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Celtic
News
Match reports available.....[here]
Clonmel Celtic Archive Section.....
[here]
Top
Scorers available....[here]
Player Profiles.....[here]
Celtic latest news section....[news]
Site
Created 20/08/2004
Website created and
updated by Danny Madigan
Latest News by
John Power (Club PRO)
Please send any
suggestions or comments to
clonmelceltic@hotmail.com
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History of Clonmel Celtic Football Club
Below is a short account of how Clonmel Celtic came about. There are
paragraphs on Clonmel Celtic, Clonmel Evergreen, St. Olivers and St.
Martins, all of which were instrumental in the creation of Clonmel
Celtic. There is also a family tree to explain visually how the club
was formed.
Select the Club History that you would like to view:
Clonmel Celtic
St. Olivers Boys
Clonmel Evergreen
St. Martins
Clonmel Celtic's Family Tree
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Clonmel Celtic History
In July 2003 representatives from Clonmel Evergreen and St Olivers
Boys met to consider the possibility of both clubs amalgamating.
The meeting was held in a community house in Elm Park and present on
behalf of Evergreen were Michael McArdle, Gussy Sweetman and Noel
Meaney while John Power, Karl Condon and Richie Kiely represented St
Olivers Boys. Also there as facilitators, for want of a better word,
were Marion Smiles and Eileen Anderson from RAPID (Revitalising Areas
by Planning, Investment and Development). One of the action plans of
the Rapid programme is to support organisations expand their sports
and recreational facilities and both Marion and Eileen saw the formation
of a new club based in the west side of Clonmel as contributing to this.
Both girls made themselves available if the amalgamation talks ran into
difficulty but both clubs were committed to the new venture and August
2003 saw Clonmel Celtic participate in the Tipperary Southern & District
League for the first time.
Both St Olivers Boys and Clonmel Evergreen were well established junior
teams in Clonmel. In 1998 St Olivers and St Martins merged to form St
Olivers Boys. For the past few years the team had been trying to acquire
their own playing facilities but to no avail. A very decent junior team
did result from the merger and this team grew in strength and began to
compete well with the more established clubs in Tipperary like St Michaels
and Clonmel Town. Indeed the team did come close to a title in 2002
finishing runners up. Clonmel Evergreen for their part were a strong unit
during the nineties and also came close to winning the league but again
Town and Michaels seemed to be always there to deny them silverware.
However they did purchase their own playing pitch from Clonmel Og on the
Clonmel Bypass near the Fethard Rd Roundabout. Unfortunately on the pitch
the junior team hit bad times, which saw them relegated from the Premier
League for the first time. They did have a very promising youth team. So
a well-established junior team, a youth team with a lot of potential and
a fine soccer pitch were all factors, which made the amalgamation an
attractive option. Clonmel Celtic’s first year in competition was a
memorable one with the youths winning the Munster Youth’s Cup and the club
being awarded government grants of up to €200,000 to help develop their
own facilities. For the historians among us lets delve into the past and
have a look at the history of the teams that now make up Clonmel Celtic
FC.
Back To Top
St Olivers Boys.
The story of St Olivers Boys seems to be one long story of amalgamations
which can be traced all the way back to 1977. In that year Clonmel
Rangers combined with Elm Park United to form Elm Park Rangers. The club
used the Elm Park community pitch and drew a large volume of players form
far and wide. They also built up a large support base in their own
immediate area. Founder members of Elm Park Rangers were Danny and Richie
Gibbons and Michael Lynch who felt that the northern part of Clonmel was
devoid of a soccer team and they also realised the potential in the largely
populated residential area. Their ambitions were realised in the first
year when they beat old rival Clonmel Hibs in a Shield Final with captain
John Smith scoring the winning goal. They won promotion to the 1st Division
many times but failed to make the mark. They appeared in several cup and
shield finals, but lady luck did not always smile on them. They seemed to
be labelled with the tag ‘All the bridesmaids never the bride’. However,
their fortune changed in the 1989/90 shield final when they won the 2nd
Division Shield final with a victory over Knocklong. A beauty of a free
kick won the day for Elm Park Rangers and it was a proud Ned Cullinane who
received the 2nd Division Shield from league chairman Gay Lowry. They had
a constant reservoir of young players coming through their schoolboy and
youth ranks and in the early nineties they changed their name to St
Olivers. The nineties were a decade of huge success for the schoolboy and
youth teams and the club soon developed a reputation for their under age
talent. Unfortunately, although the junior side tasted promotion a few
times, they were never serious challengers for the Premier League. The
club never seemed able to hold onto to their youths and this had a
detrimental effect on the junior team. In 1998 St Olivers joined with St
Martins to form St Olivers Boys and more and more youths seemed to stay
with the club, which saw St Olivers Boys become a very respected outfit in
the Tipperary League.
Back To Top
Clonmel Evergreen
Clonmel Evergreen FC was established in 1978 and developed into a very
successful team in the TS.D.L. The club carved out its own special area
in the soccer stronghold of Clonmel. From its beginning it was fortunate
to have talented players at its disposal. It won the 3rd division in
convincing fashion in the 1979-80 season. It has the proud achievement of
gaining promotion to the Premier Division in two successive seasons. They
quickly established themselves as a major force in the Premier and were a
permanent fixture in this division for over 20 years. The club consolidated
their league position but were unfortunate in that major honours eluded
them. They were runners up in the First Division in 1987 and 1988 and again
in 1997 and 2001. 2001 proved to be a good year for the club as they also
won the First Division cup, beating Kilmanahan in the final, 2 goals to nil.
Clonmel Evergreen had a reputation as cup specialists. Their two
notable successes to date in the Tipperary Cup were against Borris in 1981
and again against Clonmel Rangers in 1982. Jimmy Anderson was the founding
father of the club and worked tirelessly to promote and develop it. During
the late eighties and early nineties the club placed a tremendous emphasis
on developing schoolboy and youth teams. At one stage they had teams
playing at every age level from under 10 right up to youths. As mentioned
earlier on he playing front the club hit some barren times in recent years
and in July 2003 decided that the best way forward for everyone involved in
the club was to amalgamate with St Oliver Boys to form Clonmel Celtic
Football Club.
Back To Top
St Martins F.C
St Martins were established in 1984 and soon became a force in the TS&DL.
Players were meeting on a regular basis for games in the Loreto Convent
and Marlfield. A dedicated committee, led by Eric Martin and Patrick Power,
organised a club around these players and gained promotion in successive
seasons. The club achieved their first notable success when they won the
3rd Division Shield in 1986. The team’s fortunes fluctuated for a while
but the club re-organised in the 1991/92 season and won the Division 3
title in convincing manner. In the same season the club came very close
to winning the Tipperary Cup, having accounted for a few premier teams in
the earlier rounds of the competition. St Martins won promotion to the
Premier League in 1993 and made this year the most successful in the
club’s history by winning the 1993 1St Division Shield by beating Borris
in an epic final. In the beginning the club played its matches at
Ballyneale Park but then moved to the By Pass Rd, Clonmel. Following
promotion the club acquitted itself well in the Premier Division. It was
always the club’s intentions to develop a youth policy and in 1998, with
the club interested in getting involved with schoolboy and youth football,
they joined with St Olivers to form St Olivers Boys FC.
Back To Top
Clonmel Celtics Family Tree
Back To Top
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Clonmel Celtic Sponsors
Kate Ryans Bar, Clonmel
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Clonmel Celtic F.C.
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