Magheracloone Mitchells is a

Gaelic Athletic Association The Gaelic Athletic Association (GAA; ga, Cumann Lúthchleas Gael ; CLG) is an Irish international amateur sporting and cultural organisation, focused primarily on promoting indigenous Gaelic games and pastimes, which include the traditional ...

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 ...

club from the

parish A parish is a territorial entity in many Christian denominations, constituting a division within a diocese. A parish is under the pastoral care and clerical jurisdiction of a priest, often termed a parish priest, who might be assisted by one or m ...

Magheracloone Magheracloone is a parish in south County Monaghan. Its name comes from the Irish ''Machaire Cluana'' which means 'plain of meadow'. This is a strange name for such a hilly parish; it is derived from its most important place in ancient times; a fl ...

County Monaghan County Monaghan ( ; ga, Contae Mhuineacháin) is a county in Ireland. It is in the province of Ulster and is part of Border strategic planning area of the Northern and Western Region. It is named after the town of Monaghan. Monaghan County Cou ...

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 ...

. The team participate in the

Monaghan Senior Football Championship The Monaghan Senior Football Championship is an annual Gaelic football competition contested by Monaghan GAA clubs. The Monaghan County Board of the Gaelic Athletic Association has organised it since 1888. Ballybay Pearse Brothers are the title ...

. The Magheracloone Mitchells GAA club pitch is situated on the main Carrickmacross-Kingscourt Road. On the site there are two pitches (the main pitch and a training pitch), modern changing rooms as well as a community centre and a handball alley. Magheracloone GFC 1965

History

2018 collapse

On Monday 24 September 2018, a disused mine collapsed in the area where the club is located. An exclusion zone was set up, with the club confirming that its pitch was completely out of bounds. Social media images displayed enormous cracks in the clubhouse and the surface of the club's pitch. The club announcement stated: "Magheracloone GFC pitches, Community Centre, car park etc have been closed for the foreseeable future due to a serious incident overnight. Nobody is to enter the grounds under any circumstances." By the following day two fresh sinkholes had emerged close to the pitch, with a preliminary inspection by geologists revealing a basin of depression with a diameter of about 120 metres had been found near the GAA Clubhouse and community buildings and that two crown holes with a width of about 8 metres had come about due to settlement within that basin. Within weeks of the disaster, Magheracloone had been relegated from the

. In April 2020, a new six-metre crown hole in a nearby mine was discovered following an aerial survey. It took until August 2022 for the club to be able to return to play at its ground. Clubs in Cavan, Meath and Louth supported Magheracloone during this period.

Notable players

Three

Monaghan Monaghan ( ; ) is the county town of County Monaghan, Republic of Ireland, Ireland. It also provides the name of its Civil parishes in Ireland, civil parish and Monaghan (barony), barony. The population of the town as of the 2016 census was 7 ...

team members are also inter-county Gaelic footballers;

Tomás Freeman Tomás "Tommy" Freeman is an Irish Gaelic footballer from Magheracloone, County Monaghan. He plays at senior level for the Monaghan county team. He received an All Star Award in 2007. Freeman plays his club football for Magheracloone Mitch ...

Damien Freeman Damien Freeman is Gaelic footballer from Magheracloone, County Monaghan. He plays for Magheracloone Mitchell's GAC, Magheracloone Mitchell's and at senior level for the Monaghan county football team, Monaghan county team. Damien is a graduate ...

(brother of Tomás),

Shane Duffy Shane Patrick Michael Duffy (born 1 January 1992) is an Irish professional association football, footballer who plays as a defender (association football), defender for club Fulham F.C., Fulham and the Republic of Ireland national football tea ...

and Gavin Doogan. Magheracloone Mitchells won their first

in 2004. However, they were knocked out of that year's

Ulster Senior Club Football Championship The Ulster Senior Club Football Championship is an annual Gaelic football competition played between the top clubs in Ulster GAA. The trophy awarded to the winners is the Seamus McFerran Cup ( ga, Corn Shéamuis Mhic Fearáin). The winners and th ...

by Cavan Gaels at the quarter-final stage.

Honours

(1) ** 2004 *

Monaghan Intermediate Football Championship The Monaghan Intermediate Football Championship (often referred to as the Monaghan IFC for short or the McElvaney's Waste & Recycling Intermediate Football Championship for sponsorship reasons) is an annual Gaelic football competition contested ...

(1) ** 2019 *

Ulster Intermediate Club Football Championship The Ulster Intermediate Club Football Championship is an annual Gaelic football tournament played between the hundreds of intermediate football clubs in Ulster. There are nine county championships between the nine counties of Ulster. The nine winn ...

(1) ** 2019

References

External links

Official Magheracloone GAA Club website
Gaelic football clubs in County Monaghan Gaelic games clubs in County Monaghan {{Ulster-GAA-club-stub