‘I’m a born and bred Ormeau Road person, I grew up with Bredagh, so I’m proud to give back,’ says Game Changer Siobhan Murphy

That’s the colour of her club Bredagh GAC, whom she has made history with throughout the years, and continuously helped grow in various ways.

Now aged 50, Siobhan was a founding member of the Bredagh ladies’ football team back in 1994, and she captained the squad to their first ever championship title over 25 years ago.

Since then she has been a committed volunteer and now plays for the Mothers & Others team.

Her children are Bredagh players and she routinely coaches and mentors young people, alongside providing endless lifts to matches, kit washing and half-time oranges.

The February winner of the Game Changers award, in association with Electric Ireland, says her main role now is acting as PRO (Public Relations Officer) for the club — a voluntary position that she takes just as seriously as her own full-time job in marketing and customer relations.

“I started playing football 30 years ago and I got a lot out of the club, so this is a way of me giving back now,” Siobhan explained.

“I get great satisfaction and it’s a great role to be in, because you get to know so many people. I cover the entire club’s social media for all codes and anything to do with Bredagh.”

The mother-of-two has been kept particularly busy in recent times, as Bredagh GAC welcomed GAA President Jarlath Burns this week for the official opening of their new club rooms.

There have also been multiple fundraisers, kit recycling days, and last month Bredagh was recognised as the Official Down GAA Club of the Year for 2023 — all accolades that Siobhan is proud about sharing and being a part of.

“It is the best way for people within the club to get to know me too. I enjoy it, and I enjoy fronting the social media side, because it’s ‘customer-facing’ for want of a better word!

“It’s nice to see my output and people appreciating what I do. Everyone likes to get their own wee bit of coverage within the club too, so it’s great that I get to do that for them.

“I’m an Ormeau Road person, born and bred, and I grew up with Bredagh, so there’s no better club to give my time back to.

“There are many a good person in Bredagh who do lots of things — coaching and volunteering — for me and what my volunteering role is; people see what I do, so maybe from that perspective, they appreciate what goes out online on our channels.

“But, there’s far more than me. To use that old expression; ‘it takes an army’ to run a club like Bredagh, when we’ve 1,600 members.

“We’ve all got equal status, with everybody in the club giving up their own free time to keep it a success.”

Siobhan has been club PRO for nearly five years now, but has also started helping with the coaching side for her son Dáithí’s Under-14s football team. “There’s around 10 of us volunteers for that squad, and we have between 60 to 70 boys at that age,” she added. “You have to travel the lengths and breadths of Co Down to get to some of the games sometimes. It is heavy going and now that the season is starting, it’s all ramping up, but it’s good job satisfaction.” She noted that as long as her children are involved with the club, she will always be a part of it too, but to be the captain the first year the women’s team won a Championship, back in 2002, is really what has inspired her to stay on for so long.

“It was a big thing for the club, and coming from a ladies’ perspective, it had always been male-dominated until we started off in 1994.

“There’s a massive difference between then and now. We have nearly 2,000 members now and there’s almost a 50/50 split in terms of male and females within the club.

“Our senior ladies’ footballers are fielding two teams now, the camogs are flying, my daughter Sinéad plays for the Under-8s and there are maybe 80 girls at that age group.”

Siobhan said that there’s around 80 young girls playing at each underage group and that everybody is equal in the club.

“I wouldn’t do it if I didn’t enjoy it, and there are definitely more good days than bad days.”

The dedicated volunteer has remained friends with many of the women she played with in those early days of the ladies’ team, and they are also taking part in the Belfast Marathon soon for one of their teammates from that time, Maura McArdle.

Maura passed away last March after battling cancer, and many organisations have come together under the ‘Friends Of Maura’ umbrella to help raise money for seven charities that helped her and cared for her at the end of her life.

It’s that sense of community, belonging and family-like support that has driven Siobhan’s devotion to Bredagh over the years, and those that nominated her for this Game Changers Award noted that she “is 100 per cent a true Gael, and should be honoured for her passion and long-term commitment to the club”.