{"id":3108,"date":"2018-10-17T02:36:23","date_gmt":"2018-10-17T02:36:23","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/rahenyshamrock.ie\/?p=3108"},"modified":"2018-10-17T22:54:30","modified_gmt":"2018-10-17T22:54:30","slug":"how-a-shamrock-was-planted","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/rahenyshamrock.ie\/?p=3108","title":{"rendered":"How A Shamrock Was Planted"},"content":{"rendered":"

The archives have been raided once more as we look back on how our club became, now\u00a060-years ago<\/em><\/p>\n

The late 1950\u2019s a time just before great change was to occur in Irish society.<\/p>\n

DeValera was Taoiseach, the area between the Howth Road and Sutton Cross was a very barren place.<\/p>\n

There was no Kilbarrack or Bayside, in fact the opposite side of Foxfield road was the parish of Baldoyle.<\/p>\n

Archbishop McQuaid ruled the City and county with an iron fist. Women were not allowed to compete competitively at sport in Dublin.<\/p>\n

All Roman Catholic\u2019s attending Trinity College had to receive permission from the Archbishop.<\/p>\n

RTE existed but without the \u201cT\u201d making it Raido Eireann.<\/p>\n

A massive split existed in Irish Athletic\u2019s between the NACAI and the AAU.<\/p>\n

Two years earlier in Melbourne, Ronnie Delaney won Ireland\u2019s first Olympic gold medal and to this date only track & field gold medal.<\/p>\n

On August seventh 1958 Delaney led the home challenge in an international mile meet in Santry Stadium. That night five men would break four minutes for a mile, a fete that just four years earlier was considered humanly impossible.<\/p>\n

One Month and one day after the historic event\u2019s in Santry, Paddy Boland, called a meeting with the intention of forming an Athletic Club.<\/p>\n

Boland a Liberties native moved to Raheny a year earlier, due to a love for the area he acquired through his involvement with horses.<\/p>\n

Paddy\u2019s own athletic career began with St. Francis Athletic Club. An ankle injury and a heavy work schedule ensured Paddy\u2019s athletic career was cut short.<\/p>\n

On his arrival in Raheny, Boland, noted that there was very little for young men to do and with this in mind, Boland decided that Raheny needed an athletic club.<\/p>\n

At the time, Naomh Mhuire were the local athletic club, however had just a small number of members.<\/p>\n

Boland decided to set up his own athletic club. On his way to work one morning Boland met Donore Harriers coach Eugene O\u2019Leary and outlined his plans.<\/p>\n

\u201cEugene was fairly sceptical due to Naomh Mhuire\u2019s small membership\u201d explained Boland, \u201cbut I believed that there were other factors contributing to this small membership.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI arranged for a meeting to be held on September eighth 1958 in what was the cottage on Main Street\u201d Boland explained.<\/p>\n

\u201cI placed the poster in the front window and dropped around 100 leaflets regarding the meeting to houses in the area.\u201d<\/p>\n

To Paddy\u2019s surprise and to shock Eugene over 30 Men would assembly in the cottage that night.<\/p>\n

The meeting in the cottage would begin at 9.15pm and run until 11.30pm. The meeting decided the club name, colours, committee and importantly the association membership.<\/p>\n

\u201cI went into the meeting and wanted the club to be called Shamrock A.C\u201d explains Boland, \u201cHowever it was pointed out that a Shamrock A.C existed in Cork.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThen it was pointed out that Newry Shamrock also existed, so Matt Gahan proposed the name Raheny Shamrock Athletic Club\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cI actually voted for Paul O\u2019Connor\u2019s preference of Raheny Athletic Club as I felt this covered the area correctly.\u201d<\/p>\n

In total there were seven names proposed, the two above, along with Watermill A.C, Foxhall A.C, St.Assam\u2019s Harriers, All Saints Athletic Club and Elimount Harriers.<\/p>\n

In the ensuing debate, it was decided to withdraw the five other names as Raheny Shamrock A.C and Raheny A.C embraced all districts.<\/p>\n

It was also decided the club would join the 32 county organisation the National Athletics and Cycling Association of Ireland (NACAI), over the 26 county but mainly Dublin based AAU.<\/p>\n

\u201cI invited Dermott Cullen of Naomh Mhuire to speak at the meeting about joining the NACAI and also a Clonliffe Harriers representive to speak about the benefits of AAU membership\u201d Boland explained.<\/p>\n

The colours were decided to be Green and White with the design and crest to be left to the incoming committee. The green was emanating from the club\u2019s name, \u201cShamrock\u201d.<\/p>\n

