Piltown GAA
| Baile an Phoill | |||||||||
| Founded: | 1887 | ||||||||
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| County: | Kilkenny | ||||||||
| Club colours: | Yellow and Black | ||||||||
| Grounds: | Piltown GAA Complex | ||||||||
| Playing kits | |||||||||
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| Senior Club Championships | |||||||||
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Piltown GAA is a Gaelic Athletic Association club located in Piltown, County Kilkenny, Ireland. A Piltown GAA club was originally founded in 1887. Several version existed until the modern club founded in 1953 following the advent of Parish Rule in Kilkenny. Piltown fields teams in Hurling, Gaelic Football, Camogie and Ladies' Gaelic Football at all ages from Under-8 to adult in each code.
History
Piltown GAA was initially formed as in 1887 and and went through many amalgamations until Parish Rule was introduced in the 1950's. The modern club was formed in 1953. The original grounds consisting of about 5 acres were purchased from the Land Commission on 1st November 1945. The original trustees were Canon Philip Comerford PP, Patrick Power MCC (Piltown) and Richard Keating (Clonmore). The price paid was £77. In 1957, Eddie Norris and Pa O'Shea replaced Canon Comerford and Patrick Power as trustees and Bob Aylward, the County Board Chairman was added to the trustees.
Early meetings took place at St. Columba's Hall which was located at the old graveyard in Piltown. After it was demolished, meetings took place at Anthony's Inn, Piltown National School and eventually in the dressing room that used to exist at the road end.
In 1961, the club started raising funds through the annual Fete (Carnivals), commencing on Easter Sunday. They featured live music in a marquee, amusements and tournament hurling matches with top class clubs from all over the south east.
Work started on developing the grounds in the early sixties. In 1961, the wall at the road end was erected along with the original dressing rooms, complete with showers and toilets. In 1962/63, the pitch was levelled resodded and drained. In 1964, a 10 foot wire and post fence was erected around the main pitch. In 1965, the toolshed and the original scoreboard was erected at the road end and it took about £9000 to transform the pitch. The main playing pitch was officially opened on the 12th August 1965 when the Kilkenny Senior Hurling team played a challenge match against Waterford. The game was refereed by Tommy Foran and the Kilkenny team featured Piltown's Ned Power (Brenor).
In 1972, an additional 12 acres of adjacent lands were purchased. These were lands formerly owned by Issac and Lilly Tector from Piltown. The representatives of the club paid £3,500 for it, (£500 more than their brief), proceeds of the carnivals.
In 1977, it was decided provide a Complex building with an estimated cost of £40,000. With the popularity of carnivals beginning to wane, a new source of income had to be found. In 1982, the club ran a 600 club draw which a year later turned in to what is now known as the Hurlers Co-op draw. (In 1991, the Kilkenny County Board became involved)
Since the eighties, Piltown GAA has played an integral part in the community with the provision of two full size playing pitches and a juvenile pitch, a handball court, two squash courts and a gym, with Bar & Social facilities in the GAA Complex that was constructed in 1985. The GAA Complex was officially opened by the former President of the GAA, Paddy Buggy on 15th August 1986.
A third pitch soon followed in the nineties and became an All Weather pitch before having match standard floodlights added. The floodlighting on the all weather pitch was switched on for the first time on Friday 18 November 2005. The first championship game played under lights in Piltown or Kilkenny for that matter was a Senior Football championship clash between Piltown and Railyard in February 2006 with the visitors taking the spoils. A warm up area was then created at the lower end of the all weather pitch. In 2010, a shed from the old sugar factory in Carlow was re-erected as a stand and 2013, some benches were added around the pitch.
In 2012, work started on a precast Hurling Wall and the redevelopment of the pitch and putt course into a fourth playing field. The Hurling Wall precast structure was erected on the 30th March. Lighting was added in 2013. Also in 2013, work started on removing the old wire fence and replacing it with a more modern aesthetically improved lower fence.
There have been many successes on the field with the highlight year being 2003 when the club won the county Junior hurling title and the Leinster Junior hurling title. (There was no All-Ireland series in 2003) The year was capped by becoming the AIB Kilkenny Club of the Year. The original club played in two Senior County Finals in 1904 & 1910, unfortunately losing out on both occasions to Tullaroan.
At juvenile level the biggest achievement was winning Division 3 of Féile Na nGael in 1979 when hosted in Kilkenny and being runners up in Division 1 to Wolfe Tones (Clare) when hosted in Clare in 1986. Piltown also won the National Community games title in 1989 beating Portumna of Galway. They have been hurling county titles won all the way up from Schools to Junior.
Although Hurling is the predominant occupation of most Piltown GAA fans, the Piltown area has a very strong Gaelic Football tradition and have won two Intermediate county titles and one junior county title as well as many underage and schools titles.
There have been several iterations of Camogie clubs but the current one is the most vibrant and successful. Piltown Camogie won a junior title in 2008 and an Intermediate league in 2013. Numerous Camogie titles have been won at all age groups at county level. They have also won a Leinster Community Games title in 2009 when beating Lucan Sarsfields and subsequently taking the bronze medal nationally. In 2010, and based on the foundation of several primary schools county titles, a Ladies Gaelic Football club was setup. It primarily catered for juveniles but in 2013, Gaelic4Mothers & Others was introduced. Squash and Handball are two other popular club activities.
References
External links
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