I AM GLENTORAN  

11th March 2010

The Glentoran Community Trust this week embarked on a pilot scheme with the Glentoran Academy entitled “I AM GLENTORAN”  

The concept is simple over a number of dedicated evenings during the forthcoming season each of the Academy teams will be invited down to The Oval for a light hearted and informal talk on the history of the club conducted by members of the Glentoran Community Trust. The hour long event will attempt to convey to the next generation of Glentoran players the rich and colourful tradition of our club and the pride and privilege attached to pulling on that shirt.

To this end on Wednesday 10th March 2010 the Trust were delighted to welcome the staff and players from the Glentoran Under 10 squad to the Fonacab suite for a pilot run through of the project.  

The Trust are delighted to report that the event was huge success and also are impressed by the  knowledge of our youngest side on of all things Glentoran.  

Why we are called Glentoran, why we play in red, green and black, how we came to play at the Oval, the expansion of the club through the expansion of the shipyards, the Vienna Cup, Fred Roberts goal scoring exploits, Glentoran in Europe, the Thomas Pearson story and the night of the Fire Blitz were all covered with the players and staff eager to both ask and answer questions. Tangible history was utilised with the boys able to hold football boots from the turn of the century, primitive shin guards, leather casers and replica jerseys from the Edwardian era.

The second part of the project involved a tour of the stadium culminating with a walk down the darkened tunnel and a short story on the night the Oval fell foul of 200 German bombers complete with the eight o clock Ryanair from Stansted roaring in overhead.  

We were amazed by some of these players’ knowledge of the Belfast Blitz and the evacuation of children to the countryside during the Spring of 1941.  

The Glentoran under 10 side were well behaved and attentive and everyone including the reps from the Trust enjoyed themselves immensely. Each player was presented with a souvenir copy of the GCT publication How the East was Won at the end of the event.

We plan to expand the project to involve a multi media presentation utilising the skill base at ForzaTV and also members of our 250 club who we hope to have on board to talk to the players first hand on what it meant to them to play for the Glens.  

The board and membership of the Glentoran Community Trust would like to wish the players, staff and parents of the Glentoran Under 10 squad every success for their forthcoming trip to participate in the Paris tournament.  

We would also like to thank Stephen Henderson, John Moore and Sammy Glover for their invaluable assistance in putting I AM GLENTORAN together.

Photographs of the evening will appear on the GCT website shortly.

Thank you all once again for your continued support

GCT Board