There has always been football played in Redcastle, both Gaelic and Soccer, and indeed there are many stories of players heading off on their bikes here and there to play in distant places, or 8 adults stuffed in a car to head to Lagg or Gleneely Sports. Many games then were merely friendlies, however the reality was they were often far from friendly encounters especially between 2 teams from the same parish. The 3 schools in the lower end of the parish, Clar, Drung and Clunelly helped nurture many very good footballers and athletes in the area and credit to all those teachers, who gave a lot of time and effort, often outside of their school hours.Whitecastle school since the amalgamation of the three schools above has carried on this good work and can be proud of its record to date.

     Redcastle Football Club was formed in 1969 by a few young local football men who had become disenchanted at their lack of opportunity to play competitive football. At that time there was a very good local team in existence called Clar Rovers, but they had a settled team and not a lot of young local players were getting the opportunity to break into the side. The team first entered a 7-a-side competition in Gleneely in the summer of 1969 before the League started, and they ended up winning the competition. This gave them a great boost and also the incentive to get this team up and running properly. The first few seasons were tough going and there were mixed fortunes on the pitch and at times struggled against some very well established clubs like Buncrana Hearts, Westbrook Celtic and Carn Celtic.

     The team was to enter into a little bit of a glory era in the early 70s when in 1972/73 season they were defeated in the League's Blue Riband Cup competition by Carn Celtic, in what was probably one of the most epic Cup Finals ever staged in Inishowen. The final ended up a 3-3 draw, the replay also ended up a draw, this time 1-1, and unfortunately the second replay co-incided with a previously arranged 10 mile Sponsored walk for the new Community Centre in Quigley’s Point that was about to be built. Some of the players did the walk before the match, and unfortunately Carn Celtic won the second replay 4 nil. That Carn team boasted no less than 7 players who gained senior football experience so it was no disgrace. The biggest disappointment of this season however was the fact that Buncrana Hearts were one point behind Redcastle in the League at the end of the season. Redcastle had completed their season and Buncrana still had to play Clar Rovers in their last game, which would have been a tough match. However for reasons beyond Redcastle’s control the match never got played, and the Inishowen League Committee awarded Buncrana 2 points for the unplayed game and they leapfrogged Redcastle to win the League title. This still wrankles with a lot of those players and supporters even to this day as it would have been Redcastle's first title.

     At this point Redcastle had established themselves as one of the top teams, whereas Clar Rovers had gone somewhat in the oppossite direction. The two teams merged before the start of the 1973/74 season, and they also entered a team in the Derry and District League. It was to prove a very fruitful year, when Redcastle won the inaugural Bertie Cartmill Cup, which was now the Blue Riband of  Inishowen football, getting revenge for the previous year by defeating Carn Celtic. Meanwhile they also won the Third Division of the D&D on goal average, as it was then. At this time they seemed as though they would dominate local soccer for a few years at least. However this did not happen in part due to the fragmentation of the team. This splinter resulted in a team being formed in Quigleys Point with the players from the upper end of the Parish opting to leave and play their football there.

     The next time Redcastle won a competition was in 1981/82 season when they won the Division 2 of the Inishowen League. Eleven years later they went on to win the Division 3 title, and this time they also won the Fr. O’Gara Cup, defeating local rivals Moville Celtic in the Final by one goal to nil.

     Football changed an awful lot in the years after that, and Redcastle perhaps adapted slower than they should have. They struggled for the next 10 years or so but salvation came in the form of a new pitch getting developed locally. Prior to this the team had rented various fields from local famers and used them, but having a new pitch complete with Clubhouse, was a real incentive again for the team. The club also had renewed vigour about them, with ex-players coming on board the committee to give extra impetus. The team duly rewarded the hard work by winning Division 1 of the Inishowen League in 2005, and has followed this up by winning the Premier Division in 2006, and again in 2007. This year (2008) the Reserve team have won their League with quite a bit to spare which augers well for the Clubs future. 2006 saw the inaugural running of a competition between teams from The Saturday morning League in Derry (IFA), and Inishowen League (FAI), called the Northwest of Ireland Champions League, which Redcastle won in it's inaugural year. In 2007 they lost this Final, and amazingly four other finals in what turned out to be a heartbreaking season. Just for good measure the Reserve side also got to their Shield final that year and lost it as well.

     Redcastle United as a club now cater for players from the age of 6 right up to the adulthood. They work hard at trying to ensure football is provided to the youth of the area. Boys and girls are catered for in the younger age groups. Times have changed an awful lot since the clubs inception, and now the Club has its own Constitution, various policies on Codes of Conduct, child protection etc. It also has its own Child Protection Officer, so local football has taken on a much more professional dimension in the 39 years since the Club was first founded. All this is for the better of course, and hopefully the club will be able to keep up with the changes that inevitably will come over the coming years.

     The club works closely with the Redcastle Community Development Committee, which has provided the facilities for the teams. They, to their great credit have recently purchased a plot of land adjacent to the current pitch, and it is hoped that there will be a second pitch located there in the not too distant future. What an evolution in less than 40 years for a club from a small rural location in North Donegal.