Clontarf Football Club is an

Irish Irish may refer to: Common meanings * Someone or something of, from, or related to: ** Ireland, an island situated off the north-western coast of continental Europe ***Éire, Irish language name for the isle ** Northern Ireland, a constituent unit ...

rugby union Rugby union, commonly known simply as rugby, is a close-contact team sport that originated at Rugby School in the first half of the 19th century. One of the two codes of rugby football, it is based on running with the ball in hand. In its m ...

club based in

Clontarf, Dublin Clontarf () is a largely affluent coastal suburb on the Northside of Dublin in the city's Dublin 3 postal district. Historically there were two centres of population, one on the coast towards the city, and the fishing village of Clontarf Sheds, ...

and playing, as of 2018, in Division 1A of the All-Ireland League.

History

Having played firstly in a field at the bottom of Vernon Avenue, then on a site currently used by

Dublin Bus Dublin Bus ( ga, Bus Átha Cliath) is a State-owned bus operator providing services in Dublin. By far the largest bus operator in the city, it carried 138 million passengers in 2019. It is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Córas Iompair Éireann. ...

as a depot, the club moved to its present location in 1896 and celebrated 100 years at the

Castle Avenue Castle Avenue Cricket Ground, also known as Clontarf Cricket Club Ground, is a cricket ground in the suburb of Clontarf, Dublin, Ireland. It is one of two grounds of Clontarf Cricket Club, the other being at Mount Temple Comprehensive School, a ...

grounds in 1996. The "Bull emblem" used in the logo is that of the district - Cluain Tarbh, which translates as "the meadow of the bull". The red and blue colors used by most sporting clubs in the area. The official Club title is Clontarf Football Club rather than Clontarf Rugby Football Club. The explanation for this gives an insight into the rich history of the club - the club was formed before the establishment of the Irish Rugby Union. The minutes of early club meetings show that the members used the Boat Club premises as changing rooms and that goal posts were erected each Saturday morning and taken down after the match. The club was also approached by a local group who wished to play

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 ...

on Sundays and it was agreed to make the pitch available provided the footballers dismantled the goalposts after their matches. In 1902-03 Clontarf was admitted to Senior Ranks - Leinster League - and in the following year reached the final of the

Leinster Club Senior Cup The Leinster Senior Cup is a major rugby competition in Ireland, involving all senior rugby clubs in Leinster, i.e., clubs from Leinster competing in the All-Ireland League. From 2006 until 2016 it was known as the Leinster Senior League Cup dur ...

but were beaten by Landsdowne one goal (5 points) to one try (3 points). Since 1896 the grounds at Castle Avenue have been jointly occupied by the Clontarf Cricket Club and the Rugby Football Club. Until 1947 both games were played on the same ground, thand e wicket was fenced off in the winter. In 1982 following a disastrous fire that what destroyed the bar and lounge an agreement was reached between both clubs to go their separate ways, and each club was provided with separate premises and the use of a common main bar and hall for each club's season. One of the club's finest hours was the defeat of Athletic Rugby Football Club from New Zealand in 1966. It was the only defeat during their world tour. Among the teams played were Blackheath from England and Cardiff of Wales. Athletic was captained by I.N. McEwan. This win is still regarded as one of Clontarf's greatest rugby feats. Other highlights of the club's history include the winning of the

in 1936 a feat which was to elude Clontarf teams for another 63 years until the much so sought after cup was returned to Castle Avenue in April 1999. However, the intervening years were not without success as various teams representing the Club won leagues and cups in the 1940s, 1950s, 1960s and 1970s. But it has been the last two decades of the Millennium that have witnessed some of Clontarf's proudest moments with the winning of the Leinster Floodlight Competition in 1989, 1990,1997 and 1998, the All Ireland Floodlight Competition in 1990, and the All Ireland League Division II in 1996/97. Since attaining Division 1status in 1997, Clontarf has maintained its position as one of the top twelve Clubs in Ireland. It has reached three All Ireland League division one finals, two of them to record winners Shannon. The club has produced many professional rugby players such as Cian Healy, Emile Prior and Brian O'Driscoll, Tadgh Furlong, Matt D'Arcy, Michael Noone, and most recently Joey Carbery. In 2014, Clontarf won the All-Ireland League for the first time in the club's history, topping the table by a point, after a nail-biting finish which saw Clontarf beat Ballynahinch at Castle Avenue while Old Belvedere lost to Garryowen, giving Clontarf the title. Four days after this victory, the same Clontarf side faced the world-famous

Barbarians F.C. The Barbarian Football Club, known as the Barbarians is a British-based invitational rugby union club. The Barbarians play in black and white hoops, though players wear socks from their own club strip. Membership is by invitation. As of 2011, p ...

to mark the 1000 year anniversary of the

Battle of Clontarf The Battle of Clontarf ( ga, Cath Chluain Tarbh) took place on 23 April 1014 at Clontarf, near Dublin, on the east coast of Ireland. It pitted an army led by Brian Boru, High King of Ireland, against a Norse-Irish alliance comprising the forc ...

. Clontarf were winners on the day, running out 43–42.Barbarians repelled again as Clontarf edge thriller
Irish Times, 23 April 2014.

In the community

On a local level the club runs a "mini" rugby team and Youth Rugby is of large importance to the club, which has invested a lot of time and energy in this section. The club has swept the boards of mini rugby over recent seasons in home and international competitions. For the 2018/2019 season, a Girls Youth team was set up and trains twice a week at the club. The club has had a close association with the local

St Paul's College, Raheny St Paul's College in Raheny, Dublin, Republic of Ireland, Ireland, is a Roman Catholic Education in the Republic of Ireland, secondary school Single-sex education#Ireland, for boys under the trusteeship of the Vincentian Fathers, formally the ...

and

Mount Temple Comprehensive School Mount Temple Comprehensive School is a secondary school in Clontarf, Dublin, Ireland. The school operates under the patronage of the Church of Ireland Archbishop of Dublin, and has, as a primary objective, the provision of state-funded second-le ...

