Straffan - Sport

Sport

• Horse breeding and training has an honourable history in the area. The Tetrarch, bred by Edward “Cub” Kennedy and foaled in 1911, never competed as a three-year-old but is still remembered in folklore as one of the best two-year-olds of all time. The 1993 St. Leger Stakes winner Bob's Return was bred at the Baronrath stud at Straffan.

• Christopher Barton won an Olympic silver medal in 1948 as part of an all-Cambridge eight which represented Britain in the Olympic Games. His father Derrick Barton was a member of the British Modern Pentathlon team which finished seventh in the team event at the 1924 Olympics.

• A Straffan resident David Ritchie laid out Ireland’s first golf course in the Curragh in 1852. There were estate cricket teams in both Straffan and Bishopscourt in 1880.

• Straffan AFC (Soccer Club) was founded in 1978 and played on lands owned by racehorse trainer Mr Michael Vance at Whitechurch Straffan. In 1979 the club reached the Counties Cup semi-final but were beaten. They decided to move to the Dublin section of the Leinster Junior League in 1981 and the change seemed to suit as the club won its first league title in 1981’82, the manager at the time was Pat McKenna and Tommy Stanley was the team captain.

• Straffan GAA club was described in 1934 as the cradle of the GAA in Kildare Straffan. JL Carews played Sallins In their first match on the same day, February 15, 1885, that Maurice Davin’s first rules of Gaelic football were being agreed by GAA Central Council in Cork. The club’s best period followed their success in the 1966 Intermediate championship when they competed in the Kildare senior championship 1967-79. In that period Thomas Walsh played senior football for Kildare having won an All-Ireland Under 21 medal in 1965. Most recently in 2009, Straffan won the Junior football championship, with a last minute goal by Andy O'Neill, against Two Mile House. That year was somewhat of a revival of success for the club, since the last championship win. Currently Straffan has two teams competing in the Kildare Senior division 2 and division 4 Football Leagues and at intermediate level in the championship.

• The annual Liffey Descent canoe race, (first staged 1960) starts annually in Straffan and follows the river Liffey 17 miles (27 km) downstream to Islandbridge.

• Straffan has a remarkable tradition of success in under-age chess due to the interest of recently retired Scoil Bride school principal Jack Hennigan. Paul Dempsey, Eoin Spring, Robert Kelly and Colm D'Rosario have all represented Ireland in World Chess Championships.