Lurgan Celtic F.C.

Football club infobox
clubname = Lurgan Celtic


fullname = Lurgan Celtic Football Club
nickname = The Bhoys
founded = 1903
ground = Knockramer Park
capacity = Unknown
chairman = | manager = Pat McGibbon
league = IFA Interim League | pattern_la1=_white_hoops|pattern_b1=_whitehoops|pattern_ra1=_white_hoops
leftarm1=008000|body1=008000|rightarm1=008000|shorts1=FFFFFF|socks1=FFFFFF
pattern_la2=|pattern_b2=|pattern_ra2=
leftarm2=000000|body2=000000|rightarm2=000000|shorts2=000000|socks2=000000

Lurgan Celtic is based in Lurgan, County Armagh, Northern Ireland, and plays in the IFA Interim League. Its home ground is Knockrammer Park. The club was formed in 1903 and play in a similar strip to that of Scotland's Glasgow Celtic.

History

Lurgan Celtic was originally formed in 1903 with the obvious slant of aiming towards the Roman Catholic community of the town, adopting the name and colours of the famous Glasgow Celtic, a hugely popular club among the Irish Catholics population of Glasgow and the west of Scotland.

At the time it was a bold move to try and break into the world of football. The Gaelic Athletic Association was in its early stages and was keen to promote Gaelic sports and football in particular, perceived as "foreign", was discouraged.

A change in attitudes gradually took hold in the early 1970s and Lurgan Celtic was reborn to try its luck again in the local soccer scene, quickly rising to become one of the strongest clubs in the Craigavon area.

Irish League membership remained elusive during these years, partly due to the presence of Glenavon just down the road at a time when the IFA was trying to reach out to new footballing towns. There was also a suggestion that it was Lurgan Celtic's clearly Catholic stance as they pushed for membership of what was considered a predominantly Protestant league that stood in their way. So strongly was this felt that the club joined forces with Belfast club Donegal Celtic, another club that took its name and kit from the Glasgow club, and threatened the League with legal action to gain membership.

The restructuring of the league in the early part of the 21st century spared everyone's blushes with both clubs gaining admission and all parties concerned able to retain their point of view without having to prove it in court. It would most likely have been a bitter wrangle and while the clubs would have been able to argue a strong point that historicly the league wasn't keen on clubs with a Catholic outlook, the league by contrast would have been able to look at both club's facilities as a strong argument against their membership.

That point wasn't lost on Lurgan and in 2003 they locked the gates on their town centre ground and relocated to share Oxford United's ground on the edge of Lurgan at Knockramer Park, which offered better facilities for all.

Lurgan was confident that iould quickly establish itself as a strong force in Irish League football but its first season in the First Division was a shocker and the club found itself being surprisingly relegated to the Second Division. Promotion, however, was achieved again in 2006/07, but the club failed to meet the criteria for a place in the new IFA Championship, and finds itself in the IFA Interim League for season 2008/09. It, along with all the clubs in that league, has a year to make the necessary improvements to gain admission to the Championship for 2009/10.

Honours

Intermediate honours

*Bob Radcliffe Cup: 1
**1997/98
*Northern Ireland Intermediate League: 1
**2000/01

Junior honours

*Irish Junior Cup: 1
**1990/91

External links

* [http://www.lurgancelticfc.co.uk/ Lurgan Celtic Homepage]
* [http://hometown.aol.com/captainbeecher/LURGANCELTIC.html Ground Hopper's tour of Knockrammer Park]