During this period also, there was a number of managerial changes at the Club. At the end of 1975/76 season, Stewarty Melville was forced to resign due to work commitments and his position was taken by Davy Adair who was a keen student of junior football in the Ards Peninsula. Like his predecessor, Davy was unable to instil the consistency required to win honours although, once again, the lst.XI were highly positioned in the league.

With the playing side of the Club now firmly established, the management were keen to expand the social side of the Swifts. The then recently reopened Belfast Central railway made a train journey from Bangor to, Dublin an attractive proposition.

After much preparation, a group of over 20 Swifts members set off by train to spend the weekend of 29/ 31 October 1976 in the city centre Gresham Hotel on O’Connell Street, Dublin. No football activity took place on that weekend but it is fair to say that there was plenty of “social activity”.