Offaly GAA Club launches Golden Jubilee Celebrations

2023 will be a historic year for Raheen GAA Club as they celebrate the 50th anniversary of their foundation in 1973.

Catering for the wider Geashill and Cloneygowan areas, Raheen was named after the townsland half way between both villages.

While there had been a rich tradition of gaelic games in the area going back to the early 1900s and both Geashill and Cloneygowan GAA Clubs had very strong clubs for years, they both drifted off the scene.

In the years leading up to Raheen's formation, there was no Geashill or Cloneygowan club. There was a very strong St Mary's senior football team, catering for the entire Killeigh parish – St Mary's won the Senior Football Championship in 1950 while they combined with Gracefield to win as St Patrick's in 1959.

Footballers from Geashill and Cloneygowan were outstanding performers on those excellent sides but amazingly, there was no club to cater for junior players in either area in the early 1970s. Instead, they played with either Ballinagar or Killeigh and this prompted the 1973 foundation of Raheen.

They have enjoyed considerable success since then and had three members on the Offaly panel that won the All-Ireland Senior Football Championship title in 1982, John Guinan, Martin Fitzpatrick and Hughie Bolton.

The club have planned a number of activities over the coming months to mark their golden jubilee. These include fundraising ventures and will culminate with a big gala dinner dance in Tullamore's Bridge House Hotel on Friday, November 17.

Their celebrations will start on Easter Sunday, April 89 with a “50 miles for 50 years” fundraising cycle from Cloneygowan to Longford for Offaly's Leinster Senior Football Championship opener.

They have a full club weekend of celebrations lined up for April 28-30. Their first team in 1973 will be honoured on Friday, April 28 before a Division 3 Football League game against St Brigid's in Geashill.

They have a healthy club day on Saturday, April 29 with the official opening of their track and gym, unveiling of a remembrance bench and burying of a time capsule. They will host a family fun day on the Sunday with a barbeque, boys and girls football matches, a fair, vintage tractors and tug of war.

A club trip on the Shannon will take place from Killaloe on Tuesday, July 18 and a fundraising golf classic is pencilled in for either September or October.

Details of their celebrations were outlined at a reception in Dirreen's, Cloneygowan last Friday evening with club chairman John Hackett saying: “It is a big year for us. We have had some great times over the last fifty years and we want everyone to take part and be involved in our celebrations.”