Mullingar Shamrocks win Golden Jubilee Féile 

The 50th anniversary of the GAA’s Féile competition will certainly be remembered fondly by Mullingar Shamrocks’ under-15 players and supporters after Callum Rigney led his charges to victory in Killucan on Saturday morning last.

The presence of four Division 1 sides in county champions Tubberclair, Killucan and St. Mary’s along with our own representatives ensured that whichever side emerged victorious was certainly going to earn the spoils. Shamrocks began their campaign with a renewal of acquaintances with Tubberclair and there was certainly an edge to proceedings as two competitive sides tried to get their campaigns off to a winning start. The green and whites began well but a late Tubberclair goal ensured the sides finished on level terms. The next game versus St. Mary’s became a must not-lose encounter and the Shamrocks’ boys produced an impressive display in chalking up a 1-9 to 0-2 win. Hosts Killucan had qualified for the final with two excellent victories against Tubberclaire and St Mary’s and we now faced them needing at least a draw to qualify for the decider.

A 2-5 to 1-2 win ensured a rematch with the saffron and whites and the final was a hugely competitive match between two determined sides. Killucan seemed to have the upper hand at half time with the sides level and the advantage of the elements for the closing 15 mins. This challenge was faced head on by the visitors with every player producing a storming display to give Shamrocks the victory on a 2-6 to 1-4 scoreline. A very proud Callum Rigney accepted the Féile trophy from Minor Chairman Alan Leech before Callum was engulfed by his delighted teammates. 

This win was a deserved one for a fantastic group of players who have trained with dedication and commitment since restrictions were lifted and who have continued to train twice a week since the county final defeat in Ballynacargy. Remarkably there were 31 Shamrocks’ players togged out in Killucan on Saturday with every player getting game time and each player should feel very proud of his efforts in ensuring that their year ended with silverware. 

The coaching team of Barry Maguire, Tony Sheerin, Tom Ormsby, Matt Ledwith and Barry Kelly deserve credit too for their unstinting efforts. 

The players on duty on Saturday were: Matas Puida, John Shaw, Matt Doyle, Matthew Shaw, Adam Glynn, Ben McNamee, Ben Sheerin, Ryan Kelly, Jack Toal, Justin Haugh, Ty Masterson, Peter Finch, Adam Buckley, Mo Mohammed, Callum Rigney, Luke Raeside, Gavin Pierce, Paul Keating, Alex Sheerin, Padraig Casey, Tommy Idowu, Ronan Byrne, Tommy Daly, Criostoir Ormsby, Aindreis Opala, Conor Heffernan, Shane Egan, Brian Wycherly, Gary Brannigan, Charlie Foy and Stephen Battle.

Pat Walshe Memorial Tournament

Mullingar Shamrocks Under-11s played some beautiful football to win the Pat Walshe Memorial Tournament in The Downs on Sunday morning beating The Downs, Killucan and Clonard in the final to win this competition for the first time. Thanks to The Downs for inviting us to take part in a competition organised with the type of efficiency that is standard for our neighbours out the road. 

Mullingar Shamrocks win the Tidy Towns Committee’s Residential and Community Groups Competition …

Mullingar Shamrocks were delighted to learn on Friday that our club had won the Mullingar Tidy Towns Committee’s Residential and Community Groups Competition with the prize of €500 sponsored by the Mullingar Chamber of Commerce. 

The competition invited residential and community groups to become involved in initiatives involving educating, engaging and creativity including anti-littering campaigns, education interventions, biodiversity projects, nature projects and gardening projects. 

The award is a just recognition for the mountain of dedicated pioneering work that Joan Crawford Ormsby in her role as Green Club-Healthy Club Officer-Inclusion Officer has contributed to developing our Springfield grounds. Joan has involved other community groups in her work including members of the 1498 Club and Transition Year students from St Mary’s CBS.

Congrats Joan.  

 

Junior Football Championship, Quarter-final: Mullingar Shamrocks 0-10 Castletown-Finea/Coole-Whitehall 4-10.

The final scoreline did not do justice to the Mullingar Shamrocks efforts in this encounter and although CFCW were deserving winners the twelve point margin was inflated somewhat by the addition of two very late goals when the result was decided.

CFCW dominated the opening quarter and had bult a 1-5 to 0-2 lead at the first break although they ended the quarter reduced to 14 men when Charlie McCormack was shown a red card for an off the ball infraction. The lead margin could have been greater as CFCW missed a number of goal scoring opportunities that were prevented by a combination of scrambled defending, some good saves by Seán Óg Hynes, a brilliant block by Daniel Chukwuemeka and some wild CFCW shooting. 

Marc Eivers kicked a good point for Shamrocks after some good play by James Shaw and Jack Kelly did likewise after good work by Brian Melody and Matthew Clinton. Scores were evenly divided in the second quarter with Gary Corroon and Alan Naughton exchanging points before Kevin Brazil breached the Shamrocks defence for CFCW’s second goal. Shamrocks responded well and dominated the final minutes of the half and points by Gary Corroon, John O’Reilly  and Trevor Keena provided a foundation for a second half recovery based on a scoreboard reading 2-6 to 0-6. 

Playing with wind and hill advantage and an extra player hopes were high of a Shamrocks  recovery on the restart. Gary Corroon gave life to these hopes with three excellent points struck from long range frees. However, the second set of scores belonged to CFCW as Joe Rabbit too pointed three frees from close range. Shortly before the second water break Shamrocks too were reduced to 14 men when Alan Cashman received a second yellow card for his second phantom foul. Mullingar Shamrocks fading hopes were extinguished early in the final quarter when substitute Mark Cunningham announced his arrival with 1-1, John O’Reilly pointed for Shamrocks, a good save by Seán Óg Hynes prevented another goal but with the last play of the match Alan Devine hit CFCW’s fourth goal to send his team into the semi-final of the championship.   

