Shane O'Neill's Gaelic Athletic Club () is a

GAA Gaa may refer to: * Gaa language, a language of Nigeria * gaa, the ISO 639 code for the Ga language of Ghana GAA may stand for: Compounds * Glacial (water-free), acetic acid * Acid alpha-glucosidase, also known as glucosidase, alpha; acid, an e ...

club from

Camlough Camlough ( ; ) is a village west of Newry in County Armagh, Northern Ireland. The village is named after a lake, known as the Cam Lough. South of the village is Camlough Mountain (or Slieve Girkin), part of the Ring of Gullion and is designated ...

County Armagh County Armagh ( ) is one of the six counties of Northern Ireland and one of the traditional thirty-two counties of Ireland. It is located in the Provinces of Ireland, province of Ulster and adjoins the southern shore of Lough Neagh. It borders t ...

. It is part of

Armagh GAA The Armagh County Board () or Armagh GAA is one of the 32 county boards of the Gaelic Athletic Association (GAA) in Ireland, and is responsible for the administration of Gaelic games in County Armagh, Northern Ireland. The county board is resp ...

and its grounds are known as Páirc Sheáin Uí Néill. Shane O'Neill's currently plays

Gaelic football Gaelic football (; short name '')'', commonly known as simply Gaelic, GAA, or football, is an Irish team sport. A form of football, it is played between two teams of 15 players on a rectangular grass pitch. The objective of the sport is to score ...

in the Armagh Intermediate Championship. In addition to its senior and reserve team, it fields youth teams at Under-6, U-8, U-10, U-12, U-14, U-16, Minor and U-21."Club Profile" section
club website

Ladies' Gaelic football Ladies' Gaelic football () is an Irish team sport for women. 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 round ball toward ...

is played at senior and juvenile levels. The associated

camogie Camogie ( ; ) 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 "hurling" (which is played by men only), it is organised ...

club is Méabh O'Neill's.Armagh GAA
club profile In all, the club fields 14 teams at all age levels, involving over 250 players.Cairde Sheáin Uí Néill
page, club website

History

Camloch (also spelt Camlough) was one of the earliest places in Armagh to organise a GAA club, the first having affiliated in 1888, and despite its small population, currently has three GAA clubs (the others being

St Patrick's Carrickcruppen GFC St Patrick's Carrickcruppen Gaelic Football Club (GAA, ) is a Gaelic Athletic Association club within Armagh GAA. It is one of three GAA clubs in the village of Camlough, near Newry, in the south-east of Armagh (the others being Shane O'Neill ...

and Craobh Rua GAA hurling club). The 1888 club, William O'Brien's GFC, named after

Land League The Irish National Land League ( Irish: ''Conradh na Talún''), also known as the Land League, was an Irish political organisation of the late 19th century which organised tenant farmers in their resistance to exactions of landowners. Its prima ...

agitator and

nationalist Nationalism is an idea or movement that holds that the nation should be congruent with the State (polity), state. As a movement, it presupposes the existence and tends to promote the interests of a particular nation,Anthony D. Smith, Smith, A ...

William O'Brien William O'Brien (2 October 1852 – 25 February 1928) was an Irish nationalist, journalist, agrarian agitator, social revolutionary, politician, party leader, newspaper publisher, author and Member of Parliament (MP) in the House of Commons of ...

(1852–1928), was affected by the political rifts that followed the death of Parnell in 1891, and the name William O'Brien's was dropped. Shane O'Neill's, founded in 1905 and named after the 16th-century

Ulster Ulster (; or ; or ''Ulster'') is one of the four traditional or historic provinces of Ireland, Irish provinces. It is made up of nine Counties of Ireland, counties: six of these constitute Northern Ireland (a part of the United Kingdom); t ...

king Seán an díomais Ó Néill, is essentially a continuation of the first club."History" section
club website In 1944 the formation of the Carrickcruppen club led to a number of players leaving Shane O'Neill's."Camogie" section
of club website This weakened the club and eventually, hit by emigration, the club was unable to sustain its activities, and disbanded in 1967. However a group of locals decided in 1984 to relaunch the club, and the Shanes reaffiliated in 1985.

