Rathkeale GAA Club

Rathkeale GAA Club, formerly known as St Marys\Sean Finns until recent years, was founded in 1885. We are a male and female club for all ages, playing in the colours of blue and white. Our home venue is called the Bog Garden which has gone through extensive development including an expansive drainage process in recent times.

We have enjoyed great success over the years, dating as far back as 1968 when we were crowned West Junior Hurling and Football Champions. After a few successful years in the early 90’s we are once again enjoying a purple patch in more recent times when we won the County Junior A Football title in 2009. This was quickly followed by the Intermediate County Title in 2013 and then went onto enjoy our Senior Football status for the following four seasons. We also enjoyed some great days out at U21 level and after knocking on the door for a couple of seasons we eventually won the U21 Premier Football Championship in 2013.

Switching code to hurling, Rathkeale finally bridged a 49-year gap to bring home the West Junior A Hurling title in 2017.

Rathkeale have also enjoyed many titles at Bord na nOg and Minor level over the years and are consistently up there with the very best of teams in what is a very strong Bord na nOg structure. Our most recent success at Bord na nOg level was when our U14 Footballers were crowned Limerick Champions in the County Feile Peile na nOg. They then went on to have a very successful tournament, when representing Limerick in the overall Feile Peile na nOg tournament, which was held in Kilmovee, County Mayo, in June 2019.

2018 was also a very good year for Rathkeale on the Inter County scene. Our Kate Geary won the All Ireland Junior Football title with the Limerick ladies and of course Joe O’Connor was an instrumental figure as coach of the Limerick Senior Hurling team and played a vital role in securing the Liam McCarthy Cup for the first time since 1973.

Rathkeale have also had a long tradition of refereeing at the highest of levels. Men like Sean Fitzgerald (RIP) and Neil Duggan have both refereed All-Ireland senior finals while Martin Doherty is well respected at a National Level. Also, well respected at a National Level, was the much-loved Shane Hourigan who was tragically taken from us in recent time.

Our Club sponsor is Sean Hennessy of Sean Hennessy’s Electrical. Over the years Sean has been fantastic and has donated generously to the Club, with that we would like to take this opportunity to thank Sean for his contributions and hopefully it is a partnership that will build over the coming years.

Our committee team is led by James O’Connor (Chairman), Pat Sheahan (Secretary) and Mary Liston (Treasurer), no doubt they would like it said that they won’t be involved within the Club forever so we are always looking for new, young faces to take up the baton. There is a role for everyone, no matter how big or small the job is. We look forward to seeing you at the next AGM!

Finally, to keep in touch and receive updates of last-minute fixture changes, match results and live match updates, follow us on Twitter at the tag @RathkealeGAA. Also, become a friend on Facebook by simply liking our page! It’s all about keeping in touch and getting live updates!

Address\Home Pitch: The Bog Garden, Rathkeale, Co. Limerick
Contact: Pat Sheahan, Secretary. Telephone (086) 883 5425