The
Background to the formation of Truagh Gaels C.L.G
By Francie Treanor
Errigal Truagh, or more commonly
Truagh, is in the most northerly tip of Co. Monaghan jutting deeply into South
Tyrone at Aughnacloy on the intersection of the N.2 with the Ulster Blackwater
and the
Around the year 1908 we have the first official record of a team in the
parish. Namely a team from Bragan called Bragan Erin’s Hope. While this team
was well organized and well presented and took part in the GAA affairs at the
time, they are not recorded as having captured any major honours. They seemed to
have disbanded a short time later. The reason for this disbandment has been
attributed to the social, economic and political conditions that prevailed in
What happened in the following years seems to have been that players from
the parish of Truagh went to play with more organised clubs of the neighbouring
areas. The reason for this is hard to pinpoint. A number of reasons for this
have
been brought to my attention but the lack of a central meeting place, its
geographical position, emigration to neighboring countries in the search of work
and better lives and the involvement of many of Truagh’s young men in the
fight for national Independence.
Around the year 1920 Ballyoision and Mullan mills area seemed to be
trying hard to get the game going in their locality. I have obtained a
photograph of a Ballyoision team who at the time, like their counterparts from
the other ends of the parish of a few years earlier took part in many an
unofficial but rousing engagement between nearby clubs in both Monaghan and
Tyrone. For the likes of these challenge games our parish team would enlist
additional help from other footballers from neighbouring clubs. As there was no
official county board at the time there were no rules to say that this
couldn’t be done at the time.
Around the early 1920s the young men around Mullan mills formed one of
the first hurling clubs in the north of
Football in the parish around the late twenties and early thirties seemed
to fragment into several small clubs. It is important to remember that Errigal
Truagh is only a small parish of approx 475 houses This is small in comparison to other parishes in Monaghan. But
in spite of this fact a team was formed at Moybridge, a team was formed in
Clara, a team was formed in Carrickroe, with the Ballyoisin players throwing in
their lot with Emyvale GAA. Another little team to have its tales of glory in
those years were a team called the Boglane Rovers, who participated in several
challenge matches with the help of a few neighbouring club players but never
really got off the ground.
In 1928 the Emyvale team which won the Fr. Maguire cup for the first time, was assisted by quite a number of players from the Truagh area. The reasons for this being the enthusiasm of Master Paddy Smyth, a Schoolteacher in Ballyoision Knockconan National school and who was also then the second Chairman of the Emyvale GAA club. Another reason being the extremely close proximity of Emyvale village to the Truagh footballers, Also a village which gave great social contact with all the young men of the area, a custom still very much alive today.
Clara in the late 1920’s and the early 1930’s had a fairly good team
to their credit, a team that many said was destined for major honors, but
Irelands political misfortunes also found their way into the Clara team and an
unavoidable political split put paid to the sporting aspirations of a fine team.
In 1933 the parishes first amalgamated team was produced. This was the St.
Mellans Minor team which featured under eighteens from all corners of the
parish, and this was the first time the parish was represented officially. The
St. Mellans minor team went on to win the 1933 minor Championship but the
officials of the Monaghan County Board decided that some of the St. Mellans
players had affiliations with clubs as far away as Dungannon in Co. Tyrone, and
also their defeated counterparts, Aghabog, were not above board either as they
featured players as far away as Monaghan and Threemilehouse. The result being
that the competition was left Null and Void thus rendering the parishes first
trophy still as a distant dream.
While the Clara team in those years had been capturing the limelight, the
Carrickroe men were putting their effort together. Their endeavors were well
rewarded when they affiliated to
As my research has shown usually when a team disbanded some other team in
close proximity became newly invigorated and surged on a new lease of life. This
was to be the legacy of Carrickroe when Clara came again and our near neighbours
Emyvale recorded their historic 1945 double win. Such was the enthusiasm and
spirit in Clara that they were able to field a strong panel of 25 players. Of
the 25 man panel, 18 were local Truagh men, 1 man was from Augher Co. Tyrone, 2
men were from Caledon Co. Tyrone, 1 Man form Clones Co. Monaghan and 3 men were
residents of Tydavnet. This team held together for almost seven years but as we
mentioned earlier, as always in those days a new team starting up weakened the
existing one. This was the case with Clara when our close neighbours in South
Tyrone, Aughnacloy affiliated their own club Aghaloo GFC.
In the early 1950’s each of Truagh’s three districts had an identity
of their own. From an entirely social aspect of it, the rural dance Hall being
the one and only meeting point for its youth. St. Enda’s Parochial Hall was
built, this was to remain one of
While Mullan Mills boot factory gave employment to workers from a wide
area, the bulk of its employees came from in and around the local districts. The
social spirits, plus the great love for the GAA were so strong in these
districts at the time that each one of them had their own affiliated team. By
1953 Clara had once again called it a day thus leaving Carrickroe and Mullan
Mill teams of the one parish playing in the same competitions. Of the two Mullan
Mills were most successful, I recently got in touch with a neighbour of mine,
Peter Mc Quaid, who was a worker in Mc Creedy’s Mill in Emyvale as a Flax
farmer/producer, Peter was also a member of the Mullan Mills football team
between in the years 1932 and 1940. Although his playing days were more or less
over at this time, Peter had a fond interest in the Mullan Mills team and
reflected on different challenge games in whish he both participated and played
in, one such example of this was a challenge game which he played in or around
1938 against Emyvale. Peter went on to to describe the local derby as one of the
fiercest most competitive games he had ever been involved in, even though it was
a challenge game he recalled men “Giving everything for the team, and making
sure Emyvale didn’t get a sniff of it” Peter’s all round knowledge of GAA
in the parish is second to none. Of Carrickroe and Peter’s Mullan Mills, The
‘ Mills were the more successful team. During the 1955 league campaign they
played eleven consecutive games without defeat. They also reached the semi final
of the Dr. Ward Cup only to be defeated by near neighbours Emyvale once again,
who went on to be defeated by Threemilehouse in the final.
This seemed to have been the peak achievement for, like their colleagues
in Carrickroe, they were beginning to feel the effects of the national
emigration tide that was sweeping Ireland at the time, So once again like
Carrickroe, they both went out of existence about the same time. Therefore this
rendered the parish of Truagh without an affiliated club for the first time
since the formation of Bragon Erin’s Hope in 1908. In the years 1956 and 1957
there was a huge vacuum as far as the GAA was concerned in Truagh parish. Then
came an historic night in the Winter of 1958 in St. Patrick’s Hall, Clara,
When the Truagh Gaels club was founded by a young curate called Fr. Tom Breen
from Tempo in Co. Fermanagh. He was working in Clara at the time with football
his second religion. He was the Prime mover in forming a parish team known as
Truagh Gaels. The inaugural meeting was held on