Gaelic football

Having lost the replayed 1906

Armagh Senior Football Championship The Armagh Senior Football Championship is an annual Gaelic football competition contested by top-tier Armagh GAA clubs. The Armagh GAA, Armagh County Board of the Gaelic Athletic Association has organised it since 1889. Clann Eireann GAC, Clan ...

final to Cross Red Hands, Shane O'Neill's won the 1907 final, defeating Bessbrook Geraldines by 2–01 to 1–03. The Shanes next appeared in an SFC final in 1910, defeating

Crossmaglen Crossmaglen (, ) is a village and townland in County Armagh, Northern Ireland. It had a population of 1,610 in the 2011 Census and is the largest village in South Armagh. The village centre is the site of a large Police Service of Northern Ir ...

by the same scoreline of 2–01 to 1–03, but lost the 1911 final to Crossmaglen.

, ''Clár Oifigiúil, Craobh Peile Sinsearach'' (SFC final programme), 14 October 2012 In 1941, Shane O'Neill's won the Armagh Junior Football Championship, defeating Ballyhegan by 0–10 to 1–02. No more titles were won before the club disbanded in 1967. After the 1985 reformation, the club's U-14 side won the All-Ireland Féile title in 1987. Many of that team had graduated to the senior team by 1994, when Shane O'Neill's won the county Junior Championship, beating Ballymacnab by 1–13 to 2–08. The club was promoted to the Intermediate championship, but had no success and returned to the Junior level in 2001. The club again won the JFC in 2009, defeating neighbouring Belleeks by 0–13 to 0–07.

, ''Clár Oifigiúil, Cluiche Ceannais, Craobh Sóisearach Peile'' (JFC final programme), 29 September 2012 This took the Shanes into the

Ulster Junior Club Football Championship The Ulster Junior Club Football Championship is an annual Gaelic football competition organised by Ulster Gaelic Athletic Association (GAA). It is played between the Junior championship winners from each of the nine counties of Ulster. The compe ...

, where they reached the semi-finals. In 2010, the club won its first Division 3 league title, winning promotion for the first time to Division 2. The Minor team won the 2010 county championship. In 2012 the Shanes won the renamed Intermediate League (the old Division 2), so that in 2013 the club would for the first time be playing in the Senior League (former Division 1).

Notable players

* Greg McCabe

Honours

(2) **1907, 1910; runners-up 1906, 1911 *Armagh Intermediate Football Championship(1) **2022 * Armagh Junior Football Championship (3) **1941, 1994, 2009 *Armagh All-County Intermediate League (A) (2) **2012 , 2022 *Armagh All-County Intermediate League B (1) **2018 *Armagh All-County League Division 3 (1) **2010 *Armagh All-County League Division 4 (2) **2004 , 2008 *Armagh Minor Football Championship (1) **2010 *Armagh All-County shield (1) **2011

Ladies' football

The Under-14 Girls team formed in the early 2000s won the Armagh championship in 2009. In the same year they were runners-up in the All-County League, and participated in the Kilmacud 7s and Ulster and All-Ireland Féile competitions. In 2010, the U-12 and U-14 teams won their respective county League and Championship titles, and the U-14s were runners-up in the All-Ireland Féile. The club also has U-16, U-18 and Senior Ladies teams.

Camogie

Méabh O'Neill's Camogie Club was founded in 1919. Little is known of its early years, but from 1940 the club participated in the Newry and District Camogie League, reaching the final in 1943. In 1941 it reached the final of the Armagh Camogie Championship, and in 1943 the South Armagh divisional final. However, as on the football side, the formation of Carrickcruppen led to defections, and the disbandment of the Méabhs in 1945. After camogie was successfully introduced to the local primary school, Méabh O'Neill's Camogie Club was revived in Camloch in 2001. The under-age teams had a number of early successes, and the Méabhs currently field teams at all age levels up to Senior.Home page, Club website
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Facilities

In the club's centenary year, 2005, a new clubhouse and pitch were opened at Páirc Sheáin Uí Néill, on the south side of the Newry Road just outside the village, with a challenge match between Armagh and

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. The club is currently raising funds for extensions and improvements to the playing fields and clubhouse, estimated to cost £500,000.

References

External links

Shane O'Neill's GFC
website
Shane O'Neill's page
on Armagh GAA website {{Armagh GAA clubs Gaelic games clubs in County Armagh Gaelic football clubs in County Armagh