Hurling pitch on the Ballyfounder Road - geograph

Portaferry GAC () is a GAA club in the east of

County Down County Down () is one of the six counties of Northern Ireland, one of the nine counties of Ulster and one of the traditional thirty-two counties of Ireland. It covers an area of and has a population of 552,261. It borders County Antrim to the ...

in the

Ards Peninsula The Ards Peninsula () is a peninsula in County Down, Northern Ireland, on the north-east coast of Ireland. It separates Strangford Lough from the North Channel (Great Britain and Ireland), North Channel of the Irish Sea. Towns and villages on t ...

. It is one of three Senior Hurling Clubs in Down, the other two being

Ballygalget GAA Ballygalget GAA is a Gaelic Athletic Association club located in The Ards Peninsula in County Down, Northern Ireland. The club is almost exclusively concerned with the game of hurling. Honours *Down Senior Hurling Championships: ** 1959, 1964, ...

and

Ballycran GAA St Joseph's GAA Club, Ballycran, referred to mononymously as Ballycran, is a Gaelic Athletic Association club located in Rubane, County Down, Northern Ireland. The club is exclusively concerned with hurling and camogie. The club competes in Do ...

History

The depth of the hurling tradition in the Ards can be gauged from the fact that the game was first played on the Peninsula as early as 1900 by Portaferry Carraig Uladh. But it was Ned Purcell, an agricultural inspector from Tipperary, who laid the real foundations between 1912 and 1917. His influence not only left Portaferry with the Tipp colours, but also Tipperary skills and love of the game. Locals such as John Emerson, John McCullough, John and Eddie Dumigan and Fr Toal carried on where Ned left off and such was the interest that 4 teams from Portaferry competed in the Ards Gaelic Association during the early Twenties. This was rewarded with Carraig Uladh's first S.H.C. title in 1926 and their winning of the Antrim League title in 1929. The tradition was sustained, in both Antrim and Down leagues in theThirties, but the war years, with travel curtailed, saw the Ards thrown once more back on its own resources, and the formation of clubs in Ballycran and Ballygalget with wholehearted assistance from Portaferry. The club's modern period date from 1948 when it was reformed as St. Patrick's under the guidance of the Very Rev. George Watson and by 1950 had moved into its new pitch at St. Patrick's Park. Progress was slow but steady through the Fifties. In 1960 Portaferry gained entry into the Antrim League Division II, won promotion and won its first Down S.H.C. title as St. Patrick's. Many more County titles have been added since and the club have produced many players of inter-county and inter-provincial calibre. In 2002 Portaferry won their third Down County Hurling Senior Championship in a row as well as lifting the Antrim Division one league title. In 2022, Portaferry again won Antrim Division One League title alongside Down Senior Hurling Championship. In 2024, Portaferry won their third Down County Hurling Senior Championship in a row.

Honours

Ulster Senior Club Hurling Championship The Ulster Senior Club Hurling Championship (known for sponsorship reasons as the AIB Ulster GAA Hurling Senior Club Championship) is an annual hurling competition organised by the Ulster Council of the Gaelic Athletic Association and contested ...

(1): 2014 *

Down Senior Hurling Championship The Down Senior Hurling Championship (known for sponsorship reasons as the Morgan Fuels Down GAA Senior Hurling Championship and abbreviated to the Down SHC) is an annual hurling competition contested by top-tier Down GAA clubs. The Down GAA, D ...

(24): 1926, 1929, 1938, 1963, 1965, 1968, 1969, 1971, 1978, 1981, 1988, 1989, 1991, 1996, 2000, 2001, 2002, 2006, 2012,

2014 The year 2014 was marked by the surge of the Western African Ebola epidemic, West African Ebola epidemic, which began in 2013, becoming the List of Ebola outbreaks, most widespread outbreak of the Ebola, Ebola virus in human history, resul ...

, 2020, 2022, 2023, 2024

Recent Times

Portaferry Hurling club have still competed at the highest level of Ulster Hurling in both Senior, Intermediate and Junior. They are still in the Division 1 Antrim League and last won the county Championship in 2024 and won their first ever Ulster Senior Club Championship on 2 November 2014.

Ciara Mageean Ciara Mageean ( ; born 12 March 1992) is a middle-distance runner from Portaferry in Northern Ireland who specialises in the 1500 metres. She is the 2024 European Athletics Championships gold medalist at the distance, the first individual Irish ...

's cousin Conor plays hurling for Portaferry and she watched him win the 2020 Down Senior Hurling Championship.

Notable players

Gerard McGrattan Gerard McGrattan (born 1972) is an Irish former hurler who played as a right wing-forward for the Down senior team. McGrattan made his first appearance for the team during the 1992 championship and quickly became a regular player until his ...

- Down's only Hurling Allstar * Noel Sands * Paul McMullan * Paud Braniff * Paul Braniff

Current Hurling Squad (2014 Year Ulster Championship Final)

External links

Portaferry GAC website

References

{{Down GAA clubs Gaelic games clubs in County Down Hurling clubs in County Down 1912 establishments in Ireland