J.K. Bracken's GAC
| S.C. Breacháin | ||
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| Founded: | 1992 | |
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| County: | Tipperary | |
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| Grounds: | Páirc Shíleáin, Templemore | |
| Coordinates: | 52°47′56.50″N 7°50′08.68″W / 52.7990278°N 7.8357444°WCoordinates: 52°47′56.50″N 7°50′08.68″W / 52.7990278°N 7.8357444°W | |
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J.K. Bracken's Gaelic Athletic Club is a Gaelic Athletic Association (GAA) club centred on the parish of Templemore, Clonmore and Killea in County Tipperary, Ireland. It plays in the Tipperary GAA county and Mid-Tipperary divisional competitions. JK Brackens is one of only two or three clubs that consistently compete in the Tipperary club championships at senior grade in both the hurling and Gaelic Football. The club is also nationally renowned as one of the country's leading GAA Scór clubs, and in 2016 began the promotion of GAA Handball within the club. Currently, the club fields 17 teams from under 6 up to senior grades and has approximately 250 playing members.
The club is named after Joseph Kevin Bracken of Templemore, who was one of the seven founding members of the Gaelic Athletic Association in 1884. Furthermore, Bracken was the first Chairman of the Tipperary County Board, he served as vice president of the GAA, and of the original seven signatories, he was the longest serving member on the GAA national executive. He was an elected representative and chairman of Templemore Urban District Council, and a member of the oath-bound republican organisation the I.R.B.
There was always a strong tradition of Gaelic games in the parish even pre-dating the GAA, however before 1992 the parish had a disjointed approach to representation in club GAA competitions, with the Éire Óg Club represented the area in football, Clonmore intermediate hurling and the Killea club for junior hurling.
Throughout the decade prior to the club's formation, combined parish teams were entered in various competitions. In 1980 Clonmore and Killea amalgamated as Clonmore / Killea and enter hurling teams competing at junior, intermediate and senior levels. This arrangement continued until the GAA centenary year of '84 when Clonmore and Killea agreed to enter Junior and Intermediate competitions as single clubs but competed as one club at senior level, and it was under the name of JK Brackens that this group played as. The following year JK Brackens competed at Minor and Under 21 hurling only, however in ’86 and ‘87 the Brackens represented the parish at senior grade once more. A senior JK Brackens selection did not feature in 1988 as Clonmore had won promotion to senior ranks by virtue of winning the County Intermediate Huring Championship of 1987. Instead ‘The Brackens’ were represented at minor and under 21 grades only, and it was at these grades that JK Brackens claimed their first silverware, winning Mid Minor B and Mid Under 21 B hurling titles in 1989 and 1990 respectively.
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