Early Success
Lucan won the Intermediate Football League in the 1904-05 season. It is reported that they did this with the help of five players from Balbriggan. The story goes that in 1902 a team call Balbriggan Wanderers won the Intermediate League and then for some reason or other went out of existence in 1904. One of the players on that team was a man named Paddy Richardson, who was a fish merchant and regularly attended the Dublin market. At the market he met up with Mickey Ashe who was secretary of Lucan and who also worked in the fish market. With the assistance of Tom Clarke, another fish market worker, the Balbriggan men were persuaded to throw in their lot with Lucan and the result was the winning of the league that year. The Lucan players who played on that team were M. O’Connor, P. Murray (Captain), J. Kelly, M. Downes (Treasurer), R. Kane (Vice Captain), M. Ashe (Secretary), J. Fagan, J. Murray, C. Brien, G. Thornberry, T. Kelly, J. Fitzpatrick (President), C.J. Keogh, R. Maher, T. Byrne, M. Merriman and J. Brien. The same season also saw the hurlers win their league and being presented with the Michael Smith Cup. Lucan had to wait another 70 years to see this cup again when they won the Junior A League in 1974. A link between these two wins was Michael Downes who played on the 1905 team and his grandsons, Larry Downes and Dessie O’Brien who played on the 1974 team. Another link between both teams was Club President Tom Slattery who attended both games. In 1904-05 Lucan Sarsfields also won the Camogie Championship. Some of those who played on that team were Bridget Nugent, Annie Hughes, Kitty Brady, Dill Thornberry, Chrissie Murray, Margaret Feeney, Kate Nugent and Margaret Gannon. The club's footballers were prominent in the 1920s and 30s. The highpoint of this era was undoubtedly a famous victory over a star-studded Garda team in 1929 who were the Dublin Senior Football Championship winners at the time.
The hurlers captured the limelight in the 60s winning the Junior 'B' Hurling League. They won the Corn Céitinn in 1966 and so became the first Junior Hurling team ever to capture this title.
Read more about this topic: Lucan Sarsfields GAA
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