Club History - 1912 to 1949

The Beginning

The club was formed in 1912, following the break-up of the Peter O'Neill Crowley's GAC and was initially based in Marquis Street at the bottom of the Falls Road. In the '20's, the club moved to premises in Dunville Street, better known to people far and near as "The Shack." Mrs Hill donated the premises for the sum of 1p rent per quarter and she was later bestowed the honour of being the club's only female president to date in 1934. The property was vested in 1975 and the club relocated to the Clock Bar at the top of Lower Clonard Street. This was to be home for the next ten years before moving across the road to the bottom of Clonard Street into McGuinness's Bar.

The club embarked on a major redevelopment programme and upgraded the premises including youth facilities, completed in 1989. More recently, further extensive renovations have been completed to both the upstairs and downstairs. Bringing the club into the 21st century, the club continues to develop with the installation of the brand new fitness suite. We now have a club of which we are very proud.

Twenties - Thirties

Poor coverage of GAA activities during the club's first few years and the absence of club records from those times has sadly left only distant memories. The first recorded story of club success dates back to 1920 when Parnell's were defeated in the South Antrim Intermediate Football Championship final. Nationally, that same year, Michael Hogan, playing for Tipperary, and thirteen spectators were killed when the British attacked Croke Park. Two years later another title, the County Junior Football Championship was won and paved the way for the cub's greatest Senior achievement to date. In 1923, competing in their first ever Senior Championship, the club captured the silverware, defeating Stephen's in the final (0-5 to 0-1). Reports show that it was one of the best finals of that era. That same year, the club also won the Corrigan Cup.

Unfortunately, the early pioneers ran into difficulties and had to withdraw from competition towards the end of the decade. The club returned to compete at Junior level in 1931 and success quickly followed. A year later, they completed a Junior League and Championship double. We overcame O'Donnell's in the championship final, having defeated St. John's by the minimum margin in the semi-final. Disquiet and defections in the mid-thirties led, once again to our withdrawal from competitions, as Cavan became the first Ulster County to win an All-Ireland Senior Football final (1933). Despite efforts to resurrect our teams in 1936, it was to be some seven years before a Davitt team took the field again.

A team from the ‘Twenties. Note that there were only  thirteen players in a side from that period.

Forties

During the early forties, non-sports related events took up the majority of newspaper space. The Irish News gave scant recognition to our national games even though Antrim defeated Galway and Kilkenny to reach the '43 All-Ireland Hurling final but lost heavily to Cork at Croke Park. In 1946, the centenary year of Davitt's birth, the club finished joint top of the South Antrim league with Rock However, before the match to decide the honours, encroachments on to the pitch by spectators led to the game being abandoned.

Consequently, the County Board suspended both teams. An appeal was ruled out of order and the club watched from the sidelines for the best part of the following year, ruling out any chance of success on the field. Glory returned to the club as the footballers went through the 1948 Intermediate league undefeated, conceding only one point in total during those games. The Club members gather to celebrate the centenary of Michael Davitt’s birth.  

 

The Club members gather to celebrate the centenary of Michael Davitt’s birth.

Fifties

The fifties brought an array of trophies and titles to the Shack. The Junior hurlers defeated Wolf Tones (6-2 to 5-3) to win the '50/51 South Antrim League title. They were also successful in the Frank Hamill Memorial Cup before defeating Wolf Tones again in October 1952 to take the South Antrim Junior Championship. Earlier that year, the Junior Football League was captured and, at Intermediate level, they strolled through the Corrigan Park Reconstruction tournament.
The intermediate team went through the '54 league undefeated and repeated this achievement in '56/57. Remarkably, on this occasion, they again conceded only a single point in total from all their games, mirroring the 1948 team. Through sterling work by John O'Toole and Jimmy McDaid, emphasis was centred on the youth and saw the emergence of a juvenile team, Davitt Og's.