1968 Senior Football Championship
This year saw Pearses reach the Antrim Senior Football final for the fourth time, having previously fallen to St Johns twice (including a replay in 1964) and Glenravel. St Johns were strong favourites, with all seven titles from 1959 to 1965, and having beaten holders Glenravel 2-16 to 3-5 in their semi-final.
Pearses, managed by Patsy Burns, had disposed of semi-final opponents Dwyers by 1-6 to 0-6, but would be missing some senior players, such as Albert Fry, a regular with the Antrim team, with an achilles tendon injury, and, Dessie Bannon (cartilage) for the final. History was most definitely not on the side of the North Belfast club, either. In the years since the start of the Antrim Senior Football Championship in 1902, the title had only been won by a North Belfast club on two occasions.
John Mitchells (the oldest surviving club in Antrim) were originally from the north of the city, having been founded in the Oldpark at Easter in 1905, before relocating to the New Lodge. By 1907 the club had moved, again, to West Belfast, before winning both the senior football and hurling titles in 1911 and 1912. The Kickhams club in Ardoyne started in 1907, when Mitchells moved across the city and brought the first piece of silverware to North Belfast when they won the South Antrim Football League in 1909. Ardoyne's junior hurling club, Geraldines, won the Francis Joseph Biggar Shield in the same year. Mitchells, Ardoyne Kickhams and Geradlines were not the only Gaelic teams that fielded in North Belfast as other sides were entered in various competitions through the years, such as Young Hearts, Kickhams (York Street) and St Malachys College, whilst Eire Og was founded by members of Ardoyne Kickhams.
Ardoyne first made the break through in 1932 when they won the senior football league and championship, repeating the championship win in 1937. Despite Pearses being founded in 1951, and St Endas in 1956 in Glengormley, senior football championship success continued to elude the North Belfast clubs.
The final of the 1968 senior football championship was played at Casement Park on the 15th September. At the time, the club chairman was Liam Wiggins, whilst the secretary was Billy McRory. The Pearses captain for the final was Pat O'Hara.
Read the report on the final from the Irish News.