WATTY Grahams GAC, based in the small town of Glen (population 4,500), outside Maghera in south Derry are a club with a long history – sporting, cultural and community.
And while immensely proud of their past, the focus is very much on the present and future.
Their footballing men have dominated the headlines of late as reigning All Ireland club champions but the women footballers and camogs are high achievers in their own fields.
Both are firmly established in an evolving club that traces its origins back to 1933 with Watty Grahams, as we now know them, coming in existence in 1948.
They perpetuate the memory of Watty (Walter) Graham, a local Presbyterian (born and reared at Crew Hill) who inspired a local uprising against 1700s English rule and when captured, was duly executed in Maghera town on June 16, 1798.
Watty’s unfortunate end inspired a new beginning when the club took his name.
Camogie was introduced in 1975 and the club are proud to have produced 8 All-Ireland senior winners, namely Margaret Brolly (1978), Clare McGuckian, Roisin Molloy, Aileen McKee & Mary O’Kane (2000), Briege Doogan (2007) and Laura Coyle (2023).
With 240 registered players, currently they field eight teams from under 6 age group up to two senior sides, one playing in Division 1 in Derry and the other in a seconds league.
This season has been a challenge after a step up from Intermediate, both in terms of higher quality opposition and team ranks depleted by players emigrating or starting families, among the latter being former county player Rebecca Kirkpatrick, a key figure for the club.
Chair is Una Ferguson, with a lifelong association to the club, following in the footsteps of her late mother, Elizabeth Convery, a joint fonder with the late Eileen Young whose family also remain firmly involved.
Reflecting on the fortunes of the current senior team, Una admits: “Coming up from Intermediate was a significant step and it has been a learning curve. We are facing a much higher standard of opposition, the likes of Slaughtneil who are previous All Ireland club champions.
“In addition, we have lost players who have emigrated to Australia and some who have given birth or are expectant mums.
“In that light, it is all about retaining our Division 1 status this year and then regrouping for the start of the Championship in September which is our next focus.
“Our players are putting in the work to the extent we have several who could have joined the Derry county panel but opted out this year, choosing to prioritise their club commitments instead.”
Consequently, keeper Laura Coyle is the sole Watty Grahams representative on the Derry side, maintaining a long club tradition of producing county players.
Not surprisingly, the club’s ground-breaking reputation extends to the ladies’ football side.
They were among the first to field a women’s team, 30 year ago, in 1994.
Current chair, Clare Leahy, was in at the start as an enthusiastic 15-year-old and remembers: “There was a lot of excitement at the time about the prospect of organised football for women.
“Derry winning the All-Ireland in 1993 really inspired us to play. We wanted to play football like the boys. We were never allowed to play Gaelic football at school back then.
“We are forever grateful to the women who pushed to form the club back in 1995.”
From that fledgling outset, the Watty Grahams women have gone on to establish themselves as one of the top clubs in Co Derry with an amazing 19 county titles in their 30 years, three Ulster Intermediate titles and a losing All Ireland final appearance.
“Numbers continue to grow with 260 members. 220 of them players, the other 40 are coaches, LGFA referees and committee members. We have eight teams plus a Gaelic For Mothers & Others team. Girls start as young as 4 at fundamentals with the boys and then graduate to under 8 girls football after that,” explains Clare.
“We have teams at under 8, 10, 12 and two teams at under 14 as we have so many at that age wanting to play and we are keen to provide the opportunity to keep them in the sport.
“Then we have under 16, minor and senior who play in Division One in Derry.
“Our seniors dominated the club scene in the county in the 90s and well into this century.
“Our last senior title was in 2016, a combination of other clubs becoming stronger and the turnover you get in women’s football with players moving on moving away or starting families.
“We had a special group of players that played for the majority of the successful 20 years. It couldn’t last forever, life moves on. Derry is extremely competitive now with so many new clubs starting up at underage.
“We have put a huge effort into our club structures the past six years. We reached our first Senior County Final since 2016 last year under the management of Mickey Moran, Colm McKenna and past players Nuala O’Hagan and Kathy Joyce.
“Our LGFA club secretary Terri McCallan is also the County secretary and coaches under 14, under 16s and minors as well as finding time to play for Gaelic For Mothers & Others, too. We are very lucky to have her and the dedication from all our club coaches.
“We would still be in the top three or four in the county and with the youth structures we have in place, the club remains in good health and we would hope another title is not too far away.”
