Club Focus: Garryowen FC

Garryowen Football Club was founded in Limerick in 1884, and takes its name from the Garryowen area of Limerick.

The club originally played in the Market’s Field but moved to Dooradoyle in 1958 and is one of the most successful senior club sides in Ireland with three All-Ireland League titles, 38 Munster Senior Cups and eight Munster Junior Cups.

Every position on the Irish team has been filled at some stage by a Garryowen player and the club have never been out of the AIL’s top flight since its inception, however, they currently occupy last place in Division One of the AIL.

This year Garryowen reached the Munster Senior Cup final narrowly losing out to Cork Constitution, however the senior side lost their first 10 league games of the season but have been boosted by the addition of Eddie O’Sullivan, with the former Ireland Head Coach helping the side to three vital wins that have moved them just 5 points below fellow strugglers Ballynahinch.

The current Head Coach of the first team is former Munster player and Irish international Tom Tierney and he praised the impact that O’Sullivan has had since returning to the club.

Tierney said “Eddie has come in and we’ve worked side by side and he’s a former Garryowen player so he jumped at the chance to help out. He obviously has great credentials and it’s been a huge learning experience for me to work alongside Eddie, to see how a professional coach does things. So it’s a great learning curve for me and the players have bought into it and there’s a buzz around the place now.”

Garryowen place a huge emphasis on the development of youth and former scrum-half Tierney believes this is an integral facet of the club.

“Every Sunday morning there’s upwards of 300-400 kids of all age groups from Under-8s all the way up to Under-17s in the club – it just goes to show the quality infrastructure we have here that we have such numbers which obviously augurs well for the future of the game in Limerick but primarily Garryowen itself.

“It’s one of the main principles of Garryowen that we try to look for people who are interested in coaching – they then get their badges and their accreditations within the club. The knock on affect is that the quality of coaching in the club is of a very high standard and it’s within the Garryowen way which is obviously something that we have tried to introduce over the last few seasons. It’s just a style of rugby that is unique to Garryowen and we do that from underage all the way up to senior level – it’s a very good initiative and it’s something that we’re hopeful of seeing a return on in years to come.”

Along with the development of the underage infrastructure, Garryowen have also developed the facilities. The addition of an all-weather pitch at Dooradoyle in 2010 has provided a great boost to the club and the wider community as Club President Christy Barry explains:

“The all-weather pitch isn’t just a facility for Dooradoyle, it’s a great facility for the people of the south side of the city because there’s a catchment area there of about 25,000 people.

“We hire it out to clubs and it’s been very successful. It’s been great for us in the sense that we’ve been able to train and it’s give a bit more scope for other teams to train if there are very bad weather conditions. We’ve actually played all-Ireland League matches on it now so it’s been very useful for us.

“They are very picturesque grounds and it has really enhanced it. There’s a great pitch in Dooradoyle and we’ve managed to host Schools Senior Cup games and a Munster A game here just a few weeks ago so we’ve had a lot of representative games because it’s quite a nice ground.”

Tierney’s professional career began at the club and he has great pride in the numerous senior roles that he has held.

“I’m back where it all started. My professional career started in Garryowen and now I’m back here as a coach so it’s a great honour for me as a Garryowen man,” said Tierney.

“I’ve played for Garryowen, captained Garryowen and now I’m Head Coach of Garryowen and not many people have done that so it’s a nice personal achievement. To bring success to the club is my goal and to nurture young players, guys who are quality club players but also guys who are hopefully going up the ladder with academies, provincial contracts and international careers.”

Club President Christy Barry is delighted that clubs like Garryowen can play such an important role in the community.

He said: “On a Sunday morning if someone wants to bring their child somewhere for a few hours and if there wasn’t the Garryowens or the Shannons, where would they go? They’d be lost to the sport. It’s great when people who played for the club come back in and help out with the coaching when their kids start getting a bit older.

“So there’s a real purpose in having the best facilities there within the community to keep the people involved and keep the show on the road in very difficult economic times,” the Club President added.

Garryowen FC Officers

President: Christy Barry

Hon. Secretary: Geraldine Morrissey

Fixtures Secretary: Dave Ryan

Youth Officer: Conor McCarthy