National Forum

Smallest Club In Each County

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Replying To Southsham:  "Was thinking the same myself, think they are up a Junior A in Football now"
Junior A now was Junior B until.last year. The Junior A up to last year is now the Premier Junior.

johnocarroll17 (Limerick) - Posts: 408 - 08/09/2021 22:02:46    2378923

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Replying To Southsham:  "Was thinking the same myself, think they are up a Junior A in Football now"
And Camogue Rovers would be a feeder club for Bruff

johnocarroll17 (Limerick) - Posts: 408 - 08/09/2021 22:04:42    2378925

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St Josephs Kilteevan the smallest in Roscommon and i think very close to being the smallest in Ireland if not the smallest.

Nearly went in 2017 - 2018 but have made huge strides again and recently upgraded their dressing rooms only about 40 members in the club but have some heart. Played my home club in last years quarter final and were beaten in extra time.

Coming from one of the larger clubs in Roscommon i love going to games involving smaller clubs there is just something special about them

Tarismelting22 (Roscommon) - Posts: 760 - 09/09/2021 09:43:57    2378970

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Replying To johnocarroll17:  "Junior A now was Junior B until.last year. The Junior A up to last year is now the Premier Junior."
Premier Junior #notions :)

Southsham (Limerick) - Posts: 738 - 09/09/2021 10:28:35    2378981

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Replying To Jimmy192:  "There may be some clubs in South Mayo that have smaller catchment areas/population - Similar to North Mayo there are a lot of smaller clubs right beside one another."
Didn't the islands (Inishturk mostly) have a team for a while? Think they play with Louisburgh now.

Gleebo (Mayo) - Posts: 2208 - 09/09/2021 10:30:12    2378982

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You'd have a hard enough job determining the smallest club in Leitrim... there's at least 6 clubs that might fit the bill... IMO Cloone, Drumreilly, Glenfarne, Aughnasheelin, Eslin, Ballinaglera... even at that there could be some argument and other clubs you could add to that list.

Square_B (Leitrim) - Posts: 844 - 09/09/2021 14:50:58    2379083

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I think in Fermanagh it would have to be Coa O Dwyers, consistently play junior in Fermanagh. Current Fermanagh player Eoin Donnelly plays for Coa O Dwyers. Outside of that, I believe it is a few townlands and a bar.

Itown1234 (Fermanagh) - Posts: 35 - 09/09/2021 15:10:04    2379091

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Have to love the inverted bragging; "My club is smaller than your club".

Another funny few things you always see when a small club wins a county championship and goes on a provincial run:

1. The club's population will get referenced in every interview and match report.
2. With every round the club wins, the population cited in match reports will get smaller and smaller. Sometimes I worry that by the time they reach the final the parish will be totally depopulated.
3. Bonus points if they start overegging it and adding various qualifiers and extra hardships with things like "Yerra sure there's only 25 playing age men from the parish and most of those are in Australia. We didn't even know if we'd have 15 players for the All Ireland final...."

CastleBravo (Meath) - Posts: 1644 - 09/09/2021 15:20:50    2379096

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Replying To Jimmy192:  "There may be some clubs in South Mayo that have smaller catchment areas/population - Similar to North Mayo there are a lot of smaller clubs right beside one another."
I wonder how Ballyhaunis compares in terms of area? Eastern Gales, Aghamore/Tooreen and the Roscommon boarder are all pretty close to the town.

Doritos (Mayo) - Posts: 64 - 09/09/2021 15:31:13    2379098

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Replying To MicktheMiller:  "Interesting point about Ballinabrackey, I have seen it on roadway signs, but never got to visit. Clonmore Harps are probably Offaly's smallest club, they have a few townlands on the Offaly Meath border.
They are not in Rhode parish, but combine with Rhode and St. Brigid's at underage level.
Lusmagh, Clareen Seir Kieran, are other small clubs in the hurling part of the county. Daingean have 4 clubs in the parish. It must be an Offaly thing, as there are 3 football teams in Killeigh parish, and one parish wide hurling team. Clonbullogue parish also boasts 3 football clubs."
Actually some of clonmore harps town lands are in the aforementioned ballinabrackey parish.

royaldunne (Meath) - Posts: 19449 - 09/09/2021 16:02:23    2379108

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Replying To MesAmis:  "Nice trivia but a quick look on Google Maps suggests that it is not true."
Ok so please inform me as to the road. And be mindful that this is where I grew up, went to school, courted , farmed, worked etc. Show me the road from trim ,navan, kells, ashbourne, etc where you do not cross into another county . I'm genuinely interested.

royaldunne (Meath) - Posts: 19449 - 09/09/2021 16:05:06    2379111

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Replying To Pikeman96:  "Couldn't resist having a look myself :)

