St Michael’s celebrate 50 years

This is a big year for St Michael’s with a number of key events planned including a photo/history exhibition being held in September and a Formal Dinner Dance towards the end of October in the Hilton Hotel, Belfast.

To date the club has already organised a Sponsored Walk around the Craigavon Lakes and a concert in the Parish Hall. Formed out of the old St Patrick’s Magheralin and St Colman’s Kilwarlin teams, an amalgamated parish team was established in 1962.

Based in the North West of the county and sitting on the borders of both Armagh and Antrim, the club has enjoyed a lot of success throughout the last 50 years, including a Down Senior Championship final appearance in 1966 as well as the Junior Championship successes of 1987, 1991 and 2004.

The ladies team formed in 2001 has reached two Down Junior Finals in the last six years.

St Michael’s are proud to have been represented at County Level with a number of their past players enjoying All-Ireland success representing Down.

These include: Senior George Lavery - 1960 and 1961, Under 21 Adrian McAufield and Martin McCann - 1979 and

Minor A. McAufield, Brian Robinson, M McCann all 1977, Peter Cunningham - 1999, and Declan Lavery - 2005.

Following an extended period of little underage activity at the club, St Michael’s are finding their way again at underage level, and it is expected that the youth of today will be the stars of tomorrow bringing much success to the club over the next 50 years.

As a club St Michael’s are looking forward to celebrating the last 50 years with their current and past members and no doubt many old faces will be seen and even older stories will be told before the year is out.

Further information on what is happening during 2012, can be seen on their website www.stmichaelsgac.com