Club President – Roy Darrah

Lisburn Distillery are delighted to announce that our lifelong supporter Roy Darrah has accepted our invitation to become President of the club.

Everyone at Lisburn Distillery would like to formally acknowledge Roy’s ongoing support over many years and the role that both he and his family have played over this time. We also thank Roy for his friendship over many years.

We feel the role of President is fitting to one of our senior supporters, that we wish to thank publicly for Roy’s contribution to ‘The Whites’ and as a way to collectively show our appreciation.

Distillery have always been a family club and Roy was happy to tell us more about his own family’s connection. “I grew up within a quarter mile of Windsor Park but ‘the Whites’ were already in our blood. My father was a professional musician and often travelled for work, so it was my grandfather who took me to my first game at the old Grosvenor Park in the late 1940’s  when I was barely ten years old. I can still remember it, we left early to get a seat in the grandstand and walked down Roden Street. As we approached Grosvenor Park we could hear the music of the 29^th Old Boys Brass Band who entertained the crowd on matchdays”

Roy added “my grandfather was a member of the Grosvenor Whites Supporters Club and we travelled to many games both home and away over the years. There were so many great characters around the club at that time. I always look back on the wonderful experiences I’ve shared with Richard & Alan (Roy’s sons) and all the other loyal supporters. I have many memories of great players who played for the Whites too but there are just too many to list!”

It was Roy’s opportunity to welcome his own grandchildren to Distillery in recent years. He smiles recalling his grandson Luke (Richard’s son) leading out the team as mascot at New Grosvenor – even though Luke refused to come off when the game was about to start, adamant he was about to make his Distillery debut!

We thank Roy and the extended Darrah family for their lifelong commitment to our club and are proud to announce him as our new President.