A CROSS-COMMUNITY football match named in honour of the legendary Star of the Sea team of 1969 took place at the weekend.
Organised by prominent victims' campaigner Raymond McCord, the Under-16 between Limestone United and Palmerstown FC took place at Seaview on the Shore Road on Sunday. The former team is a cross-community side from an interface area of North Belfast, while the latter is from Dublin.
After the match, there was a screening of the BBC documentary 'Old Scores', which tells the story of some of the players of Star of the Sea's most famous side.
The team, which included both Raymond McCord and Bobby Sands, won the Northern Ireland Cup final at Celtic Park and then won the All-Ireland Cup against sides from both Belfast and Dublin.
However, the onset of the Troubles saw their dominant reign come to and end with some of the Rathcoole players ending up on separate sides of the conflict.
Sunday's tournament captured some of the cross-community spirit of the iconic Star of Sea team.
"This is a cross community, cross border initiative to bring teenagers from different communities on both sides of the border together," Raymond explained.
"The trophy is in remembrance of the remarkable successful cross-community Under-16 Star of the Sea team of 1969 that I was fortunate to play in.
"Bobby Sands who eventually joined the IRA and Terry Nicholl and Michael Acheson who both eventually joined the UVF all played in our team.
"We played in a team where politics and religion didn't matter or exist. We were just friends and teenage footballers."
Mr McCord said the match would become a yearly event, and urged people to support the "bridge building" initiaitve.
"Let's build on this for the benefit of all," added. "New friendships, new thoughts."
The inaugural match was won by Limestone United.
"Although we managed to secure a great victory it was meeting the young people, staff and families from Palmerston that will be the best memories," the club said.
