Lurgan Celtic Football Club is a

Northern Irish The people of Northern Ireland are all people born in Northern Ireland and having, at the time of their birth, at least one parent who is a British Nationality Law, British citizen, an Irish nationality law, Irish citizen or is otherwis ...

intermediate

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kick (football), kicking a football (ball), ball to score a goal (sports), goal. Unqualified, football (word), the word ''football'' generally means the form of football t ...

club based in

Lurgan Lurgan () is a town in County Armagh, Northern Ireland, near the southern shore of Lough Neagh and roughly southwest of Belfast. The town is linked to Belfast by both the M1 motorway (Northern Ireland), M1 motorway and the Belfast–Dublin rail ...

County Armagh County Armagh ( ) is one of the six counties of Northern Ireland and one of the traditional thirty-two counties of Ireland. It is located in the Provinces of Ireland, province of Ulster and adjoins the southern shore of Lough Neagh. It borders t ...

, that currently plays in the

Mid-Ulster Football League The Daily Mirror Mid-Ulster Football League, or simply referred to as the Mid-Ulster League, is an association football league in Northern Ireland. It contains 9 divisions. These comprise two intermediate sections: the Intermediate A and Intermed ...

Junior Division 1. The club was founded 1903 and reformed in 1970, and plays in a strip based on

Scottish Scottish usually refers to something of, from, or related to Scotland, including: *Scottish Gaelic, a Celtic Goidelic language of the Indo-European language family native to Scotland *Scottish English *Scottish national identity, the Scottish ide ...

team

Celtic Celtic, Celtics or Keltic may refer to: Language and ethnicity *pertaining to Celts, a collection of Indo-European peoples in Europe and Anatolia **Celts (modern) *Celtic languages **Proto-Celtic language *Celtic music *Celtic nations Sports Foot ...

. On 15 August 2019, Lurgan Celtic announced that its senior side would withdraw from the NIFL and implement new youth academy structures, with a view to restarting its senior teams for the 2020–21 season. Lurgan Celtic resumed senior football activities at the bottom of the Mid-Ulster Football League pyramid, upon the commencement of the 2020–21 season.

History

A club by the name of Lurgan Celtic was originally formed in 1903, with its name slanting towards the

Roman Catholic The Catholic Church (), also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.27 to 1.41 billion baptized Catholics worldwide as of 2025. It is among the world's oldest and largest international institut ...

community of

, adopting the name and colours of Glasgow

, a popular club among the Irish Catholics population of Glasgow and the west of

Scotland Scotland is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It contains nearly one-third of the United Kingdom's land area, consisting of the northern part of the island of Great Britain and more than 790 adjac ...

.The

Gaelic Athletic Association The Gaelic Athletic Association (GAA; ; CLG) is an Irish international amateur sports, amateur sporting and cultural organisation, focused primarily on promoting indigenous Gaelic games and pastimes, which include the traditional Irish sports o ...

was in its early stages and was keen to promote

Gaelic games Gaelic games () are a set of sports played worldwide, though they are particularly popular in Ireland, where they originated. They include Gaelic football, hurling, Gaelic handball and rounders. Football and hurling, the most popular of the s ...

and

association football Association football, more commonly known as football or soccer, is a team sport played between two teams of 11 Football player, players who almost exclusively use their feet to propel a Ball (association football), ball around a rectangular f ...

in particular, perceived as "foreign", was discouraged. A change in attitudes gradually took hold in the early 1970s and Lurgan Celtic was reborn, subsequently rising to become one of the strongest clubs in the

Craigavon Craigavon ( ) is a town in north County Armagh, Northern Ireland. It was a planned settlement, begun in 1965, and named after the first Prime Minister of Northern Ireland: James Craig, 1st Viscount Craigavon. It was intended to be the heart of ...

area. The club won several honours in

Divisions & Cup competitions in various age groups, including several senior honours in that league, during the 1970s, 1980s and 1990s.

