Rathangan GAA

Rathangan GAA Club is a Gaelic football club based in Rathangan, County Kildare, Ireland. It was founded in 1888 and had many difficulties early on as there were many different local teams in the parish. For the first official games played by Rathangan the prize for the winning team was ½ a barrel of porter!

Royal Irish Constabulary records from 1890 show that Rathangan Wolfe Tones had 70 members with officers listed as George Cullen, RH Kelly and Edward Henry while the Coolelan and Dromoreal James Leahys had 50 members, with James Cassidy, Denis Dunne, Thomas Byrne and John Colmey listed as officers. Kilmoney sons of St Patrick also had a club affiliated in 1890 with officers Joseph Foynes and Christy Holohan listed as attending the 1889 convention. Rathangan participated in the reorganisation of 1894.

In fact the first official game played by Rathangan was against Thomas Davis's of Dublin in Dawson's Field in 1905. From that first game Rathangan were reasonably successful until the team disbanded in 1910. There was no organised team for the next 7 years until the club was reformed and began to grow in strength. It was just 3 years later when Rathangan got their first taste of major success when in 1920 they won the Junior Championship.

With that success under their belt Rathangan started to look for more titles. One of the best periods in Rathangan GAA history was to follow when in 1922 they won their first Leinster Leader Cup. In 1925 they had what a lot of people in Rathangan consider their most outstanding year to date. Not only did the team win the Leinster Leader Cup again but they also added their only Senior Championship.

During this period Rathangan had many representatives on the County Kildare team and indeed the Leinster GAA teams. In 1928 Kildare were the first county to win the coveted Sam Maguire Cup. On the panel was a Rathangan native, Joseph O'Reilly, who started playing in goals for Rathangan in 1919.

The mid-1950s saw the arrival of seven a-side football and the Rathangan team of this era had few equals, winning titles not only in the county but in Leinster also. It was not unusual to see Rathangan defeating inter-county teams and Railway Cup selections.

In 1969 the intermediate league was captured with more success to follow in 1970 when they won the Junior A title. 1970 also saw the club win their first minor league followed by another title in 1975. The 1970s saw very successful period for Rathangan. They were beaten finalists in four intermediate championships but won the under 20 championship in 1973 and in 1977 they won the under 21 championship. Following into the 1980s the club regained their Senior status by winning the intermediate title.

During this decade the Junior Squad were also beginning to show their mettle winning Division 5 in 1982. This was followed in by the Division 4 title in 1983 and then the Division 3 championship in 1984. This was an amazing run that saw Rathangan go unbeaten in 36 league games.

In more recent times, Rathangan GAA have been selected to play in the very successful RTÉ production Celebrity Bainisteoir. They will be magaged by Today FM DJ Ray D'Arcy.