Fuerty GAA Club History

written by Stephen Glennon

In GAA circles, the name Fuerty Football club may not generate the same excitement as the high profile clubs of O'Donovan Rossa of Cork, Kilmacud Crokes of Dublin or, indeed, our own Clan na nGael of Roscommon. Yet, if there has been one club that has come to represent the ideals, hopes and aspirations of the Gaelic Athletic Association, then Fuerty football club can stand tall with the best of them.

Fuerty espouses the ideals Michael Cusack and the co-founders of the GAA nurtured when they formed the association in Hayes Hotel, Thurles on November 1^st 1884. Then, Cusack, Maurice Davin, John Wyse Power, John McKay and many others envisaged setting up an association where the Irish people could express their Irishness on the playing fields, nurturing all that was good about the Irish people. Parishes immediately embraced the notion in the years and decades ahead and Fuerty was no different. The club was founded in 190I. In recent times, clubs have begun to expand, with most identifiable through their base, their pitch, their clubhouse, or their dressing rooms. Many in GAA circles felt these were essential to a club, that these were the things a strong club could be built on. Perhaps, but if one thing Fuerry football club has proven over the decades is that a club is not about a patch of land. It’s about the people. Fuerty football club has survived for over 100 years without having a patch to call its own, simply because it had great people associated with the club, people that kept it alive. Fuerty opened its own pitch in 2006.

The earliest records of the football club dates back to I901. In the early decades o f the 20^th century, the club was to the fore of Roscommon football, meeting with various degrees of success. For example, records show that in 1911, Fuerty contested the county semi-final, Fuerty won the match by 0-3 to 0-1, Kilbride objected and won the replay by 2-2 or 2-3 to Fuerty's 0-0. The closest Fuerty came to success in the ensuing years was a final appearance in 1923. On this occasion, Fuerty, led by county dual star Pat Conboy, sadly lost on a score of 3-3 to 3-2. However, glory wasn’t far away. In 1928, the seeds for senior success were sown when the club won the county junior championship, defeating Crossna by 1-1 to 0-1, although the final itself was not played until February 1929.

It proved a blessing. With a junior title under their belts, Fuerty now had built up sufficient momentum to challenge for senior honours. Confidence was high and it showed when Fuerty advanced to the l929 senior decider where they would face one of the football aristocrats of the time, Elphin. Elphin had won the first ever senior championship in Roscommon, defeating Kingsland 0-3 to no score, after a replay, in the 1889 final. They again won the senior championship and remarkably completed a five-in-a-row of senior titles between 1901 and 1905. However, their star had waned somewhat in the intervening years, having failed to register another senior success. Despite Elphin’s reputation, Fuerty, who defeated Donamon in the South Roscommon final, were not to be denied. They successfully went on to defeat Elphin 0-9 to 0-4 in the decider at Strokestown Park and, in the process, claimed their first ever senior football title. Some of the names synonymous with that Fuerty team of 1929 were Mike Foley, Johnny Reddington, Edmund Mannion, Jack Mannion, Paddy Frawley, Sonny Hughes, Malley Ward, Paddy Naughton, John Moran, Tom Egan, Michael Naughton, Willie Kelly, Mike Cuddy, Pat Conboy, Pat Mannion, Michael Kilroe and Frank Daly. Incidentally, Daly was also an Irish champion ploughman.

It would be another five years before Fuerty would contest a senior final again, this time the border club facing one of the up and coming teams of that era, Tarmon. Yet Fuerty again emerged victorious, and comprehensively so, recording a 2-7 to 0-6 win. Sadly though, this was Fuerty’s last senior victory. Emigration would take its toll on the club, as it did on so many, over the decades and p eople have often remarked that Fuerty’s best 15 were not on Irish soil, but in far flung places like America and Australia. Still, the club carried on regardless and enjoyed moderate success, winning junior football championships in 1942 and 1950.

ln the 1942 final, Fuertv defeated Tibohine 2-3 to O-1, with Roscommon senior star Willie Heavey leading his side to victory in an entertaining final played at St. Coman’s Park. Eight years later, Fuerty impressively accounted for North Roscommon side, John Joe Nerney’s Boyle 2-6 to 0-2 in the 1950 decider.

In more recent decades, Fuerty, captained by Michael Kelly, won a Tansey Cup in 1986, defeating Kilteevan in their final game 5-8 to 1.-4. Some of the heroes of that team were Harry Nellan, Tommie Farrell, Gabriel Connolly, Marty Mulhern, Liam Heaney, Gerry Kelly, Paddy Neilan, Seamie Kilroy, James Kelly, Kieran Connell, Gerry Gordon and Mattie Ward.

Fuerty also claimed junior honours in 1991, this time winning the county junior football title, when they defeated Ballinameen after a replay. It is this most recent victory that lives on in memory. Captained by Gerry Gordon, Fuerty won 1-10 to 1-4, with Gordon himself scoring his side’s only goal. Man of the match in the replayed final was Kevin McGeeney, with Harry Neilan, Tom Murray, former Roscommon minors Padraig Cuddy and Frank Farrell, Kieran Mullen, local dual star Brendan Boyle, Liam Heaney, Damien Finneran and Gordon also producing solid performances. This win promoted Fuerty to the intermediate ranks, a grade they competed gallantly in for over a decade. Most of that team, and their management led by Dominic Connolly, continue to serve the club and the GAA in one shape or form. This in itself is another fitting tribute to the community spirit of Fuerty football club’s sons.

Hurling has also played a role in Fuerty. In 1954, Fuerty won a junior hurling championship when they beat St. Patrick’s 3-3 to 0-4. They also contested the county senior semi-final that same vear but lost to St. Coman’s 0-4 to2-6. In more recent times, Fuerty’s dual stars have lined out with distinction with the two hurling clubs in the parish, namely Athleague and Tremane, winning honours with both.

The club has also had its greats. The dominant names of the early years were the Brennans, Michael and Jack, the Cartys, Neilans, Rooneys, Mulherns and Governs. Pat Conboy was probably the club’s best known player in the period between 1915 to 1925, when he played both football and hurling with Roscommon.

The team of the late 1920s had also many fine players with Jack and Edmund Mannion, Mick Foley, Frank Daly, Johnny Hughes, Pat Naughton, Mattie Warde and Paddy Frawley. The key officials of this time were Father Gilmartin, J. Frawley N.T. and Jim Ansbro, while their main motivator was Sergeant Tobin of Athleague.

In the 1930’s, these were joined by the Reddingtons, Johnny and Joe, while the most famous player and the oniy Fuerty man to win All-lreland senior honours was Willie Heavey, who got injured in the 1943 All-Ireland final to be replaced by Owensie Hoare. Willie had been a regular county player at this stage for a number of years and was a highly regarded wing back. Fuerty, which plies it’s underage and senior trade these days with Creggs under the banner of St. Ciaran's -- has always been producing its county stars at various levels, with the likes of Liam Heaney, Padraig Cuddy, Frank Farrell, Tom Reddington, Micheal Glennon and Tomas Bannon just a few of the many Fuerty players who have flown the club colours at inter-county level in recent decades