The rise of Dungiven Celtic Ladies

The initiative began on International Women’s Day 2023 when a Facebook post confirmed that Dungiven Celtic FC would finally be accommodating inclusive ladies’ soccer training for anyone interested, albeit a taster session.

Just six days after that Facebook post on March 14, 2023, training commenced with manager Chris Dunne and the ladies taking to the Dungiven sports pavilion despite the wintry conditions. The elements of mother nature were certainly not going to stop the beginning of this enticing journey.

13th July 2023 was the first milestone for the ladies as they played their first ever competitive match against neighbouring club Draperstown Celtic.

The Ladies played two further matches to contribute to their development before finishing their first season; one being a confident 4-1 victory against Antrim Town Ladies and a narrow 2-1 triumph over Raceview Ladies FC which required a late winner to end their inaugural season in grand style.

he ladies 23/24 season began in late October with a tournament in Greysteel that resulted in extraordinary draws against well-established teams in Foyle Belles and Belfast Swifts before unfortunately losing out in their final to Strabane Athletic on a scoreline of 2-1. Aoibheann Mullan struck all four goals as the ladies defeated Draperstown Celtic in a friendly. The ladies finished 2023 with a dogged battle against a talented Maiden City side.

New Year, new beginnings

A new year meant new beginnings for Dungiven Celtic Ladies as the club confirmed on 20th January that they had gained entry into the Northern Ireland Women’s Football Association (NIWFA) league, creating history will be made as the first to compete in the adult’s section of ladies’ football at NIWFA, just reward for enduring the difficulties in establishing ladies’ football during the early 2000s.

Pre-season began in April with the ladies coming agonizingly close to getting at the very least a draw versus Mid Ulster reserves.

Pre-season continued into May which saw Newhill Ladies travel to the fortress that is Ballygudden to give the Dungiven ladies their last bit of preparation before the first match of their NIWFA Development League.

May 19 then saw the start of the ladies’ NIWFA journey and they certainly introduced themselves to the NI ladies scene in a devastating manner by defeating Belfast Ravens III 12-0 which was a huge achievement especially when being away from home. They had a wide range of goal scorers including Aoibheann Mullan who scored a hat trick two times around.

Manager Chris Dunne and team captain Ciara Moore at the league launch back in April.

The ladies continued their fine form into their first home league game against Hannover whom they beat 7-1.

Another six goals for Aoibheann Mullan meant twelve in two games for the teenager with the other goal coming from Captain Ciara Moore. In their next game, they travelled to Ballyhornan to face Ballynagross FC Ladies who they made light work of by dismantling their opposition 9-1 that included another five for goal machine Mullan and a hattrick for Cara Gallagher.

Taken it by storm

Having taken the league by storm so far, the girls were handed their first defeat by the Civil Service Ladies who beat them 5-1.

The scoreline doesn’t serve the contest justice however as Dungiven went in at half time drawing 1-1 and if it wasn’t for a couple of late goals, Civil Service winning margin would have been a lot slimmer. Nonetheless, the girls will learn from this and will certainly bounce back in fixtures down the line. They currently sit in second place of the NIWFA Development League, just three points behind Civil Service Ladies. Their next match is away against Hannover FC Ladies at 7.30pm on Wednesday 7th July.

Aoibheann Mullan scored six goals against Belfast Ravens IIIs in the Ladies' opening game of the season.

Within the team, they’ve some coveted individuals in Susan Deighan, Aoibheann Mullan and Dararose McElhinney. After a lot of commitment, Susan completed the UEFA C diploma which is the first of many other UEFA coaching licenses.

There’s no doubt that we could see Susan achieve all of these in years to come. Susan puts her knowledge to use by coaching the u13 girls’ team and has been a coach at the club for over three years. She’s an inspiration to young players within the club and even further afield.

St Patrick’s College, Dungiven, students Aoibheann and Dararose were nominated for the Queen’s University Future Stars Soccer Trials and were successful at the trials therefore received their Future Stars at a special ceremony.

Manager Chris Dunne believes there’s a lot of talent within the ladies team suggesting that his players have the potential to climb up the ranks of the NIWFA and possibly further.

Team captain Ciara Moore with the match official and Belfast Ravens captain ahead of a memorable 12-0 victory for Dungiven Celtic Ladies.

He said: “We definitely have some quality players here that could very easily tomorrow walk out of Dungiven and walk into a team way up in the leagues,” he said.

“There’s been a very quick growth of success and membership in the ladies team. Seven attended the first training session, and now they’ve over thirty registered players and an additional twenty players who play for fun.”

Chris puts this success down to the hard work volunteers have put in for the last ten years: “James Doran played a brilliant part in creating the girls set up from underage, probably starting at U9.” “We’re bearing a bit of that good work now because we’ve eight of our youth set up apart of our ladies now as it was the next part of their development.”

High hopes

The team has hopes to move out of the Development League in the future. The Development League is used to see whether clubs have the foundations in place to run a lady’s football team.

“Quite easily you’ll see from our youth set up and our ladies that we do (have the foundations in place) and we’ll obviously continue to grow,” he explained.

“This year we’ve started a ladies' team, but we’ve also added our 2017s which is our youngest group. We didn’t have those two groups before. Both sides of the age brackets are covered. We’ll look to add more membership wise.”

“For the club, a very successful U9 team meant we need this team to be an adult team at some stage” “This (forming a ladies team) has been the target since we set up the U9 team many years ago and now that goal has been achieved.”

All the teams involved in the Northern Ireland Ladies Football Association at the recent league launch. 

“I’m so lucky to have such a great team” “It’s a great privilege. It’s a very worthwhile task, I’ve a younger daughter myself. I hope to be about long enough to see her playing in this team.”

From a personal view, something that means a lot to Chris is to be able to add to girls soccer in Dungiven. Chris wants to promote soccer for girls in the town due to its recent growth in Northern Ireland.

“Enhancing their skills is very much in the forefront of what we’re all trying to do to grow the game here in Dungiven, he said.

Chris gives a clear message that Dungiven Celtic FC Ladies team will be welcoming towards any new members, insisting: “We cater for everybody.”