Month / February 2025

by thesaffrongael

Antrim host Westmeath in the next round of the Very League

Antrim v Westmeath Very Div 1B National League Saturday 1st March 2025  

Venue Pairc MacUilin, Ballycastle 

This Saturday’s Very National League game between Antrim and Westmeath looks on paper; to be a straightforward affair but nothing is given in senior camogie. It goes like this, Westmeath were beat by Down, Down lost to Limerick and Saturday past, Limerick lost to Antrim.  

Westmeath’s goalkeeper, Aoife Corcoran will have her hands full if Antrim’s Caitrin Dobbin get’s close – photo Michael Corcoran

Antrim are enjoying a good run of games and have had the benefit of playing in marvelous late winter sunshine and good pitches. Fr. McGuigan Park in Ahoghill was dry and reasonably firm under foot, whilst the dry gravel pitch in Ballyagran lived up to its Irish translation, meaning ‘ford mouth of gravel’. Both pitches percolated names that have stepped up to the challenge notwithstanding the journeywoman of the panel like Amy Boyle, Nicole McAtamney, Caitrin Dobbin and Lucia McNaughton to name a few, but the likes of Janey McIntosh, Caoimhe McNaughton and Saturday’s markswoman, Eavanne Martin now taking on bigger roles.  

Antrim’s Eavanne Martin was in super form during the Limerick game, will she carry that into Saturday’s game? – photo Michael Corcoran

Mentors McCormick and Martin will be pleased with Saturday’s result and how the panel has developed through training and the essential bonding process that can be enhanced by travelling together as a group, such as the long journey to and from Ballyagran. Both mentors also know that they have a crop of headline players in the wings shaping up to be kneaded back into game time.

Caoimhe McNaughton was solid in defence on Saturday, Westmeath will need their A game to get the better of the full back – photo Michael Corcoran

Will Antrim bring the weather to Ballycastle on Saturday, will they outperform Westmeath? Come along on Saturday and you can see for yourself, throw-in is at 2pm and Philip McDonald will be the match referee. 

by thesaffrongael

‘Crow’ and Nicholas are on the Repair Shop on Wednesday evening

Seamus and Nicholas on the day Nicholas graduated from Queens University

Dr Nicholas McNaughton and his dad Seamus, from Loughgiel County Antrim appear tomorrow evening on the popular BBC programme The Repair Shop. Like most of the stories on the show theirs’ is a tale of triumph and disaster.

The show, which has been running on the BBC since March 2017, features a team of highly skilled craftsmen and women who do their best to restore a range of items, mostly family heirlooms, which have fallen into disrepair after being in the family for many years.

Seamus ‘Crow’ McNaughton (that’s him with the long hair in the middle of the back row) on the Loughgiel team who beat St Rynaghs of Offaly in the replay of the 1983 All Ireland final at Casement Park

Nicholas and Seamus present expert craftsman Will Kirk with a hurling stick which Seamus’s mum bought him in 1980 when he was 18. The McNaughton family have been involved in hurling and camogie from a very early age – and Seamus’s mother Mary won an All-Ireland medal with Antrim back in 1947.

Seamus, better known locally as ‘Crow’ enjoyed playing with his brand new hurl for a few years and used it during Loughgiel Shamrocks’ famous run to the 1983 All-Ireland Club Hurling Final where they beat Leinster champions St Rynagh’s of Offaly in a replay at Casement Park, Belfast, after the two sides ended level at Croke Park, Dublin the previous week.

Straight after the triumph ‘Crow’ put the hurl away in a safe place, or so he thought, until one day he and  Nicholas got into a deep discussion over whether he was more skilled having used the old stick compared to the newer ones Nicholas and his brother James were playing with in the present day.

Nicholas had to put things to the test, but as soon as he swung at the ball with his dad’s old hurl, the stick smashed into bits.

Full of guilt, Nicholas was desperate for wood expert Will to piece the shattered stick back together, especially when this hurl had been signed by all the players on the Shamrocks All Ireland winning team, with every signature now with a crack on them somewhere.

It was a difficult fix for Will, but one that leaves it fit to commemorate a proud time in the McNaughton family and in the Loughgiel community.

The programme airs tomorrow evening on BBC 1 at 8pm

by thesaffrongael

Con Magees launch Club Development Programme on Thursday evening

Con Magees Glenravel GAC is holding the official launch of their Club Development Program on Thursday, February 27th, at 7:30 pm in the Sports Complex at The Club. This is an exciting project that will shape the future of Con Magees Glenravel GAC who have been in existence for 109 years this year. The new development is by far the most ambitious venture the Club has taken on and will involve a multi year development plan on their current site of Fr Maginn Park. The launch night will include pitch drawings, concept design and videos showcasing the entire development, with expert architects on hand to explain their designs. A large crowd is expected to come and see first hand what the Club are planning to develop in this multi-year endeavour. Advice for anyone attending is to get there early.