From Smith’s Lounge to a home of their own: Carrick Town FC celebrates 50 years

Fifty years ago, five men met in a lounge in Carrick-on-Shannon with an idea: to establish a soccer club.

Today, Carrick Town FC has more than 600 boys and girls involved, senior men’s and women’s teams, an extensive underage structure and a proposed new home of its own.

The story began on Monday, 25 October 1976 at 5pm, when Gerard Taylor, Frankie Smith, John Lowe, the late Liam McGarry and Michael Heslin met in Smith’s Lounge in Carrick-on-Shannon, now Buffalo Boy, and agreed to call a meeting to establish a soccer club.

The first two meetings were held in Smith’s Lounge. As more people became involved, the meetings moved upstairs to the Silver Swan, now The Swan, before St Mary’s Hall became the club’s regular meeting place.

Founding member Frankie Smith remembers the practicalities of those early days particularly well.

The club’s first football was borrowed from Liam McGarry, on the condition that if it was damaged, they would repair it.

The first jerseys came too, in a plastic bag, light blue and white stripes borrowed from Drumshanbo United which, Gerard Taylor remembers, was “very like the Argentina colours.”

When posts and crossbars arrived from Crowe’s Sawmills in Mohill, they were good to go.

The fledgling soccer club received another important helping hand from the rugby community. Rugby coaches Jim Newcombe and Mick Dee allowed the new team to play across their pitch at the Showgrounds, known as the Bull Field.

Getting the pitch ready still required some improvisation. Sawdust from Campbell’s Yard was used to mark the lines, while players walked or cycled there and togged out in the cattle stalls.

Their first match was against Drumshanbo United. Carrick lost 4-3, but the game brought an unexpected recruit: Mickey Martin, who had been playing for Drumshanbo and subsequently joined Carrick Town FC.

Money had to be raised too. The club’s first fundraiser was a church gate collection, followed shortly afterwards by a dance in St Mary’s Hall with Galway showband The Conquerors.

The handwritten minute book charts those early years, including the club colours: yellow shirts with blue cuffs and collars, blue shorts and yellow and blue hooped socks.

Before long, Carrick Town FC had its first kit of its own, bought from Gerry Murtagh of Murtagh’s House of Fashion.

As the club became established, a number of people would have a lasting influence on its development.

Alongside founding members Gerard Taylor and Frankie Smith, the Blain family and Brendan Lowe were among those instrumental in building and sustaining Carrick Town FC through its early years.

Early success

Success came relatively quickly. Just four years after the club was formed, Carrick Town FC won the Sligo/Leitrim League Division Two title in 1980 under the management of Bertie O’Rourke.

Gerard’s lasting memory of that victory is of the celebration afterwards.

Marie McGarry, mother of founding member Liam, had a Citroen Dyane with an opening roof. A cavalcade of cars made its way through Carrick, horns sounding and players cheering from open windows, while the cup was held aloft through the roof of Marie’s Dyane.

The decades that followed brought promotions, cup runs, disappointments and victories, alongside the ordinary wet Sundays when somebody still had to arrive early, put up the nets, mark the pitch and make sure everything was ready for kick-off.

Irish writer Roddy Doyle once described football as “a string that goes all the way back.” For Carrick Town FC, that string now stretches across half a century.

Players became coaches. Players became parents. Children who were brought along to watch from the sideline eventually pulled on the jersey themselves.

Some went further. Sean Murtagh, a League Division Two winner from 1980, also managed the senior team to Longford Cup success in 1993. His son Michael is captain of the current senior men’s team.

Martin McTiernan managed Carrick Town FC senior men’s team to successive Longford Area League titles in 1995 and 1996, with Cup success also in 1995. His son Liam would also progress through the club’s underage structure to represent Sligo Rovers at U-18 level.

Carrick Town also won the Sligo/Leitrim Division One Cup final in 2009, managed by Adrian McKeague and Niall Commerton, and the senior team lifted the McSharry Cup in 2013 under manager John Moran.

Brendan Lowe’s son went on to join the Sligo Rovers underage set-up in 2000 and made his first-team debut at 17 in 2003.

Niall Morahan progressed through the same underage system before signing for the Sligo Rovers senior squad in 2018 and has played for Bohemians FC since 2024.

Niall Holohan joined Sligo Rovers’ underage ranks in 2018, broke into their senior squad in 2023, and has been with UCD since 2024. Sam Barnes also came through Carrick Town’s underage structure, progressing to Longford Town’s youths in 2019 before making the step up to their senior squad in 2021.

Over the years, Carrick Town FC has also had many representatives, both senior and underage, on Sligo/Leitrim League representative sides in national competitions.

A changing club

When Carrick Town FC was founded in 1976, organised women’s football in Ireland was itself still relatively new. Ireland’s first official Women’s National Team had played only three years earlier, in 1973.

For many girls growing up through the 1970s and 1980s, even those who loved football and sport, the opportunity to join a local football team simply wasn’t there.

That changed for Carrick Town FC in 2018, when the club’s first girls’ team took to the field.

Today, girls’ and women’s football is firmly part of Carrick Town FC. Players can begin at the youngest age groups, progress through youth football and continue into the senior women’s team, just as boys can progress through to the senior men’s team.