The committee was chosen as follows;<\/p>\n

Chairman Kevin Waters, Secretary Paddy Boland, Treasurer Garda Kevin Conroy, Captain Hugh Hardy and Vice-Captain Paul O\u2019Connor. Dick Doherty, Frank Quinn and M.Morrisroe were also elected to the committee.<\/p>\n

Eugene O\u2019Leary was co-opted onto the committee at a later date as he had to resign his membership of Donore Harriers.<\/p>\n

The new committee embarked on a serious of nine committee meetings for club business and numerous meetings regarding the rules of the club before the year end.<\/p>\n

The second meeting took place two weeks later, this time in Paddy Boland\u2019s home of 32 Avondale Park.<\/p>\n

This meeting decided that parish priest Rev.Dr.Fritzpatrick should be invited to become Club president.<\/p>\n

Hugh Hardy successfully proposed the club singlet would be white with an Emerald Green Hoop and Emerald green shorts.<\/p>\n

Paul Meehan designed the club\u2019s crest, which was a modern two tone shamrock. Subscriptions would be 2\/6 for under 20\u2019s and \u00a35 for seniors.<\/p>\n

On October 13th the first club singlets were ordered from Elvery\u2019s of Dame Street.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe had one very strict rule regarding the club\u2019s singlet and shorts\u201d explains Boland.<\/p>\n

\u201cAthletes could not race for the club without wearing the full kit. Also everyone purchased a tracksuit, singlet and shorts.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cOnce they achieved a certain status we gave them the club crest for their singlet, then when they achieved the second standard, we gave them a second crest for their tracksuit\u201d explained Boland.<\/p>\n

Training was set for Tuesday and Thursday nights at 7.30pm, Saturdays at 2.30pm and Sunday\u2019s at 11am.<\/p>\n

It was delegated to Eugene O\u2019Leary to ask for the use of the Parish Pavilion for training, However Dick Doherty approached Fr.Ryan who agreed to this, once R.S.A.C\u2019s training did not clash with Raheny GAA club.<\/p>\n

A short time later Fr.Ryan told Paddy Boland that Raheny Shamrock could not use the pavilion, this was due to \u201cIf the athletics club had access to the pavilion, then it would allow the parish soccer team the same access.\u201d<\/p>\n

The first training session scheduled for October 16th<\/sup> 1958 was in fact cancelled, as a mark of respect to the passing of Pope Pius XII.<\/p>\n

The club would host their first race in November 58, the club novice cross country See HERE<\/a><\/p>\n

Afterward, Paddy Noonan complained to the club committee as he did not know where the finish was.<\/p>\n

Noonan asked the chairman to hold an investigation and if he was correct, the race should then be awarded to him, this proposal was defeated at the committee meeting.<\/p>\n

Paul O\u2019Connor also reported that Hugh Hardy was not present at training. Hardy then resigned from his position as club captain and was replaced by Paul O\u2019Connor with Peter O\u2019Reilly becoming vice-captain.<\/p>\n

Paul\u2019s first action as captain would be to report Tom O\u2019Leary for not taking part in the stretching exercises.<\/p>\n

The first Christmas of the club would see the beginning of the traditional Christmas race period.<\/p>\n

The first proposal was a run to the Clontarf orthopedic hospital on Christmas day.<\/p>\n

However Clontarf hospital declined the offer as they could not agree a time to accept the club, as St. Vincent De Paul also paid a visit to the hospital.<\/p>\n

It was then agreed to hold a 3 Mile road race on St.Stephen\u2019s Day with \u00a325 being awarded between first and second.<\/p>\n

And that was just the first three months of the club!<\/p>\n

Tickets are available for the club\u2019s 60th<\/sup> anniversary dinner dance on November 9 \u2013 details here<\/a><\/p>\n\"Facebook\"<\/a>\"twitter\"<\/a>\"reddit\"<\/a>\"pinterest\"<\/a>\"linkedin\"<\/a>\"tumblr\"<\/a>\"mail\"<\/a>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The archives have been raided once more as we look back on how our club became, now\u00a060-years ago The late 1950\u2019s a time just before great change was to occur in Irish society. DeValera was Taoiseach, the area between the Howth Road and Sutton Cross was a very barren place. There was no Kilbarrack or Bayside, in fact the opposite side of Foxfield road was the parish of Baldoyle. Archbishop…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3108","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-latest-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/rahenyshamrock.ie\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3108","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/rahenyshamrock.ie\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/rahenyshamrock.ie\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rahenyshamrock.ie\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rahenyshamrock.ie\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3108"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/rahenyshamrock.ie\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3108\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3114,"href":"https:\/\/rahenyshamrock.ie\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3108\/revisions\/3114"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/rahenyshamrock.ie\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3108"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rahenyshamrock.ie\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3108"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rahenyshamrock.ie\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3108"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}