A tale of two Celtics

Cavanman's Diary

It’s a commonly-quoted fact that there are only two GAA clubs in Ireland with ‘United’ as their suffix and both are in Cavan, namely Laragh and Ramor. It’s not strictly true, though.

A friend in Kilkenny tells me that there are two Uniteds on Noreside too, namely Carrickshock and Thomastown, although the United part is very rarely used. He suspects there may be a few more around the country who are technically named United but for whom the suffix is, in practice, superfluous.

The discussion got me thinking about some of the wonderful suffixes appended to GAA clubs in Cavan. The Dreadnoughts in Mullahoran is one of the most evocative. That title was first mentioned in the archives of this newspaper 130 years ago this week.

A report on a tournament noted that Abbeylara Davitts had played Ballymachugh Sons of St Patrick in a curtain-raiser; the main event saw Mullahoran Dreadnoughts take on the brilliantly-named Carrick Knights of Freedom. “As the hour was getting late,” the report mentioned, “this was a 30-minute game.”

Mullahoran, captained by Mr B Comesky, won by three points to no score.

The Dreadnoughts is not unique, either – there is one in Louth, albeit it is spelled differently. A suffix that may be unique to Cavan, though, is Celtic. Like Uniteds, we have two of them – Cootehill and Lacken – and both have similar origins and can trace their heritage all the way back to the 1890s.

According to a commemorative booklet put together by the club in 2008, Lacken Celtic GFC “was formed in the 1890s by men who returned from working in Scotland. Great credit is due to these inspirational men who had the vision to start a football club in times of very little.

“They named the club after Glasgow Celtic Football Club and they wore the green and white of that famous club. The home pitch was a field known as the Green on the banks of the River Erne beside Scarvey Bridge. It is thought that the club went out of existence for a few years but it was reformed in 1907.”

The first mention of Lacken Celtic in the archives of The Anglo-Celt comes from April of 1901 in a note advertising an upcoming sports day in Arva. The sports included “football, boat races, hurdle races, tug-of-war, donkey races (the last ass wins) etc” and was organised by Arva Davitts GAC.

The football teams due to attend were listed as Gowna West Breffnies, Lacken Celtics, Mullahoran Dreadnoughts, Legwi Volunteers, Mullinaghta Leaguers, Columbkille St Mary’s, Carrigallen Mandevilles, Drumcarey O’Connells and Dromard O’Briens.

(Mandeville, for the record, was a fairly obscure nationalist in Munster in the mid-19th century. Did he have a connection with Carrigallen? Maybe someone will let us know.)

The Cootehill club, meanwhile, was formed in 1894 at a time when emigration was rife in Cavan, the population of which dropped by 12.85pc between 1891 and 1901.

According to Hugh O’Brien’s excellent official history of the club, a man called McCudden, from a clan of cattle and pig dealers in the town, had left for Glasgow, as did Tommy McBreen, a tailor and another individual with two of the finest nicknames one will hear, Tom ‘The Duster’ ‘Bird-in-the-Hand’ Kelly.

All were fans of Glasgow Celtic as was Micky Lynch, who also had a grá for Belfast Celtic having been reared in that city. After a time, the lads got together and decided to set up a soccer club in Cootehill. Others, though, wanted to establish a Gaelic club and, somewhere along the way, the soccer element got dropped.

The homage to both Celtics remained, though, in the name and the famous green and white hoops. It took 31 years before the club made their first final, losing to Gowna. In 1932, from nowhere, they beat the famed Cornafean to win the Senior League title, with the USA Silver Cup — in the shape of a football — displayed in the window of Jack Smith’s chemist shop in Market Street.

Cootehill’s greatest era came in the mid-1950s. The club won its first Junior Championship in December of 1952 and the following year, they caused a sensation when beating the famous Cornafean Naomh Fionnáin, holders of 19 Senior Championships to that point, in the county final by 3-5 to 0-3.

That Cootehill side went on to win the next two Senior Championship titles before being stunned in the first round by Kingscourt Stars – another dashing suffix there – in the first round.

The Reds of Cornafean went on to win their 20th title but, in the 65 years since, neither of these famous clubs have returned to the winner’s enclosure at the top level.

Lacken have been waiting a while, too, although this year’s achievement of securing two football All-Stars and one camogie Soaring Star award surely felt like a championship victory for the club’s supporters.

The club won its only men’s Senior Championship in 1908. Back then, teams comprised of 17 players. Lacken won out the Western Division by seeing off Cornafean in the divisional final at the Showgrounds in Cavan and went on to win the final, on June 27 1909, by 0-7 to 0-3 against Lavey Joe Biggars in Crosserlough.

Now into their third centuries, both Celtics' – who met in the Intermediate Championship final nine years ago - are going strong where many of the clubs they competed against in the early days have disappeared into the ether. 

Main pic: Kieran Fox of Cootehill Celtic and Micheál Shanaghy of Lacken Celtic contest possession in the 2012 Intermdiate Championship final. Pic: Adrian Donohoe