By Michael McMullan

BALLINDERRY were All-Ireland Féile champions in camogie and ladies’ football last season. An amazing feat given it was their third year affiliated with the LFGA.

As Meatloaf sang “two out of three ain’t bad”. This year, Ballinderry have gone one further with the u-15 boys winning a first Derry Féile title in 19 years to cap off a remarkable treble.

Later this month, they rub shoulders with the best Ireland has to offer in the All-Ireland Féile competitions.

While it is unprecedented, so too was the Féile tradition in the 1990s. That’s when when Kevin Collins steered the underage boys to nine titles in a decade. There were 11 titles in 17 seasons. For many families it was the annual summer holiday.

It grew into minor titles at St Paul’s in Belfast and eventually the Holy Grail, carrying the Andy Merrigan Cup across Ballinderry Bridge in 2002. The biggest prize of all.

Over the last two years, those memories came flooding back.

“You have boys and girls around the age of 12, 13 and 14, in the three codes that have been successful, it’s absolutely fantastic,” said Killian Conlan, who helps coach the boys’ team.

“Whenever the girls won their double-double, we weren’t really talking about the boys. When the fundraising campaign started with the girls, we thought ‘hold on here a minute’ because it could be like a triple venture.

“Thankfully then went on to win the first (boys’) Féile in 19 years which was unbelievable, just the feeling and just the buzz that it gave everybody.”

The big picture is getting players to senior level but the here and now creates an excitement with the club’s underage back on an upward curve across the codes.

The Féile boys with their cup

What has made the difference? Conlan ticks a few boxes. Tradition does play its part. Getting the right people involved. Bigger numbers at primary school. Passion.

“Whenever you get like a generational batch of kids coming through, you just know that there’s something special about them,” he added.

“That’s happening at all our codes as well which is really good. The knowledge and the expertise of the coaches is rubbing off on the players too.”

Coaching is one thing, but having the raw materials is everything. The players. There are multiple teams from u-11 down. Their community hub is never empty.

There next stop is getting another pitch to ease the pressure on the training schedule. Hardly a bad complaint.

“The pitches, on any given night, it’s a fight to get a slot, so it’s a numbers game,” Conlan adds. “We’ve got the right people in the right places, putting in the endless hours, night in and night out.

“One of the big things is the communication level between the camogie and the LGFA. They get on well together, they communicate with each other, the parents are on the same page.

“They’ve started the dual nights, football and camogie on the same night, to save them going out of the house an extra night which is working well.”

They are 18 months into a twice weekly strength and conditioning programme from Year 8 up to the step out of underage.

Back to back ladies’Féile success for Ballinderry

“There are plans for a new building, a new wellness centre, new changing rooms and health suite but we probably need a new pitch before we have that,” Conlan said of a more pressing issue.

That’s for another day. Now it’s about getting the plans in place to help fundraise for the Féile campaigns, flashing back to the memories of old.

“We’re just talking about all the stories, from the days of the 1990s when Big Adrian (McGuckin) was involved,” recalls Conlan, reciting off the years like it was yesterday.

“I think it was we went down to Galway, to Salthill. We went on to 1991 and ’92, there was a break in ’93. We were back in 94’and 95. We won our All-Irelands in 1996 and ’97.

“There was a break then went again in ‘99, 2000. Again in 2004 and 2006 in Wicklow before the longest break until now, that’s where the 19 years are.”

Now they are back on all fronts. Boys and girls. Big ball and wee ball. It’s helped by the senior footballers going all the way to last year’s All-Ireland Intermediate final, losing with the last kick of the game.

“That run the lads went on last year as well probably helped with the hype and the whole excitement too,” he added. “There was a buzz around the primary schools. The flags were up, there were all new jerseys and the colour.”

There were the journeys, the nights out at the homecoming and looking on at cups being carried over the bridge on the way to their community hub.

Celebration time for the camogs

The underage teams have been doing the same. Walking across the bridge in their blue and white with a cup is their part of the identity.

“We haven’t done it in such a long time and it has been great for the young ones to do it,” Conlan said, joking how they’d have to start ringing the powers that be to get the road closed.

“It used to be it just was an All-Ireland thing we did it for. It’s just happened to be a tradition now that if we win anything we do it and it just lifts everybody so much you know.

“The groups that haven’t walked over it yet, they’re mad they want to win something so they can walk over it.”

It could be three times this month. Twice. Once. Or not at all. The Shamrocks’ community will have to wait but one thing they do know.

After a few years away from the spotlight, there is a promise of more successful years ahead. In a place like Ballinderry, there is very little else talked about. The Féile teams are the current chapter.

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