About The Club
St. Patrick’s GAC, Lisburn has been established as a club from 1965 and has since been developing and growing, providing Gaelic Football to the community of Lisburn and the greater Belfast area.
St. Patrick’s GAC Lisburn is the only Gaelic Athletic Club in Lisburn. The club provides activities for 250 members each season. Approximately 175 of these are under 18 years of age and around 100 are under 10 years of age. The club has both male and female members, with female teams competing at Under 10, Under 12, Under 14 and Senior level. On the male side of the club there are teams competing at Under 10, Under 12, Under 14, Under 16 and Senior level and Senior Reserve.
Kirkwoods Playing Fields host training for all age groups at least once a week and during Gaelic Season and hosts matches within the Antrim league weekly, welcoming teams from Belfast right up to Ballycastle, Glenravel and further afield. With developments to the pitches so far including our new spectator railings around the main pitch, we will also now be able to host Championship matches which will see clubs from all over Ireland potentially using our facilities.
Interesting Facts about St Pat's:
- The first club in Lisburn was called the Red Hand of Ulster GAA Club, Lisburn. They formally affiliated with the GAA nationally in 1888. It was one of the first clubs in the County of Antrim.
- The first pitch in Lisburn was "The Hurling Field" which was situated at Priests Lane, off the Blaris Road.
- The second ever Ulster Football Final was played in "The Hurling Field" on 12th October 1890, with Armagh beating Tyrone on a scoreline of 2.08 to 1.02.
- The St Patrick's GAC Lisburn club was founded in January 1965. This was the same year that BBC started showing a programme called Top of the Pops!! St Pat's has lasted longer!!
- The first game played was against near neighbours, Glenavy on Sunday 24th January. The result was St Pats 3.05 Glenavy 4.04.
- St Patrick's first pitch was at Kilwarlin. It was leased for the year for an annual rent of £10.
- St Patrick's Senior men's team won the Junior Championship for the first time in 1990, beating Davitts at Casement Park on a scoreline of St Pats 4.05 Davitts 2.08.
- St Pats have been playing at Kirkwoods road since 1995. Kieran Drayne managed to persuade the council to lease the facility to the Club. There were some restrictions: the facilities were not available until the soccer season had finished ( late April) and had to be vacated before the soccer season began! ( mid August) and of course NO games on a Sunday!!