GREENCASTLE REFORMED

Sunday 26th January 1969 was the date for the Annual General Meeting of Mountfield GFC in Cashel School. However with the amount of personnel involved with Mountfield it was only a matter of time until Greencastle came into being and on the proposal of Sean Clarke, seconded by Francis Ward, it was decided to reform Greencastle St. Patrick's from that point in time. Indeed that proposal may have been in the name of Francis Ward and seconded by Sean Clarke. Either way, those were the two people involved and so Greencastle came into being.

The committee elected was as follows:

President: Rev Fr H. McFaul PP
Vice-President: Rev Fr P. McLaughlin CC
Chairman: John Bradley
Vice-Chairman: Peter Tracey
Secretary: Brendan Morris
Assistant Secretary: Sean Clarke
Treasurer: Kevin Morris
Committee: P.J. McDermott, Brian McDermott, Peter Tracey, Paddy McDermott, Mickey Bradley and Peter J. Keenan. Team Captain was Peter Tracey and Vice-Captain was P.J. McDermott.

The new club had the first league match against Clogher on Sunday 2nd March 1969. By now all active players who had been playing with other club's had become registered with the new club. The season started slowly and after 5 rounds of the league, the table stood as follows:

A highlight of the early part of the year was a draw in the Minor Championship against Omagh on a score of 1-08 each. This was a notable achievement as this was a star-studded Omagh side with a number of County Minor players. On the other hand this was an inexperienced Greencastle team who had a number of very good minors who passed out that grade over the previous two seasons. Therefore that that point, there was a good supply of young players coming into Junior Football.

As the year went on, Greencastle began to shape up as a reasonable team and it was with high hopes that the club met for their second Annual General Meeting in the Parochial Hall on the 25th January 1970.

Officers elected at that meeting were as follows:

President: Rev Fr H. McCaul PP
Vice-President: Rev Fr P. McLaughlin CC
Chairman: P.J. McDermott
Vice-Chairman: Kevin Morris
Secretary: Brendan Morris
Assistant Secretary: Peter Tracey
Committee: Francis Ward, Sean Clarke, Peter J. Keenan, Francis Tracey and Michael Heagney. Colum Devlin was elected Team Captain, with Francis Tracey Vice-Captain.

A Committee to look after under-age teams was selected as follows: Sean Clarke, Francis Keenan, Peter McDermott, Eamon McAleer and Kevin Bradley.

In the Junior League, the team began the season well with only on early season defeat at the hands of Dreglish, who were league leaders. In fact Dreglish proved to be a team in 1970, in that they also defeated Greencastle in the return league match and also in the semi-final of the West Tyrone Championship at Dunmoyle on the 9th August on a scoreline of 3-05 to 2-05 after a hectic game, which could have gone either way. The minor team was successful in the Championship by defeating Stewartstown by 2-04 to 2-01. Prominent players in that team were Bernard Keenan, Seamus McDermott, Francis Keenan, Michael Hollywood, Mickey Fox, a very young Des Tracey and Peter McDermott who scored 2-03 of the total score.

In August 1970 in Junior team took part in Killyclogher tournament. This tournament consisted of 4 Senior teams, 2 Intermediate teams and 2 Junior teams. In the quarter-final, Greencastle were drawn to play Dreglish on the evening of the Championship match between the same two clubs. Dreglish did not field and thus Greencastle when forward to meet Tallyreagh, at that time a strong Senior club, in the semi-final. After a fine game, Greencastle progressed to meet Urney in the final. Urney were probably the top side in West Tyrone at the time, in that a short time previously they had won the St. Enda Cup. After a thrilling game, Urney came out on top by 1 pt. This gave an indication of the ability within the club and just as in previous occasions, when the club had been formed, they had quickly established themselves as a leading Junior club in West Tyrone.

Dreglish who when through the league undefeated won section B of the West Tyrone Junior League. Greencastle finished in runners-up position being defeated just twice by Dreglish and also being defeated by Dreglish in the semi-final of the West Tyrone Championship. The young club was firmly establishing itself as a team for the future just as it had done in the 1930's and again in the 1940's. The final published league table for 1970 was as follows: