Beart / Burt

It was another busy year at Hibernian Park with the club fielding teams from U8 to adult in four codes – football and hurley for the boys, camogie and football for the girls. Our second pitch is nearing completion – it will open next year – and this summer we were grateful to local farmer Charlie Doherty for opening up ‘The Hurley Field’ to allow some of our teams to train. Charlie’s field was one on which Burt teams played in the 1920s and and 30s.

On the playing front titles were won by several under-age teams, most notably the U12 hurlers who won the Donegal A Go Games final and the U14 footballers who won the county Division 2A championship. The U21 camógs won their county final, while we also enjoyed camogie success at U16 and U14 levels. Our girls footballers competed strongly in Inishowen competitions and won a series of finals.

At adult level, our young football team surprised us all by spending most of the year at the top of Division 3 but unfortunately let promotion slip from their grasp. Spring, summer and fall was the trajectory of our senior footballers’ season. Manager Stephen Davenport gave youth its fling and we got off to a phenomenal unbeaten start in Division 3 of the league, winning five and drawing two. But as spring turned to summer we started dropping points. Still, promotion was in our own hands and with five games remaining we needed just single win to earn a place in Division 2 next year. It wasn’t for the want of effort, but we couldn’t get a win high up nor low down and fell to fourth overall in the league table, a point shy of promotion. The poor run of form continued into the Intermediate championship with defeats to Fanad, Naomh Columba and Naomh Colmcille. With back-to-back championship relegations staring us in the face, Ronan McLaughlin and Shaun Murphy took over the management and the team ground out a 0-9 to 0-6 victory over Naomh Ultan in the relegation play-off and preserve our place in the Intermediate championship. But many of those senior players were on board when we won the U21C football championship in October.

Our hurlers had a difficult year and failed to reach the knockout stages of the Donegal championship. County commitments left us shorthanded in the Donegal hurling league and with so little hurling under our belts we were undercooked come championship and failed to win any of the group games. None of this can be laid at the door of our manager, it’s rather the culmination of retirements, emigration and several barren years at under-age. The work to restore our senior hurling fortunes is under way, but it will take time.

In October, our U21 camogie team, managed by Claire McDermott, defeated St Eunan’s to win the Donegal championship. We’ve not adult ladies football team yet, but are working our way towards it with a new Gaelic4Mothers squad and plenty of young talent coming through.

We staged a highly entertaining play, Doolally’s Wedding, in March raising money for the club and local charities. In August we hosted a couple of very successful under-age tournaments in football and hurling, the hurling to mark the retirement of local schoolteacher Colm Davis. The club continues to compete in Scór na nÓg with young performers who have several years ahead of them. We’ve also hosted successful county Scór na nÓg semi-finals in Burt Hall.

The club received a Bronze award from Glór na Gael under the Joe McDonagh programme for our promotion of Gaeilge in our club and wider community.