In his book “ The GAA in Tyrone” the author Joseph Martin refers to a period in 1932 when there was a remarkable upsurge in the number of GAA clubs in West Tyrone. From six clubs in January of that year the total had risen to the staggering number of twenty eight by November. Caislean na Deirge was one of those newly formed clubs in 1932.

The next reference to Castlederg occurs in 1935. The reference relates to a new club – Castlederg Patrick Pearses – being established in July 1935 to play football and camogie. This could mean that the club which started life in 1932 had possibly stopped functioning and was revived under a new name in 1935.
The Patrick Pearses club went out of existence in 1936. Another attempt to organise a club was made again for a short period in 1949-1950.

Nothing happened at an organised level until the period 1963-1966 when there was an upsurge in interest in underage football and a team was entered in  competitions under the auspices of the North Tyrone Board. At this stage the parish area took in Doneyloop, which had an adult club registered with the Tyrone GAA County Board as Urney. Therefore the team played under the name of Urney,  a club with which a number of Castlederg players were already playing adult football. Significant success followed at North Tyrone League level but the pinnacle was reached in 1966 when the team reached the County Juvenile Championship Final and only lost to Coalisland after a replay.

The present club was formed in 1975 under the name Naomh Eoghan Caislean na Deirge and has been in continuous existence ever since. This coincided with parish changes and the new parish of Castlederg and Ardstraw West being established which meant that the previous links with the Urnai club were relinquished and Caislean na Deirge and Doire Eigis shared the new parish area.

From the middle to late seventies the club colours were black and white vertical stripes. Then in the 1979 – 1980 period red and black were adopted as our club colours and remain so today. The original jerseys were red with a black band.

Various fields around the area were rented for the club’s use from 1975 up until 2005 when we moved finally to our permanent home at Marius McHugh Memorial Park. This was a significant milestone in our club’s development and was the culmination of many years of searching for a permanent base for GAA activities in our area. The newly completed playing pitch and the general setting of our new grounds are a fitting testimony to the efforts of those club members who persisted in the long, and at times difficult task, of locating a permanent base for our club. We are now facing up to the challenge of adding clubroom facilities and the completion of a training pitch to augment the facilities already in place on the Killeter Rd.

For the most part of the past 32 years Naomh Eoghan Caislean na Deirge have played their adult football at Junior level. However we were promoted to Intermediate football in 1980 and remained at that level until 1983. We were again successful at gaining promotion in 1989 and stayed in the Intermediate grade until 1993. In 2001 we won our only adult title when our Reserve team annexed the Junior Reserve Championship, beating Newtownstewart at Drumquin.

At underage level we have had notable successes over the past 32 years. In 1982 we won the Tyrone U-14 Championship and represented Tyrone in the All-Ireland Og Sport Finals on Mosney in 1983. In 1986 our minor team reached the County Final only to be beaten by Shamrocks ( Killeeshil / Eglish) on a scoreline of 3-4 to 0-4. In 1988 we became the first club in Tyrone to win minor League and Championship in the same year, beating Carrickmore 1-5 to 1-4 after a replay to win the Championship. Our juveniles won the Grade 3 Juvenile Championship in 1997 and were beaten in the League Final in 1998. In 2004 our U-14 team reached their Championship Final only to be beaten by Derrytresk. In 2006 our U-16 team won the Grade 4 Juvenile Championship defeating Urney at Aghyaran and were beaten by the same opposition in the League Final at Strabane.

We have had numerous members from our Club recognised at County level. This ranges through Development Squads, Vocational Schools, Minor, U-21, Junior and Senior levels. Some of our players have won Ulster and All Ireland Vocational Schools medals, Ulster and All Ireland Minor medals, Ulster and All Ireland U-21  medals, Ulster Junior medals, Dr. McKenna Cup medals and Ulster Senior medals. One member played in the  All Ireland Senior Final of 1986 against Kerry, won an All Star Award in the same year and represented Ireland in International Rules Test matches against Australia.

Ladies football was introduced in the club structure in 1993 and ran until 1996. Mna na Deirge ladies GAA Club were set up in 2000 as a separate entity to look after the interests of ladies football in the area. There is in place at the moment a process for the merging for all aspects of GAA activity under one controlling body and this will inevitably lead to unity of the two clubs again in the near future.

CLUB CREST OF NAOMH EOGHAN, CAISLEAN NA DEIRGE

The club crest was designed in early 2002, was adopted by the Club Committee and was incorporated into three sets of jerseys and shorts initially. It has now been incorporated in a wide range of club equipment.

The river symbol in the forefront of the crest signifies the Derg ( Dearg) river. The tower house image on the north bank of the river symbolizes the original castle at the fording place on the river. There are references in the Annals of Ulster to various battles between the O’Neills and O’Donnells in the north west of Tyrone and the castle on the Derg changed hands on several occasions. The first reference relating to the castle is from 1479 and the last is from 1601. Descriptions of these tower houses referred to “ only high towers and narrow loopholes rather than windows, to which adjoin the apartments of turf covered with straw. They have large courts surrounded with ditches and bushes to defend them from robbers”. After the Plantation of Ulster many of the native tower houses were destroyed or modified. It is fitting that the castle and river from which we take our name lie directly along the southern and eastern boundaries of Marius McHugh Memorial Park.

The twin Celtic crosses in the top corners of our crest signify the historic Celtic spirituality associated with  the Derg river and its valley. To the east, approximately six miles downstream at Ardstraw, we had the monastery of St. Eugene, the patron saint of the Derry diocese and after whom our club is named. Eoghan died in the year 617 and is buried at Ard Sratha. To the west and the source of Abhann Dearg we have Loch Dearg, the focus of pilgrimage for over a thousand years. The valley and the river itself have long been the route taken by countless numbers of pilgrims to and from Lough Derg long before the advent of our modern road system.