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HISTORIC FIRSTS
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| 1953: In March, 1953 Mullingar Shamrocks played their first game, a junior football league match in which they were beaten by 3-5 to 1-3 by Multyfarnham. |
1957: Shamrocks won their first minor title in unusual circumstances. Rosemount provided the opposition in the final , the closing moments of which proved extraordinarily controversial and provided a quota of material for referee baiting well above the local average. With the sides level full-forward A Dalton crashed the ball to the Rosemount net for what seemed to be the winning goal. The goal was disallowed and Shamrokcs were awaded a penalty instead. C Braiden blasted the penalty to the net but! the referee again disallowed the goal as the whistle had not been blown. The retaken kick was saved and the final whistle was blown on the kick-out leaving the sides level at 2-3 for Shamrocks to Rosemount’s 0-9. Shamrocks lined out P. Braiden; P Gerety, C Braiden, A Mulkearns; F McCormack, W Creamer, P Smith; O Grennan, J Finn; P Mullally, D Newman, J Fitzgerald; D Nolan, A Dalton, T Lyng. Sub: S Mulderry. The match was never replayed as Rosemount were thrown out of the championship for transgressions in an earlier round. |
| 1962: Almost forty years ago to the day the first football match was played in Springfield. In a junior football league game Mullingar Shamrocks beat Cullion 4-5 to 2-1. The first score was registered by Sean McGee who pointed after five minutes and Frankie Connaughton scored the first goal direct from a ‘50’. The Shamrocks team was O Mulvey; S Mullen, P McNamara, L Woods; P McCormack, F Connaughton, K Higgins; P Cole and C Lennon; C Connaughton, S McGee, C Quinn; T O’ Dowd, M Lynch and V Brady. |
| 1962: After a number of unsuccessful attempts Shamrocks qualified for senior ranks after beating Boher by 4-4 to 2-6 to win the club’s first junior title. The Shamrocks title winning team was P Browne, Sonny Mullen, B McNamara, M Ryan; F Connaughton, D Nolan, F McCormack; P Cole (1-0) and J O’Dowd; Colm Connaughton (1-2), C Lennon, S McGee; Terry O Dowd, J Finn (1-2) and M Kelly (1-0). Sub: Willo Reynolds for Jimmy O’ Dowd. |
| 1963: The great Frankie Connaughton became the first Shamrocks player to captain a Westmeath Leinster title winning team as Westmeath minor footballers won their third provincial minor title. Frankie was Westmeath’s top scorer contributing 4-13 in the course of the 1963 campaign. Shamrocks players on the panel included Kevin Higgins who had a sensational game in the All-Ireland final against Kerry, Tommy Reeves and Dan O’Dowd. Alan Lambden emulated Frankie Connaughton’s achievement in 2000 when he captained Westmeath to a Leinster final victory also against Dublin. |
| 1966: A first ever minor-senior double for Shamrocks and for Tony Keegan, Barry McKeogh, Kevin Craig and Noel Daly the achievement was specially significant as these players played in both finals. Paul McGrath, Joe Bardon and John Ross were also members of both panels but didn’t play in the senior final. In 1994 the same double was achieved with Mark Treanor playing in both finals and Aidan Lyons coming on a substitute in the senior final. Three points in the final minute secured the first senior title against St Mary’s (Rochfortbridge) by 0-8 to 1-3. The first champion team was Tony Caulfield; Sean Mullen, Brendan McNamara, Dan O’Dowd; Kevin Higgins, Frankie Connaughton , Davey Nolan; Jimmy O’Dowd (capt), Paddy Cole; Colm Connaughton (0-2), Sean Magee(0-2), Des Newman, Tony McCormack(0-2), Mick Lynch (0-2), John Daly. Sub used Terry O’Dowd. |
| 1968: Kevin Higgins became the first Shamrocks player to gain inter-provincial honours and the first Westmeath player selected in goal for Leinster when he played and kept a clean sheet in the Railway Cup semi-final match against Munster. An injured Higgins was replaced by Martin Furlong for the final but Shamrocks were still represented in Croke Park on St Patrick’s Day as Paddy Cole played at right-corner back in the final against Ulster; Paddy Cole is the only Shamrocks player to play in a Railway Cup final. |
| 1986: Spike Fagan became the first Westmeath footballer to be selected for Ireland in the ‘compromise rules’ football international series against Australia and captured the national imagination with a number of brilliant performances against Australia in Perth, Melbourne and Adelaide. Spike represented Ireland in 1987 and 1990 also and played eight times in the international series. |
| 1988: The strength in depth of the club was highlighted as Shamrocks won their first and only intermediate football title with a 2-2 to 0-7 victory over Kinnegad. In what the Midland Topic headlined as a ‘sixty second blitz’ two goals in the 53rd minute from Bob Marren and Noel Nugent secured victory. The team (including six minors D. Monaghan, N Nugent, P Boyce, Ivan O’Connor, D Farrell and B Kelly) was Mick Noone, Dermot Monaghan, Mick Conlon, Paddy Monaghan; Paddy Boyce, Pearse Corroon(Capt), J P Crowley; Bob Marren (1-0) and Noel Nugent (1-0); Mick Greene, Noel Dempsey (0-1), Derek Farrell; Ivan O’ Connor, Fergus Conlon (0-1), John Fagan. Subs: Jody Moran and Barry Kelly. |
| 1991: Shamrocks new clubhouse was opened with full bar facilities and refurbished dressing rooms. Early in the year, the club appointed its first lady officer when Detty Cornally was elected President of the club. An untiring fund-raiser, a wonderful ambassador for Scor, a key figure in the promotion of ladies football in the club, the input of this extra-ordinary lady to the well being of Mullingar Shamrocks can never be underestimated. |
| 1994: Ritchie O’ Donoghue finished his first term as Shamrocks senior manager by leading the club to its first three in a row senior football championships. Ritchie became manager in 1985 and managed Shamrocks in 32 Westmeath senior championship games winning 28 including six senior titles up to 1994. Amazingly for a manager with the success rate of Ritchie he has never managed a Westmeath county team. |
| 1995: A first All-Ireland minor football title for Westmeath and Davey Walls as a panellist became the first Shamrocks footballer to win an All-Ireland minor football medal. The four-in-a-row senior championship wins is achieved this time with Gerry Nohilly as manager. |
| 1998: The first ladies championship was captured when Shamrocks under-16 girls defeated Garrycastle in the county final and defended the title in 1999. |
| 1999: Westmeath win the All-Ireland under-21 football title for the first time defeating Kerry in the final with Micheal Burke and Brian Lambden key figures in the victory they became the first Shamrocks players to win All-Ireland under-21 medals. Micheal Burke added a second Leinster under-21 medal to his collection in 2000. |
| 2000: Donal O’Donoghue became the first Shamrocks player to be selected for the Compromise rules under seventeen football series against Australia and played in the three international games. Later in the year Donal was a member of the Westmeath Leinster title winning minor football title. In November it was a ‘winter wonderland’ as Shamrocks won the first senior championship of the new millennium on a day that team captain Tom Ormsby walked on water and inspired Shamrocks with a brilliant mid-field performance against Tyrrellspass |
| 2001: Lisa Burke joined a select group of Paddy Cole, Kevin Higgins and Spike Fagan when she was selected on the Leinster ladies football panel but unfortunately the foot and mouth disease forced the cancellation of the ladies inter-provincial series and Lisa lost out on the chance of playing for Leinster. In September the first adult ladies title was captured when the junior football title was annexed with the defeat of Saint Loman’s in the county final in Rochfortbridge.
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