Clane GAA

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Clane GAA Club
Claonadh
Founded: 1887
County: Kildare
Nickname: The Lilywhites
Club colours: All White
Grounds: Conneff Park, Clane
Team colours Team colours Team colours
Team colours
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Standard colours

Clane GAA is a Gaelic Athletic Association (GAA) club in Clane, County Kildare, Ireland, winner of 17 Kildare county senior football championships, 16 county senior hurling championships and Kildare club of the year in 1975. Clane players are credited with bringing the handpass into Gaelic football. Richard Cribben was regarded as one of the best players in the game in the 1890s and played on the international team that played England at Stamford Bridge in 1896. Pa Connolly (a Cuchulainn All-Star award winner in 1963) and Tommy Carew featured on the Kildare football team of the millennium. Martin Lynch was an All Stars Award winner in 1991. John Finn was an All Stars Award winner in 1998.

Contents

[edit] History

Clane town sports pre-date the GAA, those of June 12, 1884 on a field opposite the Dispensary House being reported as “ayquel to Punchestown” by the Leinster Leader. Dr O’Connor, organizer of the 1885 sports became first chairman of Kildare county board. A Leinster Leader report on April 1887 claims Clane had ‘the honour of being the first club to be established in County Kildare.’ Clane were first Kildare football champions, a Clongowes Teacher member of the team Professor Crowley was later accredited with having invented the handpass. RIC records from 1890 show that Clane William O'Briens had 50 members with officers listed as CJ O'Connor (who was also first chairman of Kildare county board) John Geoghegan, Maurice Sammon and James Archer. A set of white jerseys from a house rugby team at Clongowes, used by the club after 1901, were used for the 1903 All Ireland final leading to the tradition of Kildare wearing all white as their county colours: the Lily Whites.It is hoped through the deployment of the new managerial team known as timmys angels that clane can bring home a county championship and rid itself of its newly tarnished image. Roll on 2007.

[edit] Gaelic Football

The Clane-Roseberry duopoly between 1901 and 1910 was responsible for raising standards in Kildare. Eight Clane players Larry ‘Hussey’ Cribben, Bill Merriman, Ned Kennedy, Joe Rafferty, Jim Wright, Bill Bracken, William ‘Steel’ Losty and Johnny Dunne participated to Kildare’s cathartic twice-replayed home final appearance against Kerry in 1903 and first All Ireland success in 1905. By the time the club was seriously affected by the Irish Civil War, it had won eight county titles. Pa Connolly spear-headed the revival of the 1960s which resulted in three more titles, including the dramatic comeback of 1967 which turned a four point deficit into a six point win in the final ten minutes. Martin Lynch was the star of the 1990s when Clane won four more titles in a six year period. After Clane won the 1997 county championship with nine Kildare players in the line-up they went to the Leinster Senior Club Football Championship final, eventually losing to Erins Isle, and provided six players for the Kildare team that reached the 1998 All-Ireland Senior Football Championship final.

In recent years the footballing ability, and motivational skill, of Michael Weld has seen the Junior C team challenge for honours time and time again.

[edit] Hurling

The decision of Dick Brien to bring a set of hurleys to Clane and the appointment of Wexfordman, John P Lacey, as secretary of the Clane club in 1903 established hurling in the club. Clane went on to win 16 titles before 1922, including a famous comeback against Landenstown from seven points down in 1920. A split in 1922, probably related to the civil war, led to the establishment of Mainham hurling club. In their glory period Clane had lost just two finals, to Maynooth on objection in 1913 and to Celbridge when some of their players were missing in 1921. They returned to senior ranks in the 1990s. David Harney was Kildare club hurler of the year in 2004.

[edit] Camogie

The club was founded in 1931 when Bridie Ennis was listed as ‘one of the best players in the county.’ Clane won the county championship in 1939 shortly before the club lapsed and the best players joined Sallins. A team trained by Wexford man Ned Coughlan won the 1953 league and championship, the 1962 senior league, but the club lapsed again 1966-1976. Clane revived in 1976 and won league and championship in 1977 wearing the green gym-slips of the local Scoil Mhuire. They won junior league and championship in 1980 but lapsed in 1983 when the best players joined Prosperous. Geraldine Dwyer and Marianne Johnson were selected on the Kildare camogie team of the century.

[edit] Honours

[edit] Bibliography

  • Clane GAA A Century - A History Of The Club And The People (Clane GAA Club) 1985, 528pp).
  • Kildare GAA: A Centenary History, by Eoghan Corry, CLG Chill Dara, 1984, ISBN 0-9509370-0-2 hb ISBN 0-9509370-1-0 pb
  • Kildare GAA yearbook, 1972, 1974, 1978, 1979, 1980 and 2000- in sequence especially the Millennium yearbook of 2000
  • Soaring Sliothars: Centenary of Kildare Camogie 1904-2004 by Joan O'Flynn Kildare County Camogie Board.

[edit] External links

v • d • e
Kildare Gaelic Athletic Association-affiliated clubs
Senior
Allenwood • Athy • Carbury • Celbridge • Clane • Confey • Ellistown • Kilcock • Leixlip • Maynooth • Moorefield • Naas • Round Towers • Sarsfield's • Saint Laurence’s • Suncroft
Intermediate
Junior
Senior
Ardclough • Celbridge • Clane • Coill Dubh • Confey • Éire Óg-Corrachoill • Kilcock • Leixlip • Maynooth • Naas
Other
Underage amalgamations