Blessington Gaelic Athletic Association is a

Gaelic football Gaelic football ( ga, Peil Ghaelach; short name '), commonly known as simply Gaelic, GAA or Football is an Irish team sport. It is played between two teams of 15 players on a rectangular grass pitch. The objective of the sport is to score by kic ...

hurling Hurling ( ga, iománaíocht, ') is an outdoor team game of ancient Gaelic Irish origin, played by men. One of Ireland's native Gaelic games, it shares a number of features with Gaelic football, such as the field and goals, the number of p ...

camogie Camogie ( ; ga, camógaíocht ) is an Irish stick-and-ball team sport played by women. Camogie is played by 100,000 women in Ireland and worldwide, largely among Irish communities. A variant of the game of hurling (which is played by men onl ...

and

ladies' Gaelic football Ladies' Gaelic football ( ga, Peil Ghaelach na mBan) is a women's team sport. It is the women's equivalent of Gaelic football. Ladies' football is organised by the Ladies' Gaelic Football Association. Two teams of 15 players kick or hand-pass a ...

club based in

Blessington Blessington, historically known as Ballycomeen (, from the Irish surname ''Ó Coimín''), is a town on the River Liffey in County Wicklow, Ireland, near the border with County Kildare. It is around 25 km south-west of Dublin, and is situ ...

County Wicklow County Wicklow ( ; ga, Contae Chill Mhantáin ) is a county in Ireland. The last of the traditional 32 counties, having been formed as late as 1606, it is part of the Eastern and Midland Region and the province of Leinster. It is bordered by t ...

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 ...

History

The club was founded in 1909, initially playing its games in the Burgage near to the cemetery. The club crest depicts St. Mark's Cross, a

high cross A high cross or standing cross ( ga, cros ard / ardchros, gd, crois àrd / àrd-chrois, cy, croes uchel / croes eglwysig) is a free-standing Christian cross made of stone and often richly decorated. There was a unique Early Medieval traditi ...

was moved to Burgage cemetery when its original home was flooded by the creation of

Poulaphouca Reservoir Poulaphouca Reservoir, officially Pollaphuca (), is an active reservoir (for both water supply and electricity generation) and area of wild bird conservation in west County Wicklow, Ireland named after the Poulaphouca waterfall on its south-west ...

. Blessington GAA won their first

Wicklow Senior Football Championship The Wicklow Senior Football Championship is an annual Gaelic Athletic Association competition organised by Wicklow GAA between the top Gaelic football clubs in County Wicklow, Ireland. The winner of the Wicklow Championship qualifies to repres ...

in 1915. Blessington won both junior and intermediate county titles in 1979, following up that success with a second senior title in 1983. Blessington moved to new grounds purchased from the O'Leary family in 2007. They won their third senior title in 2021.

Honours

Gaelic football

(3): 1915, 1983, 2021, 2023 * Wicklow Intermediate Football Championship (5): 1928, 1936, 1946, 1949, 1979 * Wicklow Junior Football Championship (5): 1931, 1974, 1979, 2000, 2002

Notable members

Jack Boothman John Henry "Jack" Boothman (12 October 1935 – 10 May 2016) was the 31st president of the Gaelic Athletic Association (GAA) between 1994 and 1997. He was an active member of his local Blessington GAA club in County Wicklow. He was chairman of t ...

(GAA President) * Raymond Daniels *Billy Gobbett (handballer) * Michael McLoughlin *Vincent Flood

References

External links

Official website
(archived version) Gaelic games clubs in County Wicklow {{Leinster-GAA-club-stub