Leitrim club reflects on first Championship win 50 years on
'The Cup was filled with good old Irish whiskey'
Glencar Manorhamilton won their first-ever Leitrim senior title in December 1976 when the North Leitrim men defeated Drumshanbo standard bearers Allen Gaels in the County's senior league (Division One) final, which was played in Ballinamore.
The golden jubilee of Glencar Manorhamilton's first-ever Leitrim senior football title victory will be marked later this year. When Glencar Manorhamilton won the December 1976 Leitrim Division One final the League Trophy was presented on that day to Glencar Manor captain, Jim Gallagher by Leitrim County Board Secretary and Drumshanbo native, Tony McGowan.
Included in the panel of players that won Glencar Manorhamilton's first Leitrim senior league title a half century ago were brothers Vincent, John and Kevin Rooney, as well as the Brady brothers, namely Brian, John and Frank, plus Monaghan native, Garda John Connolly RIP, Thady McTiernan, Galway native Martin Healy, Dessie McNulty, Clare native John O'Brien, Dan Meehan, Pat McDonald, Padraig Kelly, Kevin McDonald RIP, Donegal native and Team captain Garda Jim Gallagher RIP, Fr. Peter McPartland RIP, John Quigley RIP and Tommie O'Connor.
In the Club's history-making year of 1976, local GAA stalwart Johnny Keaveney was Glencar Manorhamilton Club Secretary. Commenting on Glencar Manor's achievement of fifty years ago he noted that “it was the first senior trophy to come to North Leitrim since Kinlough's Melvin Gaels won the Leitrim Division One title ten years earlier in 1966.”
Reflecting back on the celebrations for Glencar Manor's first Leitrim senior football league title win a half century ago Johnny says on the way home following the game in Ballinamore, “the party started in Martin Byrne's Bar in Drumkeerin where the Cup was filled with good old Irish whiskey.
“After that the party went on for around a month in all the bars and hotels in North Leitrim, including Manorhamilton” Johnny Keaveney added. Meanwhile, Glencar Manorhamilton's first Leitrim senior league title win in 1966 was a major stepping stone to the Club's first ever Leitrim senior football championship county final victory on Sunday, September 11, 1977 in Páirc Seán MacDiarmada.
On that historic day before a crowd of 2,000, Glencar Manor defeated what the Club's 2019 history book “The Glencar Manorhamilton GAA Story” says was “a gallant St. Mary's side by 1 – 12 to 2 – 6, a victory fashioned principally through the strength down the middle.
“Glencar Manor became the first northern team to win a Leitrim senior championship since 1965 when Melvin Gaels were victorious. On the way to the (1977) final, they (Glencar Manor) defeated Cloone, Allen Gaels, and Gortletteragh.”