About Silverbridge Harps
The first Gaelic team to be formed in the Silverbridge area were the Carnally William Orrs, formed in 1887. The team played in Tinnelly’s Grove Field near the site of Glassdrummond Castle. The first team actually called Silverbridge began life in 1906 but didn’t last very long. Throughout the following half century various teams came and went but the Silverbridge club as we know it today was formed in 1953. The treasurer appointed at that time was a young Peter Keeley, a man who would go on to serve the club in many different roles, including that of secretary from 1954 to 1983.
The winning of the junior championship in 1959 was the first success at county level and was a major boost to the developing club. During these years the club played on a number of fields, all rented or borrowed from local farmers. It wasn’t until 1969 that the committee, under the chairmanship of Jemmy Reel, took the progressive step of buying the field at Fords Cross from the McGeogh family. By 1972 the field was developed and ready for playing on, but wasn’t officially opened until 18th May 1980.
The intermediate championship was won in 1972 with the breakthrough at minor level in 1984. This minor team formed the nucleus of the senior side of the early nineties that won division one league titles in 1992 and again in 1994, but the big prize of a senior county championship eluded them. The minors again won the county title in 1994.
Development continued rapidly in the nineties with extensions to the clubhouse, the building of a stand and the erection of floodlights. The first league game in the county to be played under lights was between Silverbridge and Mullaghbawn in late 1994.
In August 1999 the club embarked on its most ambitious project, the building of the Resource Centre. The finishing of the Resource Centre coincided with the opportunity to purchase more land to develop two new playing pitches and so the development continued with changing rooms for the additional pitches.
The club today is not only a football club. It is the centre of the community with wide ranging activities for all age groups. A walking track completed just a few years ago complements the many other activities on the site now known as Keeley Park. The ambitious men in the nineteen fifties that laid the foundations could never have envisaged what their efforts would lead to. May all of them who have passed on to the next life rest in peace.