More Nostalgia, Tradition, Con O’Callaghan and the Mullingar Connection

If you read the opening section of the Mullingar Shamrocks history on the club website you will see that the Pearse’s Hurling Club was founded in November 1951 and that its first chairman was Commandant Denis O’Callaghan. He was the man chiefly responsible for reviving hurling in Mullingar as at the time there was no hurling club in the town. Incredibly, there was no football club in the town then either!

The possibility of the Pearse’s club affiliating a football team was considered at the Pearse’s  first AGM in November 1952. A definite decision was postponed until the January club meeting held on Friday 16 January 1953 in St Mary’s Hall when it was decided to form a separate football club. Denis O’ Callaghan was one of the original trustees of the Springfield pitch and was chairman of the Westmeath County Board from 1962 to 1965 and presented the Flanagan Cup to James O’Dowd when Mullingar Shamrocks won their first county senior title in 1964.

In last Sunday’s Leinster senior football final, Denis O’Callaghan’s grandson Con O'Callaghan scored 0-12 for Dublin in his Leinster final debut. You can’t beat tradition.