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Ballinacurra Gaels 45th Birthday celebration pay tribute to those visionaries who founded the club 45 years ago Ballinacurra Gaels 45th Birthday celebration pay tribute to those visionaries who founded the club 45 years ago

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Ballinacurra Gaels 45th Birthday celebration pay tribute to those visionaries who founded the club 45 years ago

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Ballinacurra Gaels 45th Birthday celebration – BCG Boys U12 1983 pictured above

Ballinacurra Gaels 45th Birthday celebration takes place Wednesday, November 6, 2024 at The Blue Bar, Punches Cross

Ballinacurra Gaels 45th Birthday celebration pay tribute to those visionaries who founded the club 45 years ago

Ballinacurra Gaels GAA and LGFA Club are planning to celebrate the GAA club’s 45th anniversary with a gathering at The Blue Bar, Punches Cross on Wednesday, November 6th and all members past and present are welcome.

To pay tribute to those visionaries who founded the club 45 years ago, and to acknowledge the work of countless others along the way, the club committee would love to see many current and former players, supporters and neighbours in The Blue Bar from 7pm on the night.  There will be memorabilia on display to encourage the sharing of memories and stories and give people the chance to catch up with each other, and with the club’s more recent activities. Some special silverware will provide nice photo opportunities as well.

Ballinacurra Gaels was founded in 1979 to meet the sporting needs of the younger generations in the newer estates of Ballinacurra Gardens, Roundwood & Lifford Gardens as well as the long established Ballinacurra Road, Greenfields & South Circular Road and over time has expanded to welcome young players from other areas including Ashbourne Ave, Prospect, Hyde Road, Ballinacurra Weston, Janesboro, Southill, and Rosbrien.


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The first Chairperson of the club was the well-known GAA historian Seamus O’Ceallaigh, who many will remember by his pen name “Camán” in his weekly newspaper columns. At the club’s first AGM, held in 1980, Ms Dinah Sheehan was elected Chairperson and Ms Sheehan is widely believed to have been the first female club chairperson in the GAA.

Shortly after its founding in 1979 Ballinacurra Gaels had 150 boys and 40 girls on the club register. Boys’ teams competed from U12 to U16 and there were girls’ teams at U14 & U16 in Camogie. The club enjoyed huge success in the 1980’s and 1990’s, winning a total of nine County Championships and 64 city titles in that period, with the 1999 County U21 Hurling title a particular highlight.

In recent years Ballinacurra Gaels have introduced Ladies Gaelic Football and have already close to 100 girls involved.

Ballinacurra Gaels GAA has a proud history of welcoming children and their families from all backgrounds and encourages everyone to get involved in the running of the club. Currently boasting strong membership of players, parents, volunteers and club supporters and regularly hosts events both on and off the pitch such as the Nature and History Walk, Team Limerick Clean Up, Bike Week Parade, Spooky Halloween events. Well established in its community, Ballincurra Gaels has forged links with other sports clubs in the area and with the local residents’ associations as well as with Munster Wheelchair Hurling, Paul Partnership, Dochas and Mary Immaculate College.

The current chairperson, Eoin Buckley, said “The club is looking forward to celebrating 45 wonderful years of bringing GAA to the community around the southside of Limerick City and hope many friends will join us in The Blue Bar, Punches Cross, on Nov 6th from 7pm. Feel free to bring along any Ballinacurra Gaels memorabilia to show on the night”.

Further information can be had from [email protected]

Richard is a presenter, producer, songwriter and actor. He was named the Limerick Person of the Year (2011) and won an online award at the Metro Éireann Media and Multicultural Awards (2011) for promoting multi-culturalism online. Richard says that the ilovelimerick.com concept is very much a community driven project that aims to document life in Limerick. So, that in 20 years time people can look back and remember the events that were making the headlines.