- St. Patrick’s, Stamullen, Ireland
St. Patrick’s GAA Club was formed in January 1950 by the amalgamation of the two local junior clubs – Stamullen and Julianstown. The Julianstown colors were green and the Stamullen colors were black and white. The new club now called St. Patrick’s GAA Club chose green and white as its colors. The green represented Julianstown and the white represented Stamullen.
Early successes of the old clubs were very few. Stamullen were senior champions in 1900 and Julianstown were junior champions in 1902. Julianstown did have some underage success. It was because of the lack of any real impact at championship level that the amalgamation took place.
The main area of success was at tournament level only. The local priest Fr. O’Reilly organized the meetings that resulted in the formation of St. Patrick’s GAA club. Sergeant Touhy, Sean Moore, Tony Monaghan and Papy Murtagh from Julianstown and Tommy McCourt and Mickey McCauley were on the new committee. Success came immediately with the newly formed club winning the Intermediate championship in their first year 1951. The team was Paddy Dixon, Joey Whyte, Frank McCann, J. Maguire, E. Gordon, Paddy Whyte, Jack Durkin, Nicky McCullen, Peter McCann, Paddy Whelan, Brendan Boylan, Alphie Monks, M. Power, G. Monaghan and T. Power.
The new Club moved to the old grounds at Whyte Park. The land commission had acquired some of the lands of the Preston Estate at Gormanston (Lord Gormanston’s Estate) and when dividing it into small farms provided a portion for the local football club. A site was also provided for Muintir na Tira at the same time.
St Patricks GAA now resides in our fabulous new facilities on the Cockhill Road in Stamullen to which we moved to in 2011 from our former pitch of Whyte Park. Our new facilities include 3 pitches, 2 outdoor Astro Turf pitches, running track, a 4 court badminton hall and a gym.
The Club over the years has had a number of players selected for Meath at senior football level these include Kevin Lenehan, Pat (Red) Collier, Phil Smith, Michael McQuillan, Cormac Sullivan, Cormac Murphy . We have had players from our Hurling Section, Minor Football, Ladies Football and Juvenile Section play at County level also bringing great pride to all involved in our Club.
St. Patrick’s GAA Club found senior status difficult and soon returned to the Intermediate ranks which was followed by a drop to junior. By 1963 the club had returned to Intermediate status and were Intermediate Champions again in that same year. St Patrick’s also won the Feis Cup in 1968 and the Junior Championship in 1975. St Patrick’ returned to senior status winning the Intermediate Championship on the 3rd attempt in as many years and the Feis Cup in 2000. We continue in the senior ranks and have reached three quarter finals only to be beaten by the eventual winners each time.
The Club has won 3 Junior Hurling Championships in the last 4 years with JP Ryan, Paul Tobin and Mark Scanlon winning All-Ireland medals with Meath in the same period. The Hurling within the Club is going from strength to strength with bigger numbers coming into the area at adult and juvenile level. The Club has won 4 Junior Hurling Championships in 2004, 2005, 2007 and most recently 2013, after a break of 3 years.
The formation of a Ladies football section in the Club means we have a lot more female participation in the playing of sport. There have been many underage successes for both the boys and ladies teams down through the years. Many of our underage have represented St Patricks at county level over the years. The Underage section continues to expand due the number of new houses in the Parish and is further enhanced by our commitment to promoting Gaelic games in both National Schools.
All Ireland Medallists.
Kevin “Gus” Lenehan
Pat “Red” Collier
Michael McQuillan
Cormac Sullivan
Cormac Murphy
