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48 | SPRING 2021 | www.ladiesgaelic.ie CLUB FOCUS: AODH RUADH TYRONE By Jackie Cahill I T was back in 2000 when Aodh Ruadh last captured the Tyrone Ladies Senior club football championship crown. The 21st anniversary of that landmark win is fast approaching and a lot has changed in the interim. Back then, Aodh Ruadh's surge to the top of the Red Hand County was rapid. The club was formed in 1993 and stalwart Martina Dillon remembers those fledgling early steps. There was talk in school about a club forming and Caroline McGrath organised a meeting and had the initial idea of starting a ladies club. McGrath, who would cycle to Galbally to play the game she loved, had tried previously to get a club up and running in Dungannon. This time, her efforts would succeed. Some of the people involved in those formative days, weeks, months and years – the likes of Dillon, McGrath, Eileen Jones, Roisin Fay and Eva McRory (daughter of former Tyrone men's senior team manager, Art) – are still heavily invested in the club to this day. For many years, however, the club has been on something of a nomadic path but in more recent times, the winds of change have blown through Dungannon. The local men's hurling and camogie clubs are now closely aligned and share facilities, while 21 YEARS SINCE THE SENIOR COUNTY CHAMPIONSHIP WIN BUT COLLABORATION WITH THEIR NEIGHBOURS IS LEADING TO SIGNIFICANT MOMENTUM CHANGE IN THE CLUB. much closer links have been forged between Ruadh and Thomas Clarkes, the men's football club. Aodh Ruadh and Thomas Clarkes will work closely together on a big redevelopment of facilities that is being planned, while current Ulster LGFA President, Eileen Jones, has noticed a levelling of the playing field. Jones notes: "We're now starting to come together in a 'one club' model – without the actual amalgamation, as of yet. These are stepping stones." The committee tasked with overseeing the redevelopment has Aodh Ruadh members on it – and its focus is to provide a hub for the entire community to be proud of. While it's taken time for Aodh Ruadh and Thomas Clarkes to work hand in hand, Dillon explains that there have always been links between the ladies and men's clubs. "Our first manager was a man named Eamon Morgan, a Clarkes legend, while Tommy McGrath, another Clarkes legend who owned a local bar in the town, provided us with our first set of jerseys," Dillon smiles. "They were willing to help and get involved. We've had other managers from the men's club through the years, like Peter Bell. "In the last five years or so, our underage youth programme used to be completely separate. "You'd have boys up at the Clarkes on a Thursday night from 6-9 and us down at the council facilities from 7.30-9. Left: Tyrone manager Martina Dillon, 2011. Right: Eileen Jones from Aodh Ruadh GAA club in Dungannon, Tyrone, is presented with her Administration medallion by LGFA President Marie Hickey