Every little helps.
Glenullin are gaining a name as one of the country’s most innovative GAA clubs. The second Ulster side to install floodlights, Paddy and Eoin Bradley’s outfit have now opened a supermarket in their clubhouse.
While they won’t be short of loyalty card holders, the main motive behind the shop is to serve the community rather than raise funds for the Derry club.
According to Denis Heaney, quoted in Monday’s Irish News, the “Eagle Glen” supermarket may be based on club property but is very much a community effort, aimed at serving locals who previously had to travel three miles to the nearest shop.
“The idea got up a while ago. I said you know we can supply a tin of beans as cheap here as anywhere else and it took off from there.
“We put a model together and decided Costcutters was the company which best fitted the GAA requirements,” said Heaney of the shop that opened Friday.
“People were saying today they were seeing people they had not seen for months. In the past, you drove to Swatragh or Garvagh or Dungiven for messages but now people were meeting in the shop,” he added.
“It’s providing work for around 12 people and it’s selling local produce as well as other brands.
“We restored an existing building in the club and all the work was in-house. There’s no-one taking credit for this; all the work was done by club members. If we needed a plumber, one of the boys did it and brought his own materials; it is a real community effort.
“All profits are being ploughed into the community, should that be to help take a bus of pensioners on an outing or to take an underage team to a blitz.”
