CARRIGALINE CAMOGIE CLUB
History of our club
The First Camogie Club
(1922 - 19 )
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.
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The Fourth Camogie Club
(1992-Present)
The club was reformed in 1992 and those included were Joe Lynch, Bill Fitzgerald, Kay Fitzgerald, Frances 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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The Second 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.
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History of Camogie
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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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The Third 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 (Later 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.
From 1922 to present day.......(see 1956 team above)