Glarryford Young Farmers’ Club - still on the right track after 80 years

The event which is being held in Galgorm Manor Resort and Spa will mark the occasion of the club’s formation back in November 1943 – approximately two years before the end of the Second World War.

Formed by young people form the farming community from the Clough, Cloughmills and Glarryford areas the club has gone from strength to strength over the intervening period. With currently over 68 junior and 35 senior members ranging from age 12 to 30 it still enjoys the strong support of previous members and parents.

Initially meeting in the premises of Clough Presbyterian Church, early members of the club participated in many of the events which have continued to be popular throughout the decades and even into the twenty first century.

Many of these including public speaking and debating, stock judging and drama – in which the club has had a particularly strong history of all having entertained many audiences with their renowned three act plays over the years – are still enthusiastically participated in today by the current members.

With more recent activities including arts festivals, sporting challenges, barbecues and a wide variety of social and charity fundraising events Glarryford is still very much one of the most active clubs within the Young Farmers’ Clubs of Ulster organisation and within the local area.

It’s also a club which is known as one which is also on the go – and that’s even true when it has come to its premises.

On leaving the church premises at Clough the club moved to the converted Cooperative Creamery premises at Glarryford in the 1960s, expanding their facilities further when they took over the adjoining vacant Glarryford Railway Station and turning it into their minor hall (now referred to as The Gregg Hall).

In more recent times the club has enjoyed the benefits of new modern accommodation following the rebuilding of the main hall by the trustees of Glarryford Farmers' Hall Limited in 2019.

Over the last 80 years there had been many momentous and memorable events connected to Glarryford YFC.

From holding their own agricultural shows in the 1940s, to celebrating the club’s 21st anniversary in the company of the then Prime Minister of Northern Ireland, Captain Terence O’Neill, to producing no less than three former presidents of the Young Framers’ Clubs of Ulster in the form of Sharon McConnell (Ferguson), Wallace Gregg and more recently Peter Alexander, both past and present members will have a lot to catch up when they meet for their anniversary dinner.

So, if you are a club member (past or present) or even if you would just like to help the club celebrate this important milestone, please contact Luke on 07547948745 for tickets for the anniversary dinner on November 18th.

Those attending will be sure of a warm welcome and will have the opportunity to celebrate the Young Farmers’ Club at Glarryford - a club which is still very much “On the Right Track”.