In 2000 the Club Committee took the brave decision to purchase 16 acres of land from the old Galbraith Estate at Clanabogan, 3 miles from Omagh. Drawing our membership mainly from the Clanabogan and ‘Omagh West’ areas, this location was ideally suited for Drumragh. Essentially, this purchase would lead to the return of Drumragh to the area in which its origins lie, having been founded as Tattysallagh St.Eugenes in the late 19^th Century.  

Fulfilling a long term objective of owning our own grounds, the Club Committee now embarked on huge fundraising activities in order to raise the finance needed to develop sporting and social facilities for the local community on the site.  

2001 Draw

During the winter of 2000, a progressive committee embarked upon a £15,000 Development draw in order to raise finance for the purchase and initial stages of development of the site at Clanabogan. The then Ireland Manager Brian McEniff drew the winning ticket in Sally O’Briens on 8^th December 2000 and announced a lucrative £10,000 first prize award for the Adria Accounts Syndicate, Strabane. 

With added funding from the Sports Council Lottery, Omagh District Council and Omagh Forum for Rural Associations, work began on the site in June 2002 to develop the first playing field at the site. The Club also took it upon themselves to renovate the former gardens of the Galbraith Estate on the site, for the pleasure of the local community.  

2003 Draw

With work now underway at Clanabogan, the committee continued with its fundraising realising that much more funding would be required in order to develop the facilities that the community required.   

Throughout 2002 & 2003, the Club ran a major record breaking fundraiser, in which the Star Prize was a 4 bedroom detached house at Coolnagard Village in Omagh, and the 2^nd prize being a Vauxhall Corsa. There were then a further 13 cash prizes on the night of the draw. The draw was limited to 3000 tickets at £100 each and included two monthly draws for £100 in each of the 10 months running up to the final draw. 

At the time, no other Club in Ulster, and indeed Ireland, had held such a major fundraiser. The draw was a major success, and Drumragh Sarsfields were the talk of the country. Since then, Clubs throughout Ireland have been running similar draws based on the Drumragh template. The fantastic efforts of our Club members and the Club Committee of the time must be applauded. 

The draw took place on 31^st of October 2003, in St.Joseph’s Hall, Omagh. The winning tickets were drawn on the night by Ryan McMenamin & Conor Gormely, members of the Tyrone Senior Football team who had recently been crowned All-Ireland Champions for the first time, along with members of the Tyrone County Board and officials from our neighbouring Clubs Omagh St.Endas, Killyclogher St.Marys and Tattyreagh St.Patrick’s.  

Sam Maguire was the star attraction for those in attendance on the night. 

The Move 

In 2006 we finally moved to Clanabogan and all competitive home games have been played at the new grounds since. St. Patrick’s Park, where most of us took our first footballing steps in the Club colours, is still being used regularly by the Club for Adult Training, and will continue to be for many years.   

Stage 2 

In our first 2 years of competitive football at Clanabogan, it may have appeared that little more development was taking place at the site, but our development committee were hard at work behind the scenes planning stage 2 of their development plan.   In early 2008 a new covered stand was erected on the western side of the field by former Club Chairman Charlie Quinn, with assistance from a number of other Club members and some funding from the GAAs Ulster Council. 

At the Club’s Annual Sports Day & BBQ in August, plans for the impressive new Clubrooms were unveiled, along with the announcement that important funding to finance the next stage of the development had been secured by the Club’s hard working Development Committee, from the Sports Council.  

Along with the new Clubrooms, a second fully flood lit training pitch will be developed in stage 2 of the development plan. Construction of the Club Rooms commenced in November 2008 and is due for completion in April 2009. 

Our visionary Development Committee, continue to work hard on behalf of the Club’s Membership, with ideas for stage 3 of the development already in the pipeline, the future of this Club is in great hands...