County: Galway Colours: Blue And White | Nickname: Scans Grounds: Fr. Conroy Park | |
Milltown (Irish: Baile an Mhuilinn) is a Gaelic Athletic Association club based in the Milltown area in County Galway, Ireland which was established in 1953. The Club is one of the longest established sides in Galway. Milltown are a Gaelic football club.
Contents
Twice winners of the Galway Senior Football Championship, Milltown made their first appearance in a county final in 20 years when they faced Killererin GAA at Pearse Stadium in 2007, but were defeated by a scoreline of 1-09 to 0-10.
Past legends include Noel Tierney, one of the greatest full backs in Gaelic football history and a key member of Galways historic "3 In A Row" team.
Other notable players include Gay McManus (captain of Galway in 1982), Sean Brennan, Tony Ryan, Miko Feerick, John and Joe Waldron, Padraig Coyne and Tomàs Tierney (captain of Galway in 1986).
2 Milltown players were part of the Galway Under 21 All-Ireland winning squad in 2002: Diarmaid Blake and John Devane.
3 Milltown players were part of the Galway Under 21 All-Ireland winning squad in 2005: Darren Mullahy, Matthew Flannery and Cathal Blake. In 2011 Mark Hehir became the most recent Milltown person to win an All-Ireland medal when he was part of the Galway Under 21 All-Ireland winning team.
Milltown has always been known for its great underage work and in 2008 the club was awarded a Special Achievement Award by Galway county board this was presented to Padraic Kirrane (Juvenile Chairperson) and Padraig Coyne (Juvenile Secretary).
History
The oldest record of a Milltown Gaa Club dates back as far as 1888 when Milltown John O'Keanes (named after the famous local man who was forced to leave his native country on a Fenian emigrant ship in the late 1860s) played Dunmore McHales on the 6th of April, defeating them 0-4 to 0-1.
By 1901 there was a new club in existence, Milltown Erin's Hope. In a report of a match played on August 17th the Milltown side beat Tuam Emeralds 2-3 to 2-0. It also says that an unnamed Milltown captain called for the Harp for Erin as the referee conducted the toss-up leading to the newly named club.
It wasn't until 1953 that the club was re-established, originally called Milltown St. Malachy's. The first team to represent the newly founded club was a junior side that played Kilconly on the 12th of April 1953, however Kilconly won the game 2-3 to 0-3. On May 17th however, in their second match, they defeated Cortoon Shamrocks in a league game 3-6 to 0-3 at Brownesgrove.
In 1953 they won their first trophy when they beat Ahascragh 1-7 to 2-1 in the Galway Junior North Board Championship Final Replay ( Drawing the first match with seven points each ), however they were stripped of their title and suspended for 12 months for fielding an illegal player, a Co. Longford man who worked as a barman in a pub in Vicar Street, Tuam.
It wasn't until 1961 that Milltown won their first Galway Junior County Championship making history having to win it twice. After winning the North Board final they went straight through to the County final defeating Ballinasloe by 6-8 to 1-2. They didn't play a semi-final as the opposition, Clonbur weren't able to field a team but after an objection, they were given a refixture which Milltown won by 0-10 to 0-2 on New Years Day 1962. This became the first GAA result to be announced on the new RTÉ television channel which was opened that same day.
Ten years later in 1971 they won their first Galway Senior Football Championship beating Ballinasloe 0-4 to 0-5 on the 10th of October in Tuam Stadium.
A decade later they won their second and last Senior County Championship again beating Ballinasloe, with a scoreline of 0-11 to 2-3 on the 22nd of November 1981 in Tuam Stadium.
Honours
(1967, 1978, 1986, 1987, 2007)
Ladies Football
2010, 2014
2012
2006, 2007
2004