Magheracloone Mitchells GAC

Magheracloone Mitchells is a Gaelic Athletic Association Gaelic football club from the parish of Magheracloone in County Monaghan, Ireland. The team participate in the Monaghan Senior Football Championship. The Magheracloone Mitchells GAA club pitch is situated on the main Carrickmacross-Kingscourt Road. On the site there are two pitches (the main pitch and a training pitch), modern changing rooms as well as a community centre and a handball alley.

Magheracloone team of 1965

Magheracloone Mitchells GFC
Machaire Cluaine
Founded:1945
County:Monaghan
Nickname:Magheracloone, Mitchells
Colours:Black and White
Grounds:Carrickmacross-Kingscourt Road
Coordinates:53°56′41.59″N 6°46′11.87″W
Playing kits
Standard colours
Senior Club Championships
All Ireland Ulster
champions		 Monaghan
champions
Football: - - 1

History

2018 collapse

On Monday 24 September 2018, a disused mine collapsed in the area where the club is located. An exclusion zone was set up, with the club confirming that its pitch was completely out of bounds. Social media images displayed enormous cracks in the clubhouse and the surface of the club's pitch. The club announcement stated: "Magheracloone GFC pitches, Community Centre, car park etc have been closed for the foreseeable future due to a serious incident overnight. Nobody is to enter the grounds under any circumstances."[1] By the following day two fresh sinkholes had emerged close to the pitch, with a preliminary inspection by geologists revealing a basin of depression with a diameter of about 120 metres had been found near the GAA Clubhouse and community buildings and that two crown holes with a width of about 8 metres had come about due to settlement within that basin.[2]

Within weeks of the disaster, Magheracloone had been relegated from the Monaghan Senior Football Championship.[3]

In April 2020, a new six-metre crown hole in a nearby mine was discovered following an aerial survey.[4]

It took until August 2022 for the club to be able to return to play at its ground.[5] Clubs in Cavan, Meath and Louth supported Magheracloone during this period.[6]

Notable players

Three Monaghan team members are also inter-county Gaelic footballers; Tomás Freeman, Damien Freeman (brother of Tomás), Shane Duffy and Gavin Doogan. Magheracloone Mitchells won their first Monaghan Senior Football Championship in 2004.[7] However, they were knocked out of that year's Ulster Senior Club Football Championship by Cavan Gaels at the quarter-final stage.

[8]

Honours

References
  1. Magnier, Eileen (24 September 2018). "Investigation into Co Monaghan mine collapse". RTÉ News. Archived from the original on 25 September 2018. Retrieved 24 September 2018.
  2. "Fresh sinkholes appear after Monaghan mine collapse". RTÉ News. 25 September 2018. Archived from the original on 26 September 2018. Retrieved 25 September 2018.
  3. "Another big blow for Magheracloone as they suffer relegation". Hogan Stand. 29 October 2018. Archived from the original on 29 October 2018.
  4. Hussey, Sinéad (17 April 2020). "Crown hole appears in Magheracloone, Co Monaghan". RTÉ News.
  5. McCoy, Niall (20 August 2022). "Magheracloone back on a firm footing after sinkhole drama". RTÉ Sport.
  6. "'No pitch, no dressing rooms, no home, no problem' — Magheracloone continue to defy all the odds". RTÉ Sport. 12 January 2020.
  7. "Irish News". Archived from the original on 7 May 2016. Retrieved 22 March 2020.
  8. "Irish News". Archived from the original on 3 March 2016. Retrieved 22 March 2020.
  9. "Ulster Club IFC final: McMahon on target as Magheracloone capture provincial title". Hogan Stand. 30 November 2019. Retrieved 2 December 2019.


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