The origin of Gaelic Games in Castlewellan
The first Castlewellan Gaelic football team, known as the Red Hands, was a schoolboy team formed by Martin Cafferkey in 1903. Martin Cafferkey, from County Mayo, was an enthusiast for everything Irish. He helped found the Newcastle Feis in 1902 (later to become Feis an Dúin in 1906) when he came to Castlewellan as the local schoolmaster and was its year Secretary and inspiration for many years. Although more concerned with the language-and history, he recognised the importance of Gaelic games, and until he retired from teaching in 1939, always had a Gaelic football team in St Malachy’s Public Elementary School in the Town’s Circular Road overlooking what is now St Malachy’s Park. One pupil recalls stitching the red hands on the jerseys, in Mrs. Cafferkey's sewing class!
In a Sunday Press column ‘The Story behind Ulster GAA Clubs’ dated April 25th 1954 the author credits the ‘Master’ with organising Gaelic football in Castlewellan after he and his wife game to teach in Castlewellan’s Public Elementary School.
“The picturesque little market town of Castlewellan has been a stronghold of the GAA since 1903 and most of the credit must go to the late Master Cafferkey. In face of stout opposition from other branches of sport the Master at the beginning of the past century endeavoured to get the youth and the young men of the parish interested in the national pastimes. His efforts failed but he had another try this time with his own schoolboys. In 1903 the seed was sown with the birth of “Red Hands’ a school’s team and matches were organised with other schools in the area. Soon the enthusiasm and devotion to the games was clearly evident and when the schoolboys of 1903 branched out in 1910 to form a junior team named the “Hearts of Down” the games were on a sound footing in Castlewellan.”
The year 1903 marked a significant milestone in the history of the GAA in Down; that year saw a new beginning, the organisation of an affiliated Down County Board, as we know it today. Gaelic games were being organised throughout the County, although there were still very few clubs. In that same year the feast of the National Apostle was celebrated in Castlewellan, and the newspapers reported "there were demonstrations in a field off the Newcastle Road" (probably the meadow) "and included Gaelic football and hurling clubs from Backaderry, Drumaroad and Burren Castlewellan. There was as yet no adult football team in Castlewellan as a town team did not affiliate to the new County Board until 1905 – the birth of the Castlewellan Club The first round Championship draws made by the newly formed County committee in 1903 were made as follows:
3rd May – Cuan, Portaferry v Hearts of Down, Killard
10th May – Burren (Castlewellan) v. Red Hands Killief.
17th May – Leitrim, v Clanvaraghan.
Faugh-a-Ballaghs, Newry v. Downpatrick
After the to the formation of the Hearts of Down junior team in 1910, the “Master” carried on with the “Red Hands” to act as a nursery for the new junior team. At the helm of the team was Willie Ferguson, Father O’Des (the Leinster hurling and football star) the Toner brothers, Pat Dorrian, Pat Burns, the Jennings brothers, “Bonnie and Joe O’Flynn, Jimmy Scullion (who owned a grocer shop in the lower square), John King, Mickey and Barney Cunningham, Hugh Joe Murray, as well as a Leeson and a Rice from Annsborough. A 1916 minute book contains a register of 54 Castlewellan players including 4 Cunnighams, Pat, James, Mick and Bernard, 3 O'Flinns, James, John and Pat, and 6 Toners, Joe, John Joe, Frank, Hugh, Thomas and James, and 3 Grants, Patrick, James and Jim. Bernard Morgan was Club Secretary. The Heart’s of Down GFC as it was known then continued to flourish and in 1918 Master Cafferkey put up a Perpetual Cup to be played in the local schools in the area.
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