On Saturday evening, at 7.00 pm, Mullingar Shamrocks will do something we haven’t done since the October bank holiday Monday of 2015 – play in the Westmeathgaaofficial ACL Div.1 League final. Garrycastle will supply the opposition – the team with the meanest defence in the league. Only Tyrrellspass conceded less than the 108 points Garrycastle conceded and when it is remembered that 2-10 of this was scored by Moate All-Whites in the final game when the men in the red and green were comfortably in the final and understrength, it gives some indication of the challenge awaiting on Saturday evening in TEG Cusack Park.

The 2015 final ended in a 7 point (2-8 to 1-7) loss to StLomans Gaawho included current Westmeath heroes John Heslin and Jason Daly in their lineout. Bernard Flynn stepped down as manager after the championship loss to the boys in blue and Ned was in temporary charge on the day. The result was effectively decided with a St Loman’s two goal blitz within two minutes midway through the second half. The goals were scored by Ciaran Kilmurray and Shane Dempsey. The Shamrocks team included Denis Corroon, Davy Coyne and Dean Moore of the current panel.  The Shamrocks goal was scored by a promising young forward – Conor Moore - who beat Jason Daly to the touch from a long delivery by Micheál Curley. 

We don’t know how often we have won the League title but we can be certain of 1982, 1990 and 1991.. Our first win was in 1982 and inspired  great celebration in the Lake County Hotel as the  Facebook  pictures suggest. Moate All-Whites were beaten 0-12  to 0-7 by a team managed by Leo Dowling. It was the first Senior title won by Mullingar Shamrocks in 16 years. The victory marked the beginning of the Glory Days for Shamrocks. 

We lost two finals to The Downs GAA Clubs in 1986 and 1987. A last minute point scored by Paddy Walsh on Easter Monday 1987 in a replay of the 1986 final deprived Shamrocks of a clean sweep of the 1986 titles (2-4 to 1-6). In October 1987, The Downs defended their title defeating Shamrocks on a 1-10 to 1-7 scoreline.

The 1990 League Final featured a repeat of the County Final and was played on 24 November 1990 in Castletown Geoghegan. Shamrocks again came out on top winning on a 1-8 to 0-8 scoreline after trailing 0-4 to 0-3 at the interval (Football was no high scoring fiesta back then!). John Corroon’s goal early in the second half created by an Ivan O’Connor defence splitting pass was the decisive score.  Two weeks later Shamrocks were beaten in the most controversial of circumstances in the Leinster Club semi-final by Baltinglass in Newbridge. ‘It was daylight robbery’ the papers said. This 1990 final began a sequence of four successive league finals featuring Mullingar Shamrocks and Coralstown-Kinnegad. Goals from Denis Corroon and Eddie Casey proved decisive in the 1991 final played in St Loman’s on 3 December, Shamrocks winning  on a 2-5 to 0-9 scoreline. In the 1992 and 1993 finals Coralstown-Kinnegad proved too good for Mullingar Shamrocks in the final. They had 7 points to spare in the 1993 final played in December 1994 (2-11 to 2-4).  

Based on the available records, the last time Mullingar Shamrocks won the League title was in 1991 but that may not be correct. So if there is any statistician out there with a complete record of league champions we’d love to hear from you.  Mullingar Shamrocks players might have a look and see if there are any League medals in their medal collection. 

It’s not easy to establish a complete record – sometimes there was no league final other times the league remained unfinished. For now we can say for certain that we have only won 3 senior league titles, 1982, 1990 and 1991.

What we do know is that we won the Minor Football League in 2005 (defeating St Loman’s 1-6 to 0-7 with a late Conor Hughes goal the game deciding goal) and in 2006 we defeated Athlone 1-9 to 1-2. Denis Corroon and Alan Cashman starred in both finals and will feature on Saturday night against Garrycastle. That is some record of service and dedication to the Shamrocks cause and is well worth the attached photograph! And Conor Hughes is now a key member of the logistics team with Ross Brady. There are many different ways to make a substantial contribution to your local friendly GAA club. 

Good luck to all involved on Saturday evening.