Cumann Pheadair Naofa, currently operates at the heart of its local Warrenpoint community, for the whole of family, for the whole of life, as a fully integrated urban one club model for GAA, Camogie and Ladies Gaelic Football with 35 plus teams including a GAA for All and a Gaelic for Mothers team, over 1,000 members, 130 coaches and having provided an estimated voluntary social capital commitment of £1.2m over the past 12 months.
The GAA in Warrenpoint pre-dates St. Peter’s by a considerable span of years for it was in 1888 that the original seed was sown, when the first GAA club, with the name of John Martin’s, was formed. The club colours were black and amber strips.
Being adopted on a proposal by John Carr and seconded by Thomas Caulifield the Club maintained this name until the mid twenties until it fell on hard times. In 1931, the GAA club was revived, but because Glenn had registered a new club, John Martin’s some months before, the name of St. Peter’s was chosen and blue and white were chosen as the club colours.
It is worth noting that the John Martin’s of 1888 won the first competition held in Down by beating Mayobridge at Edenmore. The Warrenpoint flute band paraded the victors through Mayobridge village on the occasion.
There are no records of John Martin’s winning many more competitions but once St. Peter’s found their feet they went on to win the Junior Football Championship in 1932 when they beat Saul in the final.
The Golden era for the ‘Point football was in the 40’s and 50’s when they won three senior titles in 1943 (beating Bryansford after a replay by 3-3 to 1-3), 1948 (defeating Kilcoo 4-1 to 1-5) and 1953 (defeating Burren on a scoreline of 1-0 to 0-1 in an amazing game, where Warrenpoint did not actually score – Burren score a point and an own goal for Warrenpoint) and contributed to a few great finals in which they were the losers. County Junior Championship titles were won in 1932 and 1940. County Intermediate Championships were won in 1972, 1974, 2001 and 2012. County Minor Championship titles were won in 1950, 1977and 2012. The club won its first Down U-20 Football Championship in 2013. County U-16 Football Championships were won in 1970 and 1986, and the club won the County U-14 Football League Title in 1973, 1987 and 1997. The club holds 4 County Reserve Championships in 1979, 1989, 1992 and 1996 and a single Down Premier Reserve Football title in 2012.
2019, saw the senior football team defeated by a single point in the Down SFC Final by Kilcoo – Kilcoo 1-12 Cumann Pheadair Naofa 0-14 and in 2022, the senior football team were again beaten by Kilcoo in the Down SFC Final after extra-time in a scoreline of 1-13 to 0-15.
2012 was a special year for Cumann Pheadair Naofa (CPN), with the club winning a unique hat-trick of County Football Championships, namely: Intermediate, Premier Reserve and Minor.
In 1985 the club won the All Ireland U-14 Gaelic Football All-Ireland Feile Competition held in Cork and in 1988, Saint Peters won the Down U-15 Og sport gaelic football competition.
The Senior football team won the Down ACL Div 2 title on four occasions, namely: 1975, 2001, 2008 and 2014.
Warrenpoint won the South Down Club of the Year Award in 1975 and 2012.
In 1981, St. Peter’s hosted its Golden Jubilee Celebrations with a Golden Jubilee Dinner in Warrenpoint Town Hall in September 1981, preceeded with an event for all former club senior footballers in the Osbourne Hotel, Warrenpoint.
In 1984, the club organised a range of activities to celebrate the centenary of the GAA.
In 1988, the club celebrated the Centenary of the foundation of the GAA in Warrenpoint with a Centenary Banquet in the Aylesforte House Hotel.
In 2009, the club launched a new Communications Strategy, incorporating the launch of a revised website, the launch of a new club weekly e-newsletter: C.P.N. e-Nuacht on 3 March 2009 and a new club monthly newsletter: “To The Point” on 8 April 2009.
St. Peter’s GAA Club Warrenpoint were awarded the prestigious National GAA McNamee Award for Best Modern Technology Innovation (for use of modern technology in relation to the promotion of GAA activity) at an awards presentation ceremony held in Croke Park, Dublin on Sunday evening 16 August 2009. The Club won the award again in 2017 for its Club website with mention of the Club’s new CPN TV.
Presenting the award to St. Peter’s GAA Club PRO Feargal McCormack, GAA President Christy Cooney noted the comments of the judging panel were ‘a fantastic production of a communications strategy for St. Peter’s GAA, Club Co. Down. Not only was their approach multi-faceted, involving many aspects of modern technology, from web page,to e-mail to desktop publishing, but it was implemented to a clear strategy, with clearly defined goals and milestones. They were also not afraid to use tools like Google Analytics to measure performance. As a single broad body of work, it is an outstanding production for a small Club run on a voluntary basis’. The award winning Communications Committee were Cormac Campbell, Thomas Franklin, Conor Keenan, Colm Kernan, Dr. Eoin Magennis, Anne McCormack, Feargal McCormack (Chairman), Ronan McMahon and Michelle Rice.
Club PRO, Feargal McCormack was presented with the Communications Award at the prestigious Ulster GAA Writers Association dinner on 20 November 2009 and in receiving the award, stated that he saw the award as recognition of a great team effort by the Club Communications Committee supported by the Management Committee and members.
The club won the prestigious, Large Club of the Year category at The Irish News Ulster GAA Club and Volunteer Awards in 2011, 2013 and 2016.
The club received a Club Maith Platinum Accreditation Award from the Ulster GAA Council and Sport NI on 29 October 2011 for GAA club excellence and this was renewed in 2015. The club also received an Ulster GAA President’s Club Maith Award in 2014.
The club also received a Special Achievement Award at the Newry and Mourne Sports Award 2012.
In February 2015, Club member Feargal McCormack, became the first club member to serve on the National GAA Management Committee (Coiste Banisti), where he was appointed as Non-Executive Director by GAA President Aogan Ó Fearghail, At the same time, Feargal was appointed Chairman of the National GAA Audit & Risk Committee and served in this role for 6 years 2015 – 2021.
In 2016, Club Referee Brendan Rice was appointed to referee the All-Ireland Ladies Gaelic Football Senior Final at Croke Park and in 2019 and 2021, Brendan was again appointed to referee the Ladies Gaelic Football All-Ireland SFC Final at Croke Park.
The history of the GAA in Warrenpoint wouldn’t be complete without reference to the “three warriors” who have given a lifetime of service to the development of the GAA in Warrenpoint for over 60 years each, namely Liam O’Hare, Barney Carr and Ted Bradley. Liam O’Hare was chairman of the club in the 1970’s and 1980’s for 21 years. Sadly Liam died in August 2008. Barney Carr has held the position of Chairman and treasurer and Ted Bradley, who died in March 2010, was club secretary on a number of occasions and also held the position of club chairman. All three have been trustees of the club for many years.
Club title achievements to date are summarised in Achievements Section on the club website www.warrenpointgaa.com.
The club launched its second Five Year Club Development Plan in October 2017, which due to Covid-19 was stretched to 2023.
The Club entered into a formal twinning arrangement with Lugdunum CLG in Lyon, France on 3 January 2018.
In 2022 under the watchful eyes of Helen and Declan Carvill, the club founded a very successful GAA For All section and club members played at half-time of the Ulster SFC Final 2022 and were hosted to visits at Parliament Buildings Stormont and Croke Park.
