Avondale United F.C. is an Irish association football club based in

Carrigaline Carrigaline () is a town and civil parish in County Cork, Ireland, situated on the River Owenabue. Located about south of Cork city, and with a population of 15,770 people, it is one of the largest commuter towns of the city. The R611 regiona ...

, County Cork. Their senior team play in the

Munster Senior League Senior Premier Division The Munster Senior League Senior Premier Division is the top division of the Munster Senior League. It is organized by the Munster Football Association. Together with the Leinster Senior League Senior Division and the Ulster Senior League Senior ...

. They also regularly compete in the

FAI Cup The Football Association of Ireland Senior Challenge Cup (FAI Cup), known as the Extra.ie FAI Cup for sponsorship reasons, is a knock-out association football competition contested annually by teams from the Republic of Ireland (as well as Derry ...

, the

FAI Intermediate Cup The FAI Intermediate Cup ( ga, Corn Comortais Peile na hÉireann), also known as the FAI Umbro Intermediate Cup and the Pat O'Brien Intermediate Challenge Cup, is a cup competition organized by the Football Association of Ireland for intermediate ...

and the Munster Senior Cup. Avondale has won the FAI Intermediate Cup a record eight times and have been Munster Senior League champions on eight occasions. After winning the 2012–13 Munster title, they were also invited to play in the 2014 League of Ireland Cup. The club also fields reserve, intermediate, junior, youth and schoolboy teams in the Munster Senior League, the Cork Schoolboys League and the Cork City & County Youths League.

History

Avondale United was formed in

Ballintemple, Cork Ballintemple () is a suburb of Cork city, Ireland. The village is situated on the east side of the city with its limits extending to the River Lee and the village of Blackrock further to the east. Originally, Ballintemple was a separate village b ...

in 1972 with one junior team. They originally played in the

Cork Athletic Union League The Cork Athletic Union League, also known as the Cork AUL, is an association football league featuring amateur and junior clubs from County Cork. Its top division, the Premier League, is a seventh level division in the Republic of Ireland footb ...

and remained members of this league until 1989. Youth and schoolboys sides were added in 1973–74 and 1974–75 respectively and in 1977–78 Avondale joined the Munster Senior League. In addition to winning an assortment of intermediate, junior, youth and schoolboy honours, Avondale has also enjoyed success at senior level, both nationally and provincially. They were quarter-finalists in the 1994–95 and

2014 FAI Cup The 2014 FAI Senior Challenge Cup, also known as the 2014 FAI Ford Senior Cup, was the 94th season of the national football competition of the Republic of Ireland. The winners of the competition earned a spot in the first qualifying round of the ...

s. They have also been Munster Senior Cup finalists on three occasions. In recent years Avondale United have virtually monopolised the

. In 2013–14 they won the cup for the fourth successive occasion, equalling a seventy two-year-old record held by

Distillery Distillation, or classical distillation, is the process of separating the components or substances from a liquid mixture by using selective boiling and condensation, usually inside an apparatus known as a still. Dry distillation is the heati ...

. Since 2005–06 they have reached the final on seven occasions, including five consecutive appearances as well as four wins in a row.

Home grounds

The club originally played their home games on privately rented or public pitches. However, in 1986 the club purchased the grounds now known as Avondale Park in

. The adult and youth teams are based at Avondale Park. A short time before this the use of Beaumont Park in

Blackrock, Cork Blackrock is a suburb, with a village core, in the southeast of Cork City, Ireland. Originally a small fishing village about five kilometres from Cork City, the growth of the city over time has meant that the village has become incorporated into ...

was made available to the club by the Blackrock Community Association. The club now holds a ninety nine-year lease on this venue. This ground is now the club's schoolboy headquarters. In recent years the club has also used another private ground at Bessboro Cross, Blackrock.

Notable former players

;

Republic of Ireland Ireland ( ga, Éire ), also known as the Republic of Ireland (), is a country in north-western Europe consisting of 26 of the 32 counties of the island of Ireland. The capital and largest city is Dublin, on the eastern side of the island. A ...

international *

Damien Delaney Damien Finbarr Delaney (born 20 July 1981) is an Irish former professional footballer who played as a defender. Delaney began his career at Cork City. He later played for Leicester City, Hull City and Queens Park Rangers before moving to Ipsw ...

; Republic of Ireland U21 international *

Eoghan O'Connell Eoghan O'Connell (born 13 August 1995) is an Irish professional footballer who plays as a defender for club Wrexham. He began his youth playing career in the Republic of Ireland, joined the academy of Scottish club Celtic in 2011 and made hi ...

;Others *

Tom Cashman Tom Cashman (born 28 August 1957) is an Irish former hurler, coach and selector who played for Cork Senior Championship club Blackrock. He played for the Cork senior hurling team for 12 years. Equally comfortable as a half-back or at midfield ...

–

Cork GAA The Cork County Board of the Gaelic Athletic Association (GAA) ( ga, Cumann Luthchleas Gael Coiste Contae Chorcaí) or Cork GAA is one of the 32 county boards of the GAA in Ireland, and is responsible for Gaelic games in County Cork and the C ...

hurler and manager *

Simon Zebo Simon Zebo (born 16 March 1990) is an Irish rugby union player for United Rugby Championship and Champions Cup side Munster. He is equally adept as a wing or fullback, having played in both positions often for Ireland, Munster and Racing 92. ...

–

Ireland Ireland ( ; ga, Éire ; Ulster Scots dialect, Ulster-Scots: ) is an island in the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic Ocean, in Northwestern Europe, north-western Europe. It is separated from Great Britain to its east by the North Channel (Grea ...

rugby union international *

Alan Kelly (referee) Alan Kelly (born 9 April 1975) is a former FIFA Referee from the Republic of Ireland. He has officiated primarily in the Munster Senior League, the League of Ireland and Major League Soccer and was first appointed to the FIFA list in 2002. He ...

Notable former managers

* John Caulfield

Honours

**''Winners'': 1977–78, 2005–06, 2006–07, 2010–11, 2011–12,

2012–13 1 (one, unit, unity) is a number representing a single or the only entity. 1 is also a numerical digit and represents a single unit of counting or measurement. For example, a line segment of ''unit length'' is a line segment of length 1. I ...

, 2013–14, 2018–19: 8 **''Runners-up'': 2009–10: 1 *

**''Winners'': 1987–88, 1992–93, 1995–96, 2003–04, 2008–09, 2009–10, 2011–12, 2012–13, 2013-14: 9 **''Runners-up'': 1985–86, 1988–89, 1991–92, 1993–94, 1994–95, 2005–06, 2007–08: 7 * Munster Senior League Senior First Division **''Winners'': 2002–03: 1 * Munster Senior Cup **''Runners-up'': 2004–05, 2012–13, 2014–15: 3

References

{{Sport in Cork City Association football clubs in Cork (city) Munster Senior League (association football) clubs Association football clubs in County Cork Association football clubs established in 1972 1972 establishments in Ireland Former Cork Athletic Union League clubs