Silverbridge Harps GAC

The William Orr’s

In 1887 Carnally, a wild rugged townland of 800 acres, 57 houses and 223 inhabitants, became the first townland in the parish of Upper Creggan to have an affiliated G.A.A. club named after it, The Carnally William Orr’s.

Although the Orr’s were named Carnally, they were always a Glassdrummond based team. They probably met in the land league hut in Glassdrummond and played in Tinnelly’s Grove meadow near Dunreavy wood.

As there were no county boards at that time, the Orr’s spokesman, Jemmy Murphy of Carnally, travelled to Thurles to represent them at the Annual Congress in November 1887.

The Orr’s players came from the townlands of Legmoyland, Tullydonnell, Carnally, Lurgan, Cornonagh, Mounthill and Glassdrummond. All the games played by the Orr’s would have been tournament and challenge matches.

In 1887 the Orr’s had been established to help heal the rift in the community, caused by the closure of Glassdrummond Chapel in 1886. They survived the unrest caused by the Cornonagh evictions but were unable to survive the condemnation from the pulpit in the wake of the 1888 Annual Congress and the Parnell split.

The first Silverbridge team

The first team to be called Silverbridge was formed in 1906 but, unfortunately, survived only one year. They played in Stoke’s meadow in Dorsey. There was no official team set up again in the area untill the early 1920’s but a number of townlands fielded teams in thee intervening years with varying degrees of success.

Silverbridge affiliated again around 1920. The team, backboned by the McCreesh brothers, workers from Stoke’s mill and reinforced with players from outside the area, reached the county senior semi final in 1924. They continued to do well in 1925 and 1926 with four of the team playing for Armagh Juniors in 1926. Jemmy McCreesh scored the goal that beat Cavan in the Ulster Final.

The success of a Carnally team in 1934 and 1935 led to the formation of Silverbridge Harps in September 1935. In 1936 the ‘Bridge were beaten by Bessbrook Geraldines in the final of the South Armagh Junior Championship and also finished runners up in the Junior league.

In 1937 the ‘Bridge were beaten by Maghery in the county Junior final, having beaten Mullaghbawn in the south final. After a poor start to the championship in 1938 the club again dropped out of football due to emigration and retirements.
The recent years

Silverbridge reformed again in 1942 playing mostly challenge matches. Football in south Armagh was poorly organised during the war years, relying on friendlies and unfinished leagues to keep going.

In 1945 the ‘Bridge lost to Cross in the South Armagh Junior final. At that time junior clubs were alloweed to amalgamate to play in the senior championship. Silverbridge were allocated Whitecross and Mullaghbawn players and reached a senior county final for the only time in their history but lost by two points to Armagh Harps in the ffinal.

In 1948 the resignation of the committee almost put the club out of business yet again, but five players formed a new committee, donated a pound each, and entered the south Armagh Junior league. In 1953 the club were defeated by Mullaghbawn in the final of the Junior Championship. Finally in 1949, the Junior Championship was won with a victory over Ballyhegan. The mid-south Intermediate league was won in 1964 and 1965. Also the Traynor, McAvinsky and O’Hare cups in 1965. Another milestone was reached with the winning of the Intermediate Championship in 1972, beating Mullaghbawn in the final.

Division two of the league was won in 1972 and again in 1984, 1989 and 1991. Probably the greatest achievement on the field of play was winning the division one title in 1992 and again in 1994. Since then the team has struggled to remain in division one of the league and was eventually relegated in 2002.

Silverbridge players who have played for Armagh at Senior or Junior level

Of the above, the three who contributed most in the Armagh jersey were Martin Murphy, Joe Murphy and Jarlath Burns, with the latter captaining Armagh to The Anglo Celt cup in 1999.

Team colours

The Silverbridge colours have changed several times through the years, although blue and gold have been the predominant colours throughout the years.

 Playing Fields

 
Silverbridge teams have played in many fields over the years before finally settling at the present venue at Fords Cross. The sequence of moves were as follows:

Our thanks to all those who have been good enough to allow the club to play football on their land down through the years and to those who have allowed teams to train on their land when the club was developing a second playing field.

Underage titles

Camogie Club

Formed 1992

Ladies Football

Began 2000

Scór

Silverbridge Harps have taken part in Scor Seinser and Scor na nÓg in every year since they began in 1969 and 1973 respectively. The club has reached the all Ireland final in Scor na nOg on four occasions but have yet to go one step further and win a national title.

On three of the four occasions it was the quiz team that captured the Ulster title and represented their club, county and province in the all Ireland final. In 1974 the team consisted of Brian Murphy, Tommy Flynn and Joe Murphy. The following year, with Brian replaced by his sister, Ann, the team retained the Ulster title. The third Ulster title was won in 1983 with Jarlath Burns, Martin Reel and Peter Creegan on the team.

Finally, in 2002 the Ballad Group of Aoibheann Campbell, Ruth Muckian, Claire Byrne and Nora Smyth took the Ulster title and finished runners up in the all Ireland final.

The club has also won many county titles in Solo Singing, Ballad Group, Novelty Act, Recitation, Ceilli Dancing and Instrumental Music.

Aoibheann Campbell holds the distinction of holding seven county titles in three different events whilst James Murphy was the club’s youngest winner at just eight years of age when he took part in the Novelty Act that went to the Ulster Final.

KILMURRAY PARK

The present field is called Kilmurray Park as it is the field that Fr Daniel Kilmurray is said to have lived in. He was ordained in the 1670’s by St Oliver Plunkett and became Parish Priest of Creggan Parish.

The club bought the ffield in 1966, developed it and moved to it in 1973. The Social Club was built in 1976, extended and new changing rooms erected in 1983. The pitch was extended in 1991 with the new stand erected between 1992 and 1994.

The Community Resource Centre was started in late August 1999. Work progressed over the following two and a half years until it was officially opened by the chairman of Newry & Mourne Council in June 2002.

The development of Kilmurray Park from the first stone was lifted in 1970 to the present day has all been done by voluntary labour. The structures that are there today are testament to the vision and leadership of the various committees down through the years and to the tremendous support from the local community.