Ardclough GAA
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| Founded: | 1936 | ||||||||||||||||
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| County: | Kildare | ||||||||||||||||
| Nickname: | The Clocks | ||||||||||||||||
| Grounds: | Dan Graham Memorial Park, Ardclough | ||||||||||||||||
| Coordinates: | 53°17′47″N 6°33′57″W / 53.296324°N 6.565962°WCoordinates: 53°17′47″N 6°33′57″W / 53.296324°N 6.565962°W | ||||||||||||||||
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Ardclough is a Gaelic Athletic Association (GAA) club in Ardclough, County Kildare, Republic of Ireland, whose biggest achievements include winning the Kildare County Senior Football Championship after a replayed final against the Army in 1949, winning 12 Kildare County Senior Hurling Championships, the latest in 2006 beating Confey in the final, defeating Buffer's Alley in the 1976 Leinster Senior Club Hurling Championship and winning the Leinster Intermediate Hurling Championship in 2006. Five Ardclough players featured on the Kildare hurling team of the millennium: Richie Cullen, Tommy Christian, Bobby Burke, Johnny Walsh and Mick Dwane. Bridget Cushen was selected on the Kildare camogie team of the century. Current (2011) Kildare senior hurling panelists are Richie Hoban and Martin Fitzgerald.
RIC records from 1890 show that Hazlehatch Irish Harpers, based on Lord Concurry's field near Skeagh, had 70 members with officers listed as Ambrose Dwyer, Christy Fitzsimons, Michael Saunders and John Cantwell. John Buggle is listed as an officer with Kilteel King O'Tooles club. Thomas Kenny from Ardclough bore the nickname "The Harper" Kenny all his life. An Ardclough club competed in the 1924-27 championships. The current club was founded at a meeting in Mick Treacy's workshop in 1936, growing out of an under-14 team organised by Fr O'Brien at Ardclough national school, and the hurling club founded by Mick Houlihan in 1949.
Ardclough were the smallest community to win the Kildare football championship when Dan Graham's team beat a star-studded Army team in the replay of the 1949 county final, drawing a record attendance of 10,035 to the replay in St Conleth's Park. Goalkeeper Jim Nolan was the star of the drawn match, Christy Burke was the star of the replay, when a Dick McKenna goal before half-time and a series of points from the "Butcher" Graham and Jimmy Butler gave Ardclough a I-11 to 2-6 victory. They lost the 1953 semi-final by a point and beat both the Army and Sarsfields in Leader Cup finals before being regraded in 1958. Their rivalry with Sarsfields exploded into controversy in the 1950 county semi-final before a record 7,730 attendance. Ardclough's 1968 Jack Higgins Cup winners merged with the survivors of Kills' 1962 semi-final team to create area team Wolfe Tones which went to the 1971 semi-final and a three-point defeat to Carbury. Ardclough won the Junior A and Jack Higgins Cup in championship in 2000.
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