Today Carrigaline Camogie Club is a thriving organisation, catering for over 300 members, ranging from 5 years old up to adult. We have a vibrant street leagues section that trains every Saturday morning. From U-12 down we compete in the newly established Go Games. Our U-13s and U-15s compete in South-East, our U-14s, U-16s and U-18s compete in County competitions and our adult team are currently competing at Intermediate grade. It has taken a long time and a great effort from our volunteers to build the club up since its humble beginnings.
The
1st Camogie Club.
With
the resurgence of hurling in 1922, the ladies of Carrrigaline,
not leaving all the honours for the taking to the
menfolk, formed a Camogie team. Training was held
in Bat Cooneys - the field at the rear of Tom Scannell's
house, near the present Avondale soccer pitch, where there were
many memorable encounters, in particular with Monkstown
who also had a great camogie team at that time. Matches
were also played on the Crosshaven Road in Sisk's
field, within 100 metres of the present day pavillion.
Here
it is recalled was played a memorable match between
a Cork City team and Carrigline who were captained
by Kit Sweeney, who played centre-field.
Names that come to light from this era are Kit Sweeney
(Late of Barry Collins), Mrs Lynch (Main Street),
Mrs Healy (Bordee), Mrs McCarthy (Ballinrea), The
Leahy Sisters (The Rock), Mrs Harry Allen (Crosshaven
Road), Mary Foley (Strand Road), Mrs Kay O'Mahony
(Sunnyside) & Mrs K O'Sullivan (St Johns Terrace).
Johnnie Allen was the chairman of the club.
The
2nd Camogie Club (1938-1941)-
Following many years of inactivity a camogie club was
once again formed in the spring of 1938. In the 30's
some ladies had played with Ballygarvan and were the
nucleus of the Carrigaline side. This Carrigaline team
could not be classed as great for a while, they had
won a number of matches each year but failed to win
any competitions.
Among the players at the time were: Maura Weste, Biddy
Weste, Betty Horgan, Peg Scannell, Maura Dineen, Kathy
Murphy, Kathy Cummins, Kathleen Glossop, Sheila Murphy,
May Galvin, Margaret Drinan, Maggie Moore and Jennie
Moore. Here it is recalled that Danny Desmond was chairman
of the camogie club during the four years it existed. |
The
3rd Camogie Club (1952-1960)-
In
May 1952 a camogie club was once again formed. The initiative
followed the success of the hurling club, in particular
the great displays of the intermediate team. Chairpersons
of the club over the years it existed were: S. Goggin,
D.Desmond, J.O'Connor (Present President of the Club),
T.Barton and C.Maye. It must be said that the team was
not entirely local, members came from Shanbally, Ringaskiddy
and Ballygarvan as well as Carrigaline. The main source
of contact was that many members worked at the pottery.
Matches were played mainly against city teams but tournament
matches were also played against Courcey Maids &
Kilbrittain. With training and teamwork, the standard
of the team improved until their most successful year
1954 when they won the County Championship & League.
That year they also won a set of medals after a drawn
game with Courcey Maids and defeated Kilbrittain to
win the Bandon Carnival Cup. Having won the championship,
Carrigaline were then promoted to senior ranks, but
were not very successful. The club was eventually disbanded
in 1960 due to the fact that many members were getting
married or had lost interest.
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The
4th Camogie Club (1992-Present)
The club was reformed in 1992 and those included were
Joe Lynch, Bill, Fitzgerald, Kay Fitzgerald, Francis
Power and Phil Jones. There was about 15 girls of 12
and 13 years of age and from this group the basis of
the club was formed. The first year they trained and
played some friendly matches. Their first victory was
against local rivals Shamrocks on a score-line of 0-1
to 0-0 (the point being scored by Avril Cooney from
a long-range free). This group of players also competed
in indoor camogie and won a South-East title. It was
1995 when this group of players began to make significant
progress. By training very hard and giving an unbelievable
commitment they reached two major county finals at U16
level. They were awarded by winning the County League,
by beating Eire Og after a replay and therefore after
40 years a County Camogie Title returned to Carrigaline.
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History of Camogie
The
origins of camogie date back to 1903 when a club in Dublin
"The Keating Club" applied rules to their game.
One of the rules for example was, "stopping the ball
with the skirt" this was deemed a foul! The first
public camogie match took place in 1904, and soon after
the Camogie Association was formed. Its aim was to provide
a gaelic games outlet for the ladies of Ireland. It wasn't
until 1932 that camogie has its own All Ireland Final
with Dublin beating Galway by 3-2 to 0-2 to win the very
first O'Duffy Cup. One of the greats of the game is Kathleen
Mills who has won 15 All Ireland medals. Today camogie
has the largest number of females, in excess of 150,000,
participating in Ireland in a field game.
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