Naomh Moninne Hurling Club

Naomh Moninne is a Gaelic Athletic Association club in Dundalk, County Louth, Ireland. The club was founded in 1959 and is exclusively concerned with the game of hurling. Naomh Moninne has the distinction of being the first club to represent Louth in the Leinster Senior Club Hurling Championship when the played Boardsmill of Meath in 1974.
History
Early Years
Naomh Moninne Hurling Club had its beginning as a youth club, ‘Cumann Ógra Naomh Moninne’, in the Castletown area of Faughart Parish in 1959. It was there that local priest, Fr. Pól Mac Sheáin, but more commonly referred to as ‘an tAthair’, introduced the game of hurling to the young boys from the Fatima area of Dundalk.
The first sliotars to be ‘pucked’ were on a small strip of land at Toberona corner known as ‘Hoey's Plot’. As the game grew in popularity, the necessity arose for a bigger playing field. An tAthair Mac Sheáin was successful in obtaining permission from the then Town Clerk to use a piece of land at the back of Fatima known as ‘The Meadows’, which was later to be known as ‘An Bainseach’. Local residents who were instrumental in the development included Tom Casey, Frank Myles, Peter Callan, Sam McGuinness, Sean Murphy, Micheal Coburn, Tom Kinch and Dermot Keelan. Two railway carriages were obtained for use as changing rooms while the ESB provided lighting for training.
The clubs first set of jerseys were obtained from a local club called Mount Rovers, who are no longer in existence. They had black and amber stripes, colours still used by the club today. An tAthair Mac Sheáin named the club after Saint Moninne, she being a Saint of Faughart before the time of Saint Brigid.
In 1960, ‘Cumann Peile nÓg’ were approached with the view to organising an underage Hurling Street League in the town. Following on from discussions with Hugh O'Hare and Jim Whitty, the league came into existence. Naomh Moninne competed firstly at Under 16 level where they were to be successful, beating Castletown in the final, after a replay, a victory that was met with great celebrations in the community. From these beginnings, there would soon be leagues running from under 8's to under 60's.
In 1961, an tAthair Mac Sheáin and the Naomh Moninne club founded the All-Ireland Poc Fada Championship, which is an annual tournament testing the skills of Ireland's best hurlers and camogie players. Apart from the competition being suspended between 1970 and 1980, it has been held every year since and is a very popular annual event on the GAA calender, attracting some of Ireland's greatest ever hurlers.
Success wasn't long coming to the newly formed club. They won their first Louth Junior Hurling Championship in 1964, just five years after the club was set up. They have since gone on to win eleven such titles. They have also had great success at senior level, having won the Louth Senior Hurling Championship eight times in total. Other highlights for Naomh Moninne include winning the Kilmacud Crokes All-Ireland Senior Hurling Sevens Shield on two occasions in 1993 and 1999.
Since its humble beginnings under the guidance of an tAthair Mac Sheáin, the club have gone on to establish themselves as one of the mainstays of the small ball game in County Louth.
Modern Moninne
Naomh Moninne reached a milestone in 2009 when they celebrated their 50th anniversary. Celebrations included a Dance in the Fairways Hotel in Dundalk on Friday, 11 September 2009. The club had been homeless throughout these fifty years but were delighted to announce that they had agreed a lease with Dundalk Town Councilor, to develop land in Toberona into a playing pitch. To help finance this development, sporting memorabilia was auctioned on the night of the dance.
Honours
*Louth Senior Hurling Championship: 8
**1987, 1989, 1992, 1993, 1995, 1997, 1998, 1999
*Louth Junior Hurling Championship: 11
**1964
*Kilmacud Crokes All-Ireland Senior Hurling Sevens Shield: 2
**1993, 1999

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