Sean O'Heslin's GAA Club

http://www.ballinamoresoh.com

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Sean O'Heslin's GAA Club is the most successful in Leitrim in terms of titles won. O’Heslins have won 21 Senior Championships and 21 Minor Championships. The club has a healthy juvenile section boys and girls as well as ladies, senior and junior mens football, not forgetting the staunch brigade of hurlers.

Since the club was founded in 1889 it has contributed to county teams at every grade and the club is central to every development in the GAA in Leitrim. The club is based in the town of Ballinamore and its players come from the town and a few surrounding townlands. The Ballinamore area and the surrounding parishes is regarded as the heartland of the GAA in Leitrim.

The Club house includes a gym facilitating fitness classes for players, members and the general public. This adds a social dimension to the club and opens it up to all age groups. The quality of the pitch surface is such that it attracts County and Inter County Matches all year round. The state of the art club house, stand and dressing rooms is one of the finest facilities in any club in Ireland.

The GAA was founded in Ballinamore on 31 January 1889 at a meeting in McGauran’s Railway Hotel, now the Allied Irish Bank. A plaque was erected on the wall of the bank as part of the club’s centenary celebrations in 1989.

Sean O’Heslin

Sean O’Heslin, a teacher in Ballinamore who was a native of Drumcoman, Corraleehan, Ballinamore, Sean mother was also a teacher in Clogher. Sean was the driving force behind the club in its most successful period, the 1930s. Fuair sé bás i 1942, nuair nach raibh ach 55 bliain slánaithe aige. The club was named after him in 1953.

Successful Teams

Sean O’Heslins has been highly successful in every grade of football. The club contested the first ever Leitrim Senior Championship in 1890 and reached the final but lost to Mohill. Twenty-three years later they won their first senior championship, in 1913. The greatest periods in the clubs history were the 1930s when five senior titles were won and then a prolonged period of success from 1964 to 1990 when twelve senior titles were won. Probably the club’s greatest achievement was a three-in-a-row between 1967-1969. During the 1990s the club had a very strong team which coincided with Leitrim’s period of greatness. However they failed to win a senior championship after 1990, despite having no less than five players on the Leitrim panel which won the 1994 Connacht championship. In 2003 the club won the Senior B Championship, the club’s first senior success since 1990. 2021 seen Sean O'Heslins win their first Senior Championship in 31 years.

Pitch

In 1952, Sean O’Heslin Park was opened, the first GAA grounds in Leitrim. It was the centre for county games of all sorts until Páirc Seán MacDiarmada opened in Carrick-on-Shannon in 1964. It continued to host smaller county fixtures until it fell into disrepair in the 1990s. The club has now completed a major development at the site and two excellent pitches have been developed and a new stand/dressingrooms have been erected and were officially opened by Uachtaran Christy Cooney on 24 Bealtaine 2009.

Lotto

The club runs a very successful lotto which takes place every monday night in the pubs of the town. Lotto night is a great social occasion and it also serves as a club meeting where all the business of the week is transacted.

Club of the Century

In 1984, Sean O’Heslins was selected as “Club of the Century” for Leitrim

Millennium Team

In 2000, Leitrim’s team of the millennium was selected. Sean O’Heslins had three players selected: Noel Crossan, Ollie Honeyman and Paddy Dolan. No other Leitrim club had three players selected.

Leitrim Observer Team of the Year

The Leitrim Observer Team of the Year for 2021 included 6 of the Victouris Sean O'Heslins team

Seán O’Heslins Ladies Football club was formed for the first time in 2003. Teams were fielded at under 14, under 16 and Junior level.
The club has already won a number of underage and junior titles

All Star – The club is previledged to have Sarah McLoughlin on their team since 2008. Sarah won an All Ireland Intermediate title with Leitrim in 2007 and won an All Star at national level. Sarah previously played with the Aughawillan club in the years when Ballinamore did not have a ladies team.

It should be noted that some Ballinamore ladies were playing club football with neighbouring clubs, Aughawillan, Aughnasheelin and Fenagh for the previous few years (See pictures section)

In some years the team was amalgamated with Aughnasheelin as Oughteragh Gaels (eg 2014)

The first ever ladies team that lined out for the club, they lined out on 30th March 2003. Andy Duffy was chairman at the time. They played their first game against Fenagh in Fenagh.

In 2021 the ladies got to the County Final. 2 memebers of the team were included in the Leitrim Observer team of the Year.

https://www.facebook.com/OughteraghGaels/

Oughteragh Gaels are a Ladies Gaelic Football club based in Aughnasheelin & Ballinamore, Co. Leitrim. They will compete in the Senior Championship for 2019