CONGRATULATIONS: Mullingar Shamrocks: Seachtó Bliain ag Fás
70 Years ago today, on 16 January 1953, the Mullingar Shamrocks GAA Club was founded in St Mary’s Hall. At the weekend, a special commemorative plaque was attached to the front wall to mark the historic event. At the time, there was no adult football club in Mullingar and footballers from the town played with the surrounding rural clubs or drifted away to play the dreaded ‘foreign games’ of soccer or rugby. The Padraig Pearse’s Hurling Club was founded in November 1951 and enjoyed great success in its first year winning the 1952 Westmeath junior hurling title as well as the county minor and juvenile titles. Pearse’s also fielded a juvenile football team in 1952. At the club’s Presentation Banquet, held on 1 January 1953, championship medals for junior hurling, minor hurling and football (both 1951); juvenile hurling 1951 and 1952 (a team captained by Maurice Wallace); a set of medals won by St Mary’s College, and the 1952 Leinster minor football medals won by Westmeath were presented. Over 130 medals were presented and 114 of these were collected by members of the Pearse’s Club. Six members, including the captain Declan O’Sullivan, were part of the Westmeath team that won the Leinster minor title. This distinguished group also included Oliver Mahedy who collected all seven medals on the night; Paddy McCoy (who scored 0-8 in the final), Seán Stokes, Seán ‘Sonny’ Mullen and Frank Evers, who was later a member of the Galway senior football team that won the All-Ireland title in 1956. The success of the Pearse’s Hurling Club and the Westmeath minor football team drew attention to the fact that there was no football club in Mullingar to cater for promising footballers
Another factor that influenced the decision to form a football club was the Bórd Fáilte plan to organise a national festival of Irish culture called An Tóstal. This was a marketing device to encourage visitors to come to Ireland during the off-peak season. It was particularly aimed at the Irish community in the United States. The fact that the An Tóstal opening was scheduled for Easter Sunday, 5 April, 1953 provided an added incentive for the formation of a Gaelic football club in Mullingar.
The possibility of the Padraig Pearse’s Hurling Club expanding its range by adding Gaelic football to its activities was considered at the club’s first AGM in November 1952. A definite decision was postponed until the January club meeting held which was held in St Mary’s Hall on 13 January 1953, when the decision was made to form a separate club. The members of Pearse’s Hurling Club were determined that the footballers of Mullingar ‘would no longer be left orphaned and abandoned to be eventually lured away to the winter sodden fields of alien associations or to become the adopted children of a country club.’ After a lively debate it was decided, with a logic that would gladden the heart of any hurling man, that ‘as the hurling club was still in its infancy it would be unwise to burden it with a football team’ and it was unanimously decided that separate football and hurling clubs was in the best interest of promoting the sports.
The First Committee
The new club was named Mullingar Shamrocks and the first officers of the club were appointed at the meeting. President: Fr. P. J. Regan; Vice-President: Frank Garvey N.T.; Chairman: Brother Baldwin; Vice-Chairman: Frank Tuohy; Secretary: Vincent Gillick; Committee: J. Brew, Tom Mullaney, Seán Tone, Paddy Lucey and Paddy Mooney.
