Golden Jubilee

Rock Celtic with a hectic year ahead is to delegate to a separate committee the task of drawing up a programme and making preparations for marking the club’s 50th anniversary.

The club was formed in 1969, entering a junior mens team in the Dundalk Summer League, and grew substantially from then, adding a juvenile wing in 1971, putting a team in the Dundalk Schoolboys under-15 league.

That section of the club mushroomed over the years, with teams at every age level of the Dundalk League, and in some instances two and three.

At different stages they also catered for girls and ladies, and in recent decades in particular developed greatly their facilities at Sandy Lane, building clubrooms, installing all-weather complexes, and equipping the ground with floodlights to enable matches to be played at night.

The mark of how far the club have advanced their ground facilities was that the FAI bestowed the honour on the club of staging a number of under-age internationals in the last few years.

This year will especially be busy and challenging as schoolboy and junior playing seasons have been changed and will run from March through the summer and autumn.

To fit in celebrations for their Golden Jubilee, the club is to look for help to put together a calendar of events and put arrangements in place.

The envisaged centrepiece is a Gala dinner towards the end of the year, with other events including commemorative matches.

The club is also looking to collect memorabilia, such as old photographs and items of interest to exhibit, and would be most appreciative of any donations of that kind.