Mullingar Town keen to build for the future
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Mullingar Town FC U14 players at the presenation evening: Marcel Szreder, Rían Berr, Oisin McDonnell, James Quinn, Lorik Bardhoshi, Harley Sexton Byrne, Mark Quinn (coach). Front: Brody Fadian, Guillem Ferrer and Conor Quinn.Image 2 of 6
Darren Meehan, Jason Duff, Tosh Keena, Michael Grimes, Mark Quinn and Michael Fadian, coaches at Mullingar Town FC.Image 3 of 6
Terry Gibson, Owen Moran, Warren Tuite, Owen Gilligan, Keith McAdden and Aaron McCarthy, coaches with Mullingar Town FC.Image 4 of 6
Mullingar Town U13 players at the presentation evening on Friday: Ryan Doyle, James Mahon, Terence Gibson, Stephen Irwin, Luke Dowd, Conal Murphy, James Whyte, Lydeon Bardhoshi, Keelan Sweeney and Darragh Relihan, with Aaron McCarthy (coach).Image 5 of 6
Jason Duff (coach) with Darragh Daly and Billy Lambden at the Mullingar Town FC presentation evening, in Mullingar Shamrocks club house, Springfield.Image 6 of 6
Pictured at the Mullingar Town FC awards evening are U12 players: Luke Tuite, Mason Gilligan, Rian Quinn and Ryan Gilligan, with Aaron McCarthy (coach).Mullingar Town Football Club is continuing its drive to rebuild and strengthen its underage structures, according to committee member Aaron McCarthy, who spoke at the club’s underage presentation evening on Friday in Mullingar Shamrocks’ clubhouse, Springfield.
“We're up and running a couple of years now with our underage structure is back in place for the last two years. We want to get back to where we were. I started playing underage at Mullingar Town in 1989 and now we have the full complement of underage groups from under 10 up to senior level,” he recalled.
“We have two years behind us now with the restructuring of the underage and implementing a new structure. What we are doing as a club is trying to get a full list of underage teams. At the minute we can facilitate from under 8s up to under 15s. Next year we'll have an under 16 team. That'll be the fruition of last year's under 15 team. And in the next two years our plan is that we'll have a full complement of underage groups all the way up to senior level. It’s early days.”
Asked how many young players the club can currently cater for, McCarthy said: “I think we have, at the minute, about 130. And there's development, ongoing development. We have a committee in place with the club.
“We're looking at implementing phase one of our club development which will see development of the club grounds.”
The new development will be costly for the club, but it’s something that is crucial and will serve them well into the future.
“We have plans and we hope to have something put in place by the second quarter of 2026 in terms of new facilities. All going well, with the help of parents and coaches, and everything that's going on in the club. With the help of local sponsors we'll have a bit of work done there from a club development point of view,” he said.
“It's just to get back to where Mullingar Town should be and where it used to be, with the senior team competing at the senior level. The Under 21 team played League of Ireland back in the day. If we can scale some of those heights and just get a full structure back in place and develop the grounds that we currently have here in D’Alton Park, we're going in the right direction.”
There were presentations to underage players on the evening a very positive mood was evident among young players, parents, coaches and supporters of the proud Mullingar club. They are grateful for the support of Mullingar Shamrocks GAA club, who put their fine facilities at their disposal for the event.