In the early 1950’s, a group of people calling themselves Coiste na n-Óg came together to try to improve the standard of Gaelic games in the city and they came up with the idea of a streets league. They divided up the city into sections and their teams were named as follows: St Anthony’s represented Newcastle; Western Stars was the name given to the team drawn from Father Griffin Road, Dominick Street, Henry Street, and ‘The West’; “98s” were from Bohermore/Woodquay, they were named after a famous Bohermore 98s team who were established in 1898, the centenary of 1798; Father Lally’s represented Shantalla, so named after a 19th century progressive charismatic parish priest of Rahoon; St Nicholas’ was the name given to the Claddagh teams; The boys from Salthill were simply known as Salthill. The lads from the Industrial School in Lower Salthill were known as St. Joseph’s they played in the under-14 league as did Club Mhuire and Naomh Pádraic
The games were mostly played in the Swamp but some took place on a pitch owned by the Patrician Brothers in Newcastle, some in Shantalla, on the Jes pitch, in Renmore on the pitch at the back of Renmore Barracks, and on the Industrial School pitch. The finals were sometimes played in the stadium. The leagues were played at under-14, under-16, and under-18 levels and the competition was fierce. Conditions were often very rough, there were very few dressing rooms; the swamp still had bits of glass, etc, on the pitch, remnants of the city dump; games in Renmore were played on a ‘bit of a slope’; the small pitch at Newcastle often flooded on wet days, indeed the referees often wore wellingtons to retrieve the ball. A tactic often used by the backs (especially when their team was losing ) was to dash into the water and drench the opposing forwards when the play was in that vicinity. The players never seemed to mind the conditions. The matches were played on Sunday mornings and often attracted very large crowds, you would regularly see several hundred spectators at a game. The Galway Observer newspaper covered many of the matches and gave a great boost to many a young player who saw their name printed in the paper. It was not unusual for some of these budding stars to be named “Sports Star of the Week”.
Many hurlers and footballers progressed from these leagues to wearing the maroon jersey for their county.
Our photograph shows some of the City League committee making a presentation to Reverend Brother Ambrose Hannon prior to his departure to Kenya on the missions. They are, from the left: Michael Finnerty, Peter Griffin, Paddy Higgins, Pádraic O’Connor, Mícheál Ó hUiginn, Brother Ambrose, Manus Duggan, Seán Ó Carra, Seán Turke, Jim Kilroy, Mícheál Ó Briain and Brother Alphonsus. Among other men who were involved were Pa Boyle, Mícheál McSweeney, Michael Sullivan, Mattie Burke, Fr Bob McGoran SJ, Eddie Fahy, and Pádraic McNamara. The youth of that period owe these men a great debt.
