Founded: 1961 Colours: Blue and White | County: Monaghan | |
Grounds: Páirc Mhuire, Scotstown | ||
Scotstown GAA (Irish: CLG An Bhoth) is a Gaelic football and ladies' Gaelic football club in Scotstown, County Monaghan, Ireland which represents the Parish of Tydavnet. Although no precise date has been recorded for the foundation of the club, Gaelic games have been played in the parish since at least the nineteenth century. One of the earliest written accounts of a Scotstown club appearing in a January 1890 edition of The People's Advocate newspaper and a game against neighbours Ballinode. Various clubs came and went in the parish over the first half of the twentieth century with Scotstown winning a Monaghan Junior Football League title in 1933, Tydavnet won a Monaghan Junior Championship in 1935, and Knockatallon secured a Monaghan Junior Football League in 1944. The parish was represented intermittently up until the late 1950s by these three clubs, with all three struggling in the face of emigration and unemployment.
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The club finally made the breakthrough at Senior level in the county after Tydavnet and Scotstown amalgamated before going on to win the Monaghan Senior Football Championship for the first time in 1960. The Knockatallon club threw their lot in with their parish neighbours shortly afterwards, and this united Tydavnet Parish club went on to unprecedented success in Monaghan and Ulster over the coming decades.
The most successful period in the history of the club was during the late 1970s and early 1980s, when the club won three Ulster Senior Club Football Championships in a row. They reached the Senior All-Ireland club final in 1979, losing to Nemo Rangers. A fourth Senior Ulster club title was secured in 1989 against Coalisland Na Fianna. The club won their fourteenth Monaghan Senior Football title in 1993, but a barren period followed over the next two decades. The measure of success during that period was that the club were able to preserve their Senior status throughout. The drought was finally ended with another Senior Championship win in 2013, followed by more success in 2015 and 2016.
The club have a long tradition of producing able administrators including Seán McCague, President of the Gaelic Athletic Association from 2000–03, and the current Director General of the GAA, Paraic Duffy.
Scotstown GAA play their home fixtures at Páirc Mhuire/Saint Mary's Park, half a mile to the north-east of the village of Scotstown. Facilities at the ground include dressing rooms, meeting room, sports complex, covered stand, social club and a handball alley. The club training grounds are located at Kilmore East, between the villages of Scotstown and Ballinode. Facilities at the training grounds include dressing rooms, a full-sized Prunty pitch, two smaller training pitches and a perimeter walking/running track.