second start-up in two seasons in the city after East Belfast came into being last year.
‘Henry Joy’s’ which will be a sister club of its footballing neighbours Pearse’s and Wolfe Tone’s and founder member Gavin Curran says the interest shown in the project so far has been very encouraging.
“We’ll probably play home games in Mallusk,” explained St Enda’s clubman Curran who was involved in the formation of the Loughmore club in Crumlin, which has attracted hurlers from Aldergrove, Glenavy and Aghagallon.
“We could play at the Valley or Cricky but I would rather we played on a grass surface and the committee has already looked into making contact with the local council to see if we can develop a home pitch down the line.
“There are different areas there that I’m looking towards, there are parks in North Belfast that could facilitate a grass pitch for GAA and it doesn’t have to be just GAA. If you go to Dublin and other urban areas they have pitches lined out for GAA and soccer as well so it has potential for everybody.”
‘Henry Joy’s’ hope to start in Division Four of the Antrim Hurling League this year and will also compete in the South Antrim competition to include as many players as possible.
“If all the players we have commit we’d be looking at having a team in each,” Curran explained.
“We want everybody to get involved because if the participation levels are high then you’re going to retain more members and get more people involved in the sport. There are boys who know they’re not going to be part of a first team but they’re quite happy to train and play for the seconds and coach kids… I’m quite happy for that sort of system to be in place.
“Hurling is so small, especially in the north of the city, that you can’t be picky. It’s a minority sport so it’s a case of getting everybody in who is interested.”
The 42-strong senior squad includes a member of the local protestant church group, natives of Tipperary and Wexford, men who have played hurling at underage and school level and others who have never swung a hurl in anger before. Curran hopes the club will send out the cross-community ethos embraced by the famous man whose memory it celebrates.
“Henry Joy McCracken was a Protestant, we want the club to be cross-community and so the door will always stay open to everybody,” he said.
“We’ve seen what East Belfast has done in wanting to include everybody and we have to maintain that style of bringing hurling and culture to people with a name that is identifiable for everybody. Darren Matthews (East Belfast hurler) says if we play them it’ll be: ‘The Protestant-named club against the Protestant team!’ and as soon as GAA gives us the go-ahead to start, the boys are very keen to get going.
“Obviously the restrictions at the minute mean that they’re only allowed to work in pairs and they’re doing that every weekend – going down to their local parks and playing away and getting their training done so that when we get back there’s a bit of hurling in them already and we’re not starting from scratch. They’re all bursting to get out there.”
