Hermitage FC celebrates 50 years

HERMITAGE FC’s 50th anniversary celebrations will conclude next weekend with a dress dance at the West County Hotel on Saturday and a social gathering on Sunday.
Various events have been held throughout what has been a very successful year for the club and these include a highly successful golf classic in April at Ennis Golf Club.
John Delaney, chief executive officer of the FAI, will be one of the guests at this Saturday’s gala function, during which he will present the members of the A team with their first division league medals.
When celebrating their 21st anniversary in 1981, the club also held a dress dance in the West County Hotel with ex-Limerick and Republic of Ireland goalkeeper Kevin Fitzpatrick as guest of honour.
This year, the committee including chairman Gerry Scanlon, Eddie Walsh, Mark and Joe Moloney, Joe Shannon, Jamie Kenneally, Keith Molloy, Fred Dinan, Frank Coote, Mickey Quinn and Sinéad Moloney have gone for the same format.
One of the highlights of the gathering will come when the club inaugurate Michael Guerin as their new president. He will succeed the late Seán Casey, who held the post for a number of years.
Also among the guests on Saturday will be former club member Michael Leahy, the first Clare man to hold the post of chairman of the Munster Football Association. Officials of the Clare Soccer League will also be among the guests at what promises to be a great occasion.
The ’Tage, as they are known to all in soccer, were founded in 1959 by Johnny Quinn, Haulie Molloy, Tex Corry, Paddy Woods and John Hayes. Its home ground was originally the Fairgreen and then they transferred to the One Mile Inn, due to the generosity of the late club president Senator Michael Howard and today they play their home games back in the Fairgreen. Over the years, the club was in the guiding hands of people like Joe Shannon, Arthur Greer, the late Tommy Blake, Frankie Coote, Mike Quinn , Freddie Dinan and many more.
Down through the years, Hermitage was a great family club with numerous brothers playing alongside each other such as the Kennys, Woods, Ryans, Murphys, Gilligans, Considines, O’Loughlins, O’Briens, Dilgers, McCarthys, McAllisters, Skerritts, Moloneys, Clohessys, Moroneys, Dinans and more. In 1967, a youths team was formed and when Clare won the Inter County Cup in 1971, it was backboned by Hermitage players Michael and Stephen Kenny, Martin Woods, Tony Considine, Gerry Gilligan and the late Billy Greer, who was the goalkeeper. Unfortunately, today Hermitage does not have a youth team, something it hopes to rectify in the near future. The club does have two junior teams competing in the Clare League and in the season just concluded, they have had a lot of success. The A team captured the first division league to win promotion to the premier division, while the B team just missed out on promotion when they finished in fourth spot.
In 1981, Hermitage won the Youths Cup, FAI Area and League, while the junior side won the League 1 Championship but were beaten in the Haughey Cup Final by Newmarket Celtic.
The club still carries the tradition of brothers playing for the club and between the two junior teams, the Phillips, Dullahans, Keanes, Moloneys and Cahills line out each week.
Joining with Turnpike Rovers members to form a underage academy for local kids under the name Park United can only keep that tradition going.
The current managers in place at junior level are long-time servant Mark Cronin and Lenny Franks taking charge of A team matters, with Eddie Walsh looking after the club’s second team.
Over the years Hermitage have contested, without success, five cup finals in 1968 1975, 1981, 1982 and 1985.
Their successes include Division 1 League 1962, Fergus Cup 1969 (now Haughey Cup), Division 1 Shield 1973 and 1975, FAI Area 1975 and the Division 1 League 1981. They also had success in some of the tournaments: Ennis Harvest 1975, One Mile Inn 1975, 1979, 1980 and Newtown 1980.
The youths’ best season was 1980/81 when they won the Munster Youths (Clare Area), FAI (Clare Area), Youths Cup and Youths League and were beaten by Southend United ( Waterford) in the Munster Youths Cup final in Ozier Park, Waterford. Hermitage were the first club from Clare to contest the final.
The club was also honoured that season when Noel Galvin, PJ Dilger and Brendan Farrell were selected for the Munster Youths panel.
Judy Walsh is working on the new website which is up and running. Any information or photographs to be added to the Hermitage website should be forwarded to sinead90@eircom.net jbrigdale@gmail.com or markmoloneyhermitage@gmail.com.
Information on this week’s dance is available from Gerry Scanlon (085 7635769), Freddie Dinan, Mark Moloney (086 8888282), Derek Frazer, Sinéad Moloney (087 9590914), Jamie Kennelly, Keith Molloy, Frank Coote, Mickey Quinn, Eddie Walsh (086 3859001), Joe Shannon or Joe Moloney (087 6662868).