It can be done all right. You'd be using narrow back roads, but those roads are still in Meath."
A impossible thing to do. The closest place is clonard but even using back roads you leave Meath briefly

royaldunne (Meath) - Posts: 19449 - 09/09/2021 16:06:39    2379112

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Replying To The_Fonz:  "According to google maps you can. You can go from Clonard, through Tircroughan onto Ballinabrackey via local roads all with the boundary of Meath."
To be clear I wasn't speaking of clonard who we'd consider as our nearest parish (we were amalgamated in 80s at certain levels). Btw the road you used would also leave the county, there is a way from clonard but it's not that one. But go on find me one from kells , trim, Enfield, ashbourne, rathoath, navan nobbet

royaldunne (Meath) - Posts: 19449 - 09/09/2021 16:09:54    2379114

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Replying To The_Fonz:  "According to google maps you can. You can go from Clonard, through Tircroughan onto Ballinabrackey via local roads all with the boundary of Meath."
Wouldn't believe everything google maps tell ya.

royaldunne (Meath) - Posts: 19449 - 09/09/2021 16:10:20    2379115

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Replying To Doritos:  "I wonder how Ballyhaunis compares in terms of area? Eastern Gales, Aghamore/Tooreen and the Roscommon boarder are all pretty close to the town."
Area wise they might be close to the smallest: https://www.mayogaablog.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/02/Mayo-GAA-clubs.jpg.

Of course the island clubs of Clare Island and InishTurk would be the smallest, completely missed them. Neither field adult teams, I'm pretty sure the Clare Islanders play with Louisburgh. There was a piece in the Western People about them in the run up to the Connaught final this year. There is a pitch that they use for all-island competitions and schools games, never been though.

Jimmy192 (Mayo) - Posts: 107 - 09/09/2021 16:23:16    2379120

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Replying To royaldunne:  "To be clear I wasn't speaking of clonard who we'd consider as our nearest parish (we were amalgamated in 80s at certain levels). Btw the road you used would also leave the county, there is a way from clonard but it's not that one. But go on find me one from kells , trim, Enfield, ashbourne, rathoath, navan nobbet"
[url=]https://www.google.ie/maps/dir/Clonard/Ballinabrackey/@53.4304972,-7.1021061,13z/am=t/data=!4m14!4m13!1m5!1m1!1s0x485d8c2e5b4c2f7b:0xa00c7a99731a3a0!2m2!1d-7.0231073!2d53.4515329!1m5!1m1!1s0x485d919f82632c8f:0x2222f5ecdac451e3!2m2!1d-7.1331525!2d53.4162082!3e0?hl=en

Apologies for the huge link but there's the route on Google maps going from Clonard to Ballinabrackey without leaving Meath. I've even driven it myself so don't try to say the roads somehow don't exist.

As for reaching it from Trim; you head to Killyon and then cut down to Clonard and then follow the above route.
For Navan, you drive to Trim before following the above route.
For Nobber, you drive to Navan before following the above route.
etc. etc.

CastleBravo (Meath) - Posts: 1644 - 09/09/2021 16:36:36    2379126

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Replying To Doritos:  "I wonder how Ballyhaunis compares in terms of area? Eastern Gales, Aghamore/Tooreen and the Roscommon boarder are all pretty close to the town."
The club, on the Knock Road is about 1/4 of a mile from Eastern Gaels border which includes Bekan and Brickens. Knock is in the Aughamore club area. I think Kilkelly is too? Not sure if Tooreen is strictly in the Aughamore club area though many Tooreen hurlers play football for Tooreen. Tooreen hurling club had plenty of Ballyhaunis hurlers until they split. We're close to the Roscommon border and Michael Glaveys club borders us on that side

GreenandRed (Mayo) - Posts: 7345 - 09/09/2021 16:41:14    2379130

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Rochestown probably the smallest one in Cork. They field one junior C football team...no underage...hard to know where they even get the players from anymore...Pat McAuliffe (RIP) did trajan work to keep them alive..Anyone underage in Rochestown plays with Douglas..if they bother with Gaeilic sports at all...St John's in the county also have only one side..based in very rural Aubane/Ballingree..Goleen, Garnish,Glengarriff are also tiny but have some underage structures

bennybunny (Cork) - Posts: 3917 - 09/09/2021 17:01:54    2379139

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Replying To royaldunne:  "Ok so please inform me as to the road. And be mindful that this is where I grew up, went to school, courted , farmed, worked etc. Show me the road from trim ,navan, kells, ashbourne, etc where you do not cross into another county . I'm genuinely interested."
Take the left after Paddy's Bar in Clonard, you can stay within Meath border and work your way south west to Ballinabrackey with a few twists and turns. Its doable, County borders shown very clearly on Google maps as well as Road Atlas of Ireland I just checked here. It is far from the most direct route but it is doable.

Also the Meath/Westmeath border is shown to be just beyond the roundabout between Clonard and Kinnegad so if you take the left at that roundabout and take the R401 south you can make it to Ballinabrackey without leaving your beloved Meath.

MesAmis (Dublin) - Posts: 13707 - 09/09/2021 19:19:47    2379166

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Replying To Gaa Fan:  "Valentia, Co. Kerry
Area: 25.7 km2 (9.9 sq mi)
Length: 11 km (6.8 mi)
Population: 6oo"
I heard Kilmoyley in North Kerry has a population of only 450 people.

Tiny tiny hurling club but they produce some very good hurlers and have won a lot of kerry hurling championships however then keep it going.

Can't be easy.

Past hurler (None) - Posts: 726 - 09/09/2021 20:34:57    2379178

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