Irish Football League Irish commonly refers to: * Someone or something of, from, or related to: ** Ireland, an island situated off the north-western coast of continental Europe ***Éire, Irish language name for the island and the sovereign state *** Erse (disambiguati ...

membership remained elusive during these years, partly due to the presence of Glenavon down the road at a time when the IFA was trying to reach out to new footballing towns.There was also a suggestion that it was the club's nationalist stance as they pushed for membership of what was considered a predominantly Unionist league that stood in their way. So strongly was this felt that the club joined forces with

Belfast Belfast (, , , ; from ) is the capital city and principal port of Northern Ireland, standing on the banks of the River Lagan and connected to the open sea through Belfast Lough and the North Channel (Great Britain and Ireland), North Channel ...

club

Donegal Celtic Donegal Celtic Football & Social Club is an intermediate football and social club based in Belfast, Northern Ireland who currently play in the Ballymena & Provincial Football League. The club, founded in 1970, plays its home matches at Donegal ...

, another club that took its name and kit from the Glasgow club, and threatened the league with legal action to gain membership.The restructuring of the league in the early part of the 21st century eventually resulted in both Celtic clubs gaining admission to the Irish Football League Second Division for the 2002–03 season. In 2003, the club closed their town centre ground Grattan Park and relocated to share

Oxford United Oxford United Football Club () is a professional association football, football club based in Oxford, England. The club compete in the EFL Championship, the second tier of English football league system, English football. Founded as Headingto ...

's ground on the edge of Lurgan at Knockramer Park, which offered better facilities. Promotion to the Intermediate League First Division was achieved in 2006–07, but in 2008 the club failed to meet the criteria for a place in the new

IFA Championship The Northern Ireland Football League Championship (known as the Playr-Fit Championship for sponsorship reasons) is the second level of the Northern Ireland Football League, the national football league in Northern Ireland. Clubs in the Champion ...

, and found itself in the

IFA Interim League IFA or Ifa may refer to: Organisations Economics * Independent financial adviser, a type of financial services professional in the UK * Index Fund Advisors * Institute and Faculty of Actuaries, representing actuaries in the UK * Institute of Act ...

for the 2008–09 season. They made the necessary improvements to gain admission to the newly formed third tier, IFA Championship 2, for the 2009–10 season. After seven seasons of consolidation in Championship 2 with the occasional risk of relegation, Celtic rose to the 2014–15 NIFL Championship 2 title, achieving promotion to the national second tier, Championship 1. On the back of their title success the previous season, Celtic reached the quarter-finals for the first time ever in the 2015–16 Irish Cup. The club were drawn to face senior

NIFL Premiership The NIFL Premiership, known as the Sports Direct Premiership for sponsorship purposes, and Irish Premiership colloquially, is a professional association football league which operates as the highest division of the Northern Ireland Football L ...

side and beaten Irish Cup finalists the previous year,

Portadown Portadown ( ) is a town in County Armagh, Northern Ireland. The town is based on the River Bann in the north of the county, about southwest of Belfast. It is in the Armagh City, Banbridge and Craigavon Borough Council area and had a population ...

away at

Shamrock Park Shamrock Park is a football stadium in Portadown, County Armagh, Northern Ireland. It is the home ground of Portadown F.C. Shamrock Park was previously used for stock-car racing, but this has since been discontinued. The stadium is classed as ...

. Celtic stunned Portadown by taking a 2–0 lead after 54 minutes.However, Portadown came back into the match after 70 minutes with two goals of their own to level the score at 2–2. However, Lurgan Celtic had the last say, and scored a last-minute penalty to win 3–2 and cause a major upset by eliminating Portadown, and reaching the semi-finals of the cup for the first time in the club's history. The match was Portadown's final match under the management of

Ronnie McFall Ronald Joseph McFall MBE (born 3 October 1947) is a former football player and former manager of NIFL Premiership sides Glentoran and Portadown. He was most notably manager of hometown club Portadown for 29 years from December 1986 until his ...

. After the match, the Portadown manager resigned, ending his reign at the club after 29 years. In the Irish Cup semi-final they were defeated 3–0 by Linfield with Aaron Burns scoring a

hat-trick A hat-trick or hat trick is the achievement of a generally positive feat three times in a match, or another achievement based on the number three. Origin The term first appeared in 1858 in cricket, to describe H. H. Stephenson taking three Wick ...

