Downpatrick won their first Down Senior Football Championship in 1935. In 1938–39 they moved to Leatham's field at Ballymote and renamed themselves "The Thomas Russell Club", after Thomas Russell (1767–1803), executed at Downpatrick for his role in the Irish rebellion of 1803. Players were harassed by policemen of the Royal Ulster Constabulary, who uprooted their goalposts and sent officers to their games to intimidate them. In 1949 they became the "Russell Gaelic Union".