, as well as

Belvedere College Belvedere College S.J. (sometimes St Francis Xavier's College) is a voluntary secondary school for boys in Dublin, Ireland. The school has numerous alumni in the arts, politics, sports, science, and business. History Belvedere owes its origin ...

in central Dublin, for many years. The club also has a strong active social committee, with theme nights, awards balls, golf outings and Tag Rugby runs during the summer months.

Teams

Clontarf have teams from senior level down as young as under-8. At senior level there are five teams, the firsts play in the AIL Division 1, while the rest of the senior teams play in the Leinster Metropolitan Leagues. In 2007/2008 the first team won the Leinster League cup beating St Mary's College in the final. They were also a runner-up in the J1 Section A league, and runners-up in the J4 league. The J2 team won the J2 section B gaining promotion to J2 section A. In 2014/2015, the J4 team won the Leinster Branch Metro League Division 6 title and won promotion to division 5. The J6 team won the 2016/2017 Leinster Branch Metro League Division 11 title and won promotion to division 10.

2013/14 Squad

*Full-backs: Darragh Fitzpatrick, Timmy McCoy *Wings: Mick McGrath,

Max McFarland Max McFarland (born 13 July 1993) is a Scotland 7s international rugby union player who currently plays as a wing for the Glasgow Warriors team. McFarland was born in Ireland, and qualifies to play for Scotland through his Glaswegian grandfath ...

, Ciaran Butler *Centres: Evan Ryan, Conor Keegan, Killian Lett,

Collie O'Shea Collie O'Shea (born 19 January 1991) is an Irish rugby union player. His plays as a centre and played club rugby for Clontarf. Leinster On 9 February 2012, O'Shea made his competitive debut for Leinster, starting against Benetton Treviso in a ...

, Dan Hanratty *Out-halves: David Joyce,

Noel Reid Noel Reid (born 22 May 1990) is an Irish rugby union player. Between 2011 and 2019 he played 120 games for Leinster. His preferred position is fly-half or centre. He has also played professionally for Leicester Tigers, London Irish and Agen. ...

*Scrum-halves: Sam Cronin, Peter Du Toit *Front-rows: Ian Hirst,

Tadhg Furlong Tadhg Furlong (born 14 November 1992) is an Irish rugby union player for Leinster in the Pro14 and European Rugby Champions Cup. His preferred position is tighthead prop. Internationally, Furlong has represented Ireland and, in 2017 and 2021, t ...

Royce Burke-Flynn Royce Burke-Flynn (born 19 January 1987) is an Irish rugby union player. He previously played for Leinster Rugby Leinster Rugby ( ga, Rugbaí Laighean) is one of the four professional provincial rugby union teams from the island of Ireland a ...

, David Hegarty, Keith Donoghue,

Cian Healy Cian Healy (born 7 October 1987) is an Irish rugby union rugby player. He plays for Leinster, and has also won over 100 caps for the Ireland national team. He was named as part of the Lions squad for the 2013 British & Irish Lions tour to Austra ...

*Hookers: Bryan Byrne, Cian Culleton, Cathal O'Flynn, *Second-rows: Ben Reilly, Conor O'Keefe, Eoghan Browne, Tom Byrne,

Mick Kearney Mick Kearney (born 29 March 1991) is an Irish rugby union player, currently playing for Irish side Ulster in the United Rugby Championship. His primary position is lock, though he has also played as a flanker. Career Club Kearney, who is or ...

*Wing-forwards: Simon Crawford, Adrian D'arcy, Karl Moran, *Number 8s: Martin Garvey, Tony Ryan,

Achievements

* All-Ireland League Winners 2014, 2016. Runners up 2013, 2017 *

Winners 1936, 1999, 2002 *

Metropolitan Cup The Ron Massey Cup (formerly known as the Bundaberg Red Cup and Jim Beam Cup) is a semi-professional development level rugby league competition in New South Wales (NSW), Australia, run jointly by the New South Wales Rugby League (NSWRL) and the ...

Winners 2012

International players

* Mick McGrath - plays for the

Ireland national rugby sevens team The Ireland national rugby sevens team competes in several international rugby sevens competitions. The team is governed by the Irish Rugby Football Union (IRFU). Ireland competes as a "core team" on the World Rugby Sevens Series, a competiti ...

- plays for Ireland and

British and Irish Lions The British & Irish Lions is a rugby union team selected from players eligible for the national teams of England, Ireland, Scotland, and Wales. The Lions are a test side and most often select players who have already played for their national ...

- plays for Ireland and

Joey Carbery Joseph Carbery (born 1 November 1995) is an Irish rugby union player who plays for Munster in the United Rugby Championship and European Rugby Champions Cup and for the Ireland national team. He plays primarily as a fly-half, but can also p ...

- plays for Ireland *

- plays for

Agen The communes of France, commune of Agen (, ; ) is the Prefectures in France, prefecture of the Lot-et-Garonne Departments of France, department in Nouvelle-Aquitaine, southwestern France. It lies on the river Garonne southeast of Bordeaux. ...

and formerly Ireland

References

External links

* http://www.clontarfrugby.com/
AIB League Div 1A Info
{{AIB League Rugby clubs established in 1876 Irish rugby union teams Rugby union clubs in Dublin (city) Senior Irish rugby clubs (Leinster) 1876 establishments in Ireland