History
of St Paul's
Naomh Pol CLG - Saint
Paul's GAC 
Based in Holywood,
County Down, St. Paul’s GAA club encompasses
the towns of Holywood, Bangor and
Newtownards. The first club in Holywood
was organised in 1927, carrying the
proud name of St. Colmcille. The teams’
strip was made up of black shorts
and black shirts with white collars.
This early club team also sponsored
a handball team and a drama club.
Although successful
in the early days, the club continued
for a mere decade. It was revived
in 1948 under the title of Holywood's
Patron Saint, St. Laiseran, whom had
established the Priory in the seventh
century. The revived club lasted for
another decade but withdrew from the
League in 1956.
The highly successful
Thomas Russell Gaelic Club was formed
in 1962 and soon earned the name “the
Holywood Giant Killers”. Early success
did not continue – the club struggled
on until 1976 when it was decided
to withdraw from the Antrim League.
The next milestone
in the story is the foundation of
the St. Paul’s Gaelic Football Club
in 1979. St. Paul’s is an amalgamation
of the Holywood, Bangor and Newtownards
clubs. In 1963 the Scrabo Harps club
was founded in Newtownards. The Bangor
club was founded in 1963 and remained
active in the Down League until 1978.
From its inception, St. Paul’s has
been a very successful club fielding
up to five teams in the Down All County
and East Down Leagues and Championships.
Originally the Holywood
teams played on a small pitch known
as Burke’s Field, situated on the
town side of Spafield Terrace. Later
a move was made to Maguire’s Field,
which remained the Holywood Gaelic
Field pitch for many years. The pitch
was small, only 92 metres by 60 metres,
uneven and marshy – virtually unplayable
for nine months of the year! The field
was below the ancient raised beach
of Belfast Lough, between Pebble Lodge
(now “The Parks” apartment building)
and the town dump at Spafield.
In 1972 the Roads
Authority decimated the cricket grounds
(which were alongside the Gaelic pitch)
by driving the Holywood by-pass over
the pitch. The Gaelic Football Club
generously allowed the Cricket Club
to use parts of their ground for 25
years to continue playing.
By the early 1990’s
St. Paul’s was a well-established
club. The club realised that the inferior
playing facilities of the old Maguire’s
Field were completely unsatisfactory
to meet the growing player participation
of Gaelic football in the area. The
Foundation for Sport and the Arts
promised a grant of £50,000
to upgrade the ground. This grant
was dependent on the club raising,
from its own membership, a minimum
of £10,000, which it did through
a very successful draw.
The club has made
significant strides in recent years,
including the transition of a pitch
cherished by opposing teams for all
the wrong reasons, to one that is
rightly the envy of many in Ulster.
The ground is named after the late
great Patrick MacNamee, Uachtarán
of Cumann Luthchleas Gael (1938-1943)
and dedicated Holywood Gael. In 1997
work was started on the new grounds.
A playing area of 130 metres by 85
metres being created with the first
game on the new grounds played in
May 1999. Grants of £60,000
from the Sports Council for Northern
Ireland and £25,000 from the
North Down Borough Council have contributed
towards state of the art dressing
rooms. Spectator accommodation has
been provided on the natural banking
along the Belfast Road side.
The dressing rooms
were completed for the start of the
2002 season finally realising the
vision of many dedicated members past
and present in building a high profile
and progressive club ideally placed
to be successful both on the field
of play and in its contributions to
the wider community. The fine campanile
of St. Colmcille’s Church overlooks
the magnificent green sward, with
its black cloth of Belfast Lough shimmering
in the sunlight below the Antrim Hills.
This is indeed an imposing approach
to Holywood and a worthy tribute to
the members and friends of St. Paul’s
Gaelic Athletic Club, whose goal is
to provide facilities to compete with
the best.
Naomh Pol CLG – St. Paul’s GAC
Founded: 1979
Uachtarán:
Mr. Davie McCoy
Cathaoirleach: Mr. Paddy Hunt
Rúnaí: Mr. Donal Graham
Naomh Pol CLG Club
Crest
Our Official Club
crest was designed by club member
Shauna Kelly. Shauna was the winner
of a competition organised by the
club's underage development team in
2003 to design an official club crest.
As winner Shauna receieved a GAA International
Rules jersey along with the honour
of having her design be produced into
the official club crest.
The new crest encorporate's
emblems of St. Colmcille's Church
(Holywood), a boat (Bangor) and Scrabo
Tower (Newtownards) - representing
the three towns that the club serves.
