Glasgow's Ceann Creige go for All-Ireland camogie glory

By John Harrington

Just five years after they were founded, Ceann Creige Hurling and Camogie club of Glasgow contest their first ever All-Ireland Final on Saturday when their Camógs play Tyrone’s Naomh Treasa in the AIB All-Ireland Club Junior B Camogie Final.

Club Chairperson, Liam Luporini, describes it as a “pinch yourself moment”, something they certainly never envisaged when they established Ceann Creige as the only hurling club and camogie club in Scotland back in 2019.

“A group of local people, Irish and non-Irish approached a few of us in terms of starting a club for hurling and camogie in the East end of Glasgow which is traditionally an Irish stronghold in Glasgow and Scotland,” says Luporini.

“We then started an underage club and from there set up adult teams and linked in with the strong Irish diaspora. I'm a true Scottish-man but I would have family from Donegal. My aunt (Grace McBride) is the club secretary and we were two of the founding members.

“She had played camogie when she stayed for a period of time down in London. She came back to Glasgow and we were both involved in a Gaelic football club at the time but our passion always lay more with hurling and camogie.

“We both had the exposure of family connections to the GAA and it was always something we dabbled in so it was great to start a club together and then continue it with a member of your own family.

“To be fair it has gone from strength to strength and we're probably ahead of where we would have planned to be at this stage, especially with a pandemic in the middle.

“Our first three-year plan was to just simply still exist in 2022. We just wanted to survive moreso than flourish, but thankfully we have flourished.”

The team that contests tomorrow’s All-Ireland Final includes players from a variety of counties who are either working or studying in Glasgow, but the club also works hard to develop their own home-grown players at underage level.

They’re very active in promoting the hurling and camogie in local schools, and the hope is that in the not too distant future they’ll bring a steady stream of born and bred Glaswegians all the way through the player pathway from juvenile to senior.

“That's our big aim,” says Luporini. “You can provide a home away from home for people who come over but we always want to grow the club from the bottom up and one of the priorities of our development plan is to develop more and more homegrown players.

“We want to bring underage players all the way through the pathway so they go on to play as adults for the club. You want to future-proof for 20 years’ time or whenever that will be.

“We still have more to do in terms of reaching the whole community. It's never something that's complete. Being a minority sport over here is always going to have its challenges but weekends like the one coming up will only fuel that.

“Competing in an All-Ireland Final is just surreal, a real pinch yourself sort of moment. It puts us on the map even more regardless of the result, it's just a great experience for everyone involved.”

The opportunity to play in an All-Ireland Final is as surreal for the players themselves as it is the club’s committee members.

Team captain, Orla Donnelly, who hails from Ballycastle in Antrim has played for Ceann Creige for three years and didn’t see this moment coming when they struggled to field a team on some occasions last year.

“I didn't even know it was possible to get through to the All-Ireland stages,” she told GAA.ie. “I was in Australia for three weeks and was back the day before the semi-final and I had no idea that semi-final was even going to be on. It was just complete luck I was back the day before.

“Playing the semi-final I never thought there was a chance we'd get to the final, so the whole thing has been like a fever dream!

“It's been great. We've enjoyed every minute of it. The whole build up to it has been so exciting for everybody. The club is really buzzing at the minute.

“Last year we were going down to matches with maybe only 10 people and with low numbers at training. We didn't win a match last year.

“This year, for whatever reason, there just seems to be a really good group of girls who have stuck at it. We've gotten a massive panel now and lot of people seem to be sticking around in Glasgow. It's been night and day, to be honest, from the last couple of years.”

Playing hurling or camogie for the only club in Scotland takes a significant commitment for the players because they have to travel long distances for matches.

The silver lining of this logistical challenge is that travelling to London for a weekend together to play a game is a good way of bonding a group together.

This Ceann Creige clearly has plenty of ability as well as team spirit. They hammered every team they played in the All Britain Championship and picked up where they left off in the All-Ireland semi-final when they defeated Padraig Pearses of Roscommon by 3-11 to 0-1.

“I won't blow our own horn too much, but there's girls on our team who have played to a very high standard at home,” says Donnelly. “We've got people who've played county, people who are college All-Stars, people have have played their whole lives.

“Obviously it's a very different standard over here and the semi-final was our first 15-a-side game and our first opportunity where we could show people what we can do because over here we play 13-a-side or even 10-a-side and it's so spread out.

“Whereas this time we were playing on a proper GAA pitch which was amazing and then also it was 15-a-side so for a lot of girls that was good to get back on what we're used to.

“We’re under no illusions though that this All-Ireland Final against Naomh Treasa is going to be a very tough game. They won this All-Ireland a couple of years ago so that tells you they’re a very good team.”

Families from all over Ireland will descend on the National Games Development Centre Abbotstown tomorrow to support their prodigal daughters and sisters in tomorrow’s All-Ireland Final. What would it mean to Donnelly and her team-mates if they could deliver an early Christmas present?

“It's hard to put into words, it would be amazing,” she says. “It's so nice because we're all getting to travel over to Ireland and loads of us are getting to see our families who are coming to support us and have never previously seen us play for this club because all our matches are on the other side of the water.

“People are coming from all over and it's going to be really nice to have everyone supporting us and just being there, to be honest. All the more so because we're coming up to Christmas, it'll be such a nice occasion for everybody.

“Some of the girls have never played on such a big stage before and this will be the biggest match of their lives. Just being able to have that opportunity is going to be class.”

Regardless of the result tomorrow, Ceann Creige are already winners. Ploughing a lone furrow as the only hurling and camogie club in Scotland must be a challenge, but they’ve come a long way in six years and Donnelly is convinced they have a very bright future.

“There are some really good Gaelic football clubs in Glasgow that are very successful,” she ays. “I play football with Glasgow Gaels and they have a longer history than Ceann Creige and the amount they have developed over 25 years has been amazing.

“So you can imagine if we continue the way that we're going then it's going to be the same thing for Ceann Creighe. Maybe 10 years down the line it will be just as big as the football clubs are.

“Matches like these are the kind of things that drive a club. You'll get more players wanting to play with you and you'll get more kids wanting to play underage because they'll see the success of the older age-groups.

“We had meet and greet with the underage ones this week and even just being able to speak to the kids and getting to know them a bit better will hopefully encourage them when they get to that gap where they have to make the leap from underage to senior they'll maybe stick at it.

“Success breeds success so definitely us winning these matches should help with getting new people to join the club.”

Saturday, December 14

AIB All-Ireland Junior B Camogie Club Championship Final

Ceann Creige Hurling & Camogie Club (Scotland) v Naomh Treasa, Dungannon (Tyrone), Abbotstown Pitch 1, 2pm.