Mullingar Shamrocks appreciate the efforts of Seán Hynes and Gareth Doyle on behalf of the team during the season,  a season that was very important in developing the several young promising players that featured during the season. There is no doubt that several of these players will feature prominently in the near future at senior level.

And in there, showing the example was Gary Corroon, an ageless veteran, who had a great season and is a brilliant worker on behalf of the club.

Mullingar Shamrocks: Seán Óg Hynes; Emmet Walsh, Matthew Siode, Daniel Chukwuemeka; Jack Kelly [0-1] (Kevin Reid), Eamon Breslin, James Shaw; Marc Eivers (0-1), John O’Reilly (0-2); Matthew Clinton (Cormac Hynes), Alan Cashman, Andrew Shaw (Mark Shaw); Brian Melody, Gary Corroon[0-4] (Brian Maguire), Trevor Keena[Ciarán Looby]. 

County Senior Football Championships, Quarter-final: Mullingar Shamrocks 0-8 Garrycastle 3-14 

‘Traditionally we lose to Garrycastle’ one of our resident statisticians announced during the week. And tradition was right but few of our losses have been as comprehensive as this one. 

Garrycastle’s form in qualifying for the knockout stages of the championship had been the more impressive and this carried through to the quarter final game. Michael Monaghan scored the game’s opening point in the fourth minute and sent his team into a lead  they were  never subsequently to lose. A mad dash from his goal by Philly Shaw prevented a certain goal but even Philly could do anything about Tom O’Halloran’s rocket in the tenth minute after he an opening created by James Dolan.

Justin Barrett kicked two long range points, the second immediately after Denis Corroon opened the Shamrocks scoring account in the fifteenth minute (1-3 to 0-1). Six points were shared in the second quarter; Dean Moore, Shamrocks best forward on the day, pointed twice from frees and kicked a third from play. Tom O’Halloran (0-2) and Alex Gardiner had similar scores for Garrycastle.  At half-time Shamrocks trailed by 0-5 (1-6 to 0-4) after kicking several bad wides and dropping three or four more shots into a grateful goalkeeper. 

All was not lost and Shamrocks pushed on early in the third quarter and a Denis Corroon point raised hopes of a revival. However, points from Alex Gardiner and James Dolan quickly smothered these thoughts. Colin Clinton, a future pundit, told us that ‘All the progress made in the last five minutes is gone’ and so it transpired.  Dean Moore pointed a free but Alex Gardiner (0-2) and James Dolan (0-2) sealed the deal for Garrycastle who had 0-8 to spare at the second water break.   

Garrycastle goalkeeper Seán Brennan saved well from Zach Aherne but James Dolan made no mistake, at the Dunne’s store end, a minute later when he scored Garrycastle’s second goal. John O’Reilly replaced Mark Flynn to make his senior championship debut and became the latest young player to sample senior championship fare this season and this is the great positive to take away from this evening of a heavy defeat. Garrycastle confirmed their dominance in the final stages as Alex Gardiner, Tom O’ Halloran and James Sheerin scored points and Jason Nugent blasted home Garrycastle’s third goal. A Dean Moore point from play and another from a free was the best Shamrocks had to offer before Damien Maher’s final whistle brought relief with the scoreboard reading 3-14 to 0-8. 

The poet Gerard Manly Hopkins had a line for this kind of defeat: ‘No worst there is none’ but we are a long distance away from the Hopkins ‘Pitched past pitch of grief’ stage. Our big prize came when we defeated Shandonagh in the group stages, a victory that guaranteed senior football for the next two seasons, an essential in this period of  transition at senior level.

We acknowledge the work of team manager Jack Sheedy and Anthony Clinton, Joe Kenny and Eric Smyth during the season. Their contribution was immense. There is no better logistics man than Ross Brady and the work of Patsy Sheerin and Dr Liam Dalton ensured that our players’ injuries were never neglected.   The decision to introduce young players to senior championship football was one that had to be made.  We also acknowledge the players who made a huge commitment over the season. There will be another day. 

Mullingar Shamrocks: Philly Shaw; Dillon Matthews, Eddie Moore, Mark Flynn (John O’Reilly); Brendan O’Reilly, Micheál Curley, David Gavin; Daragh Daly, Patrick Fagan (Billy Flynn); Denis Corroon (0-2), Dónal O’Donoghue (Jack Gillen), Ross Corroon (Zach Aherne); Jordan Warde, Ciarán Curley (Kieran Gavin), Dean Moore (0-6). 

 Season’s Finale

Our Under-8 and Under-10 girls finished their Saturday morning sessions today with a morning of football and pizza as a treat (big thanks to Four Star Pizza in Rochforts for their great service). The girls have worked very hard all year improving their skills each week, showing great determination and commitment to our club, we can’t wait to see all the girls back again next year!! Big thank you to the girls for their hard work and their parents, families and supporters for keeping them motivated during the season. 

Thank you to all the coaches for all their help and commitment each week during the season- Kevin, Colm, Philip, Tom, Laura, Niamh, Roisin, Casey, Karen and Sophie. Our Under-7s also finished their season on Sunday morning with a fun filled morning on the AstroTurf. This is a great group of lads who enjoy their football and turn up in huge numbers every week. Huge credit to all the parents who make the trek into Springfield every Saturday. Thanks also to all the parents who took a coaching bib this year too, without your effort none of this could happen.  The future is bright for Mullingar Shamrocks, roll on 2022.

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