We got some correspondence from a former player Joe Lennon whose father Frank Lennon had an electrical goods shop on the Main Street (where the power house is now) Joe and his brother Laurence both played for the town in the 70s and early 80s mostly for the seconds and his letter brought back many great memories that had slipped my mind
I played left back for Castlewellan IIs in the late 70s. Loved it. Although not large I was deemed a bit of a hard defender. I never got booked in those years except as a linesman up at Ballyvea where the referee, after disagreeing with my flagging an offside goal, was not pleased at my calling him a useless #####r. I was red carded. At that time I was also a committee member and boy were we adventurous. We hired the brilliant Clubsound for Drumaroad Hall. There was a massive snow storm and a political influenced petrol shortage. We had the late Darkie (Noel) Burns doing a genuine Burger BBQ and the late Charlie Keown as compere.
George Jones and Clubsound told us it was the best gig they had ever done despite the, understandable, low turnout. We made a very small profit but it was awesome craic.
I then left for England but organised a Paddy’s night Ceili at a college in Yorkshire which raised £80 for ‘The Town’. A lot of dosh then. The student,s Union were very moved to get a hand written ‘thank you’ letter from club president Jim Kelly. Every week they wanted to know ‘The Town’ results. I remember Castlewellan Utd wore scarlet and blue then.
Those were brilliant memories but one will stick with me was Paddy Smith’s technical cry to the rest of the team…
“#######censored#######!”
In those days Hugh McCann’s was the club house and now thankfully Maginn’s is the key club centre.
I cannot end without remembering Cahal Keown R.I.P. whom I played pool with at the Stables Bar (Kings) but more importantly played with me for Main Street and Then ‘The Crescent’ (post amalgamation & commonly known as Chinatown) as kids. We organised competitions between ourselves, Mill Hill (The bastards always won!) and Burren Grove (Commonly known as Oakland). These let Paddy Corrigan and Jimmy Kelly see there was still a passion for soccer amongst the Castlewellan youth despite the soccer ban set by the GAA. Thankfully since dropped by that fine organisation.
As Mary Hopkins once sang.. “Those were the days my friends!”
It is great to see that passion is still there and like there is a player monument outside Old Trafford of the great Charlton, Law and Best, there should be such a ‘managerial’ monument in the Upper Square of Kelly, Corrigan and Burns!
Have a great Christmas and keep the Town flag flying!
Joe Lennon
George Jones and Clubsound told us it was the best gig they had ever done despite the, understandable, low turnout. We made a very small profit but it was awesome craic.
I then left for England but organised a Paddy’s night Ceili at a college in Yorkshire which raised £80 for ‘The Town’. A lot of dosh then. The student,s Union were very moved to get a hand written ‘thank you’ letter from club president Jim Kelly. Every week they wanted to know ‘The Town’ results. I remember Castlewellan Utd wore scarlet and blue then.
Those were brilliant memories but one will stick with me was Paddy Smith’s technical cry to the rest of the team…
“#######censored#######!”
In those days Hugh McCann’s was the club house and now thankfully Maginn’s is the key club centre.
I cannot end without remembering Cahal Keown R.I.P. whom I played pool with at the Stables Bar (Kings) but more importantly played with me for Main Street and Then ‘The Crescent’ (post amalgamation & commonly known as Chinatown) as kids. We organised competitions between ourselves, Mill Hill (The bastards always won!) and Burren Grove (Commonly known as Oakland). These let Paddy Corrigan and Jimmy Kelly see there was still a passion for soccer amongst the Castlewellan youth despite the soccer ban set by the GAA. Thankfully since dropped by that fine organisation.
As Mary Hopkins once sang.. “Those were the days my friends!”
It is great to see that passion is still there and like there is a player monument outside Old Trafford of the great Charlton, Law and Best, there should be such a ‘managerial’ monument in the Upper Square of Kelly, Corrigan and Burns!
Have a great Christmas and keep the Town flag flying!
Joe Lennon
Good man Joe you brought back quite a few memories that I had forgotten long ago. That ‘Clubsound’ night was as you say some craic, the fact that we went ahead with the gig such was the blizzard that Clubsound gave us back 20% of their fee and as you say George Jones said it was up to that point one of their best ever, what a night!
The Grove Bar was some spot, I could write a book on that place and the characters that frequented it but will leave that for another time.
As for the youth of the day you forgot about Annsboro, along with Burren Grove, The Crescent and the mighty ‘Mill Hill’. You’re right we nearly always won but I do remember getting beat by Annsboro and Burren Grove at some point. Annsboro had Dee Morgan, Joe Ward, Raymond and Peter Burns, Tommy White and Dessie Nixon (intimidating or what) amongst their players and Mill Hill had myself, Donal and Paddy O’Rourke, Charlie Keown, Mervyn McNeill, Joe Russell, Paul McFlynn and the McVeighs, Oche, Jimmy and Barney. Crescent stars were the Walshes, Larry Boden, Joe Lennon amongst others and Burren Grove’s star player was Bobby Doran who fancied himself as George Best! Incidently Mill Hill tried to prise him away from Burren Grove at one stage thinking that his style would make us complete, ( the imaginations of 10/11 year olds !!) I believe the fee proposed was a large bottle of C&C and a box of Fruit Gums but our approach fell flat (he’d probably have failed a medical anyway!).
I recall that in 1968 Mill Hill became the only one out of the 4 teams to actually have a Kit. We, at the christmas of that year persuaded our respective parents to buy us a kit each and the kit we decided upon was the blue of Everton, why I can’t quite remember but at least we looked like a team. I’m sure I have a photo somewhere, I’ll search for it and post it.
Eventually in about 1970/71 Darkie Burns, Sean Rafferty, and Marty McVeigh set up a wee tournament between us all which was played in the old meadow and we thought that we were playing at Wembley, it unfortunately wasn’t completed though for reasons that I won’t go into now. The seeds were sown however and eventually we got our youth structures up and running and of course the rest is history.
Thanks for reminding us Joe, and keep in touch!