. Despite the achievement of reaching the Irish-Cup semi-finals, manager Colin Malone resigned at the end of the 2016-17 season and the club endured a period of instability. The appointment of Brendan Shannon as Celtic player-manager could not prevent a downturn in results, and Shannon left halfway through the 2017-18 season, to be succeeded by

Frankie Wilson Francis Wilson (26 July 1970 – 28 October 2022) was an Irish people, Irish gaelic footballer, association footballer and manager. During his playing days he lined out for several clubs, including Crewe United F.C., Crewe United, Cliftonville F ...

.By this point, relegation to the third tier had become an inevitability; Celtic finished the season 20 points adrift of 11th-placed Dergview. Life in the

NIFL Premier Intermediate League The NIFL Premier Intermediate League (Known as the Playr-Fit NIFL Premier Intermediate League for sponsorship reasons) is the third level of the Northern Ireland Football League, the national association football league in Northern Ireland, and t ...

started with another managerial change, with former Glenavon, Spurs and

Northern Ireland Northern Ireland ( ; ) is a Countries of the United Kingdom, part of the United Kingdom in the north-east of the island of Ireland. It has been #Descriptions, variously described as a country, province or region. Northern Ireland shares Repub ...

winger

Gerard McMahon Gerard Thomas McMahon, also known as Gerard McMann and G Tom Mac, is an English singer-songwriter, multi-instrumentalist and producer who specialises in creating music for films and TV. His gothic rock anthem "Cry Little Sister" was recorded i ...

taking the reins at Knockramer Park. This, however, failed to stem the club's decline, as they finished second-bottom of the division, on 19 points. A 17-year spell in the Northern Ireland Football League ended on 15 August 2019, as the club announced its intention to withdraw from the Premier Intermediate League, with a view to reforming youth structures and resuming senior football activities for the 2020–21 season. It was announced on 29 June 2020 that Lurgan Celtic's application to join the

was accepted, and the club was due to play in the MUFL Junior Division 3 for the 2020–21 season.

Honours

Intermediate honours

NIFL Championship 2 The NIFL Premier Intermediate League (Known as the Playr-Fit NIFL Premier Intermediate League for sponsorship reasons) is the third level of the Northern Ireland Football League, the national association football league in Northern Ireland, and th ...

(tier 3): 1 ** 2014–15 *

: 1 **1997–98 *

Northern Ireland Intermediate League The Northern Ireland Intermediate League was an amateur intermediate league based in the north-west region of Northern Ireland. As one of the leagues in the 4th tier of Northern Irish football, the league champions could be promoted to the NIFL P ...

: 1 **2000–01 *

Bob Radcliffe Cup The Bob Radcliffe Memorial Cup is an intermediate football competition in Northern Ireland run by the Mid-Ulster Football Association. It was introduced in 1978. The competition culminates in the final which has traditionally been played on Boxi ...

: 2 **1997–98, 2011–12 *Challenge Cup: 1 **1997/98 *

Premier Cup The Manchester United Premier Cup is a global youth football tournament that was established by Nike in 1993. History The tournament was established by Nike in 1993 as the Nike Premier Cup and featured 624 teams from 15 European countries. Th ...

: 1 **1993/94 * Alan Wilson Cup: 1 **1992/93 *Bass Bowl: 1 **1995/96

Junior honours

* Irish Junior Cup: 1 **1990–91 *

Mid-Ulster Shield Mid Ulster can refer to: * Central Ulster * Mid Ulster (Assembly constituency) * Mid Ulster (UK Parliament constituency) * Mid Ulster (district) * Mid Ulster English Ulster English, also called Northern Hiberno-English or Northern Irish E ...

: 1 **1971/72 *Parley Jackson Cup: 1 **1987/88 * Alexandra Cup: 2 **1991/92, 1992/93 * Foster Cup: 1 **1970/71 *2nd Division Cup: 1 **1993/94 *John Magee Cup: 1 **2022 *Gerald Kennedy Cup 2 **2007, 2022 * MUFL Division 1: 1 **1922/23 * MUFL Division 3: 1 **1981/82 *MUFL Division 4: 1 **1979/80 *MUFL Division 5: 1 **1969/70

External links

Lurgan Celtic Homepage
(archived)

References

{{Football in Northern Ireland Association football clubs established in 1970 Association football clubs in Northern Ireland Association football clubs in County Armagh Sport in Lurgan