The club has changed in other ways too, reflecting the changing community around it.

Children and adults from many different nationalities and backgrounds now play alongside one another in Carrick Town FC colours. Families who have come to the area from across Europe and further afield have become players, coaches, supporters and volunteers.

For sixteen-year-old Anna Trench Winston, who has played with Carrick Town FC since she was a child, football has always been part of growing up.

She went on to represent the Sligo/Leitrim League for three years before choosing to return to Carrick Town FC.

“I just love playing football. There’s great camaraderie in the team and I’ve had some brilliant coaches over the years. I’ve been playing with Carrick Town FC for so long that I don’t really remember not playing.”

Anna’s Carrick Town teammate Mona Lowe followed a similar path, also progressing to the Sligo/Leitrim League, before taking the step up to Athlone Town, now one of the strongest sides in the country.

More than football

What happens at a football club has never been only about football.

For the hundreds of children who come through Carrick Town FC, since the club’s underage academy was set up in 2006, training means getting outside, running, moving and being active.

It also means learning to be part of a team: to turn up for other people, to win without getting carried away, to lose and come back again next week.

Friendships begin on training pitches and in cars travelling to matches. Coaches become familiar faces through childhood. Parents meet on sidelines. Children who might never otherwise have known one another find themselves wearing the same jersey and working towards the same thing. None of it happens without volunteers.

Some of that commitment spans decades. Present senior team manager Patrick McGarry has coached with Carrick Town FC for more than twenty years, giving generations of players the benefit of his time, experience and encouragement.

His contribution is one example of the long-term volunteer commitment on which the club has depended, alongside the coaches who give their evenings and weekends, the parents who drive to training and matches, and the volunteers who organise fixtures, registrations, equipment and fundraising, plus the countless less visible jobs that keep a club functioning.

Even the mechanics of running a football club have changed enormously.

The phone calls, notebooks and word of mouth of the early years have been joined by WhatsApp groups, social media, online registration and systems such as MyComet.

Today, more than 600 boys and girls are involved with Carrick Town FC.

For Frankie Smith, who set up the underage academy in 2006, seeing what has grown from those beginnings is a source of enormous pride.

“Fifty years is a fantastic achievement, built on the dedication of so many people who have given their time and support over the years. I’m proud to be part of that history and look forward to continuing to be involved as we write the next chapter together.”

Building the next fifty years

Fifty years after its formation, Carrick Town FC still has no permanent home of its own.

The Showgrounds has served the club for generations and holds an important place in its history, but it remains a showground. When agricultural shows take place, football has to move.

As Carrick Town FC has grown, it has also had to rely on shared and borrowed facilities elsewhere to accommodate its teams.

Now there is the possibility of changing that for good. Carrick Town FC has agreed to purchase a site at Elphin Road/Mullaghmore, subject to planning permission, with the proposed development currently going through the planning process.

The ambition is to create purpose built playing and training facilities and clubrooms, giving Carrick Town FC a permanent base capable of serving a club that has grown enormously since 1976. For Club Chairperson Conor Gallagher, that growth is something he has experienced at first hand.

“When I moved to Carrick ten years ago, I could never have imagined how big a part Carrick Town FC would become in our family’s life. My kids play here, I’ve made some of my closest friends through the club, and now, as Chairperson, I’m hugely proud to be part of shaping what will hopefully be a very exciting next chapter for Carrick Town FC.”

Paul Carney, Chair of the Fundraising Committee, has been involved with Carrick Town FC since he was seven years old and now watches his own children represent the club.

“Developing our new playing facilities is going to be a massive logistical and financial journey, no doubt about it. It is a big challenge, but if there is one thing our club and community have never shied away from, it is a challenge.”

For current players, it would mean proper facilities in which to train and play.

For coaches and volunteers, it would provide a base from which to run the club.

And for the children coming behind them, it would mean growing up with something previous generations of Carrick Town FC players never had: a pitch, a clubhouse and grounds that belong to Carrick Town FC alone.

A night to remember

On Saturday, 24 October 2026, founding members, former players, coaches, volunteers, supporters, families and friends will come together at the Landmark Hotel in Carrick-on-Shannon for Carrick Town FC’s 50th Anniversary Gala Dinner Dance.

Photographs from across the five decades will help tell the story of the club and bring back memories along the way.

There will be dinner, live music and dancing, and a chance for people who have been part of Carrick Town FC at different times in its history to meet again.

Liverpool and Republic of Ireland legend Ray Houghton will be the special guest, with broadcaster and journalist Carole Coleman joining him on stage for a conversation about his remarkable career with club and country.

The night will also recognise Carrick Town FC’s own football history, including those involved in establishing the club and the players who represented its first team. Most importantly, the Gala is a major fundraiser for the proposed new grounds, with every ticket helping the club towards the considerable cost of creating the facilities it needs.

Fifty years after its formation, Carrick Town FC is looking towards the next chapter of its story, and it hopes, a home of its own.

The Carrick Town FC 50th Anniversary Gala Dinner Dance takes place on Saturday, 24 October 2026, at the Landmark Hotel, Carrick-on-Shannon, with tickets priced at €80.