The future is bright for proud hurling club
St Oliver Plunketts celebrate 50th Anniversary
This year St Oliver Plunketts, Mullingar hits a significant milestone. A half century has passed since the founding members made the case to a group of like-minded hurling enthusiasts for the establishment of the club at a meeting in The Lake County Hotel on April 5, 1976.
The hurling club came into being following the demise of the previous hurling club in Mullingar, Pearses. The Pearses club were successful in the early part of the 1960s but by failing to build on their championship wins the club no longer existed by the late 1960s.
Initially the progress of Oliver Plunketts on the playing field was not spectacular. Winning a Junior Championship in 1978 led to great emphasis on developing hurling among the youth of the town of Mullingar.
This new direction did not meet with overnight success, but gradually over a period of years, hurling enjoyed increasing popularity in Mullingar. The club’s first underage championship was claimed in 1985 by winning the Under 16 “A” title.
Twelve months later the growth of the game was underlined when the U16A championship title was retained, and in 1988 the same panel of players reached a new milestone by winning the Westmeath Minor Championship. The club's role of honour highlights achievements at both underage and adult grades.
The year of 1988 will be recorded as the most significant year in the clubs’ history. After many years with no fixed or permanent playing fields the club purchased lands in Robinstown and over the next four years build two playing fields and dressing rooms.
Since then, like all sporting endeavours, success may have waxed and waned but the passion of hurling and camogie has been a constant.
Club secretary Conleth McCormack says St Oliver Plunketts are enjoying a period of growth and development: “The 50th anniversary has come at a time where we're seven or eight years into a restructuring program. We have worked extremely hard in building our underage structures with an emphasis of attracting girls and boys from an early age.
“It's all really positive. Our membership is up, our participation levels are up, the number of coaches we have continues to grow.”
The volume of underage players and providing a proper underage coaching structure was not something that came about easily: “We were amalgamated about seven years ago. Our numbers were very low. A couple of the lead coaches just said, “look we need to get this right”.
“In recent years St Oliver Plunketts secured Premier titles at U15 in 2022, U20 in 2024 and our first Minor title in 21 years in 2025. This was a great reward to all of our coaches who have worked so hard in these recent years. In 2026 we field two U16 teams which is a first for St Oliver Plunketts.”
St Oliver Plunketts, Mullingar has a proud Camogie tradition. In recent years they adopted the GAAs 'One Club Model' where hurling and camogie is administered by one club executive committee. This has been a huge success as camogie continues to thrive and has a bright future in Mullingar.
“Our hurlers give 100% to the hurling code as they would do football or rugby or soccer or whatever. They're trained from a very young age. We've put a lot of effort into school coaching,” Conleth told the Examiner.
That effort is paying dividends: “Luke Loughlin is our school's coach, he looks after the local primary schools. We've been participating in the Leinster coaching scheme for three or four years now, so we have a good connection with our local schools. We find that the game of hurling will speak for itself but it is important to have our club fully functioning and organised.
“If you're organised and your club is organised, with the right structure in place then players and families will come. It's largely word of mouth, kids talk to other kids. A little bit of success thrown in helps the cause as well.”
That success between the chalk lines is a good boost for the club's profile: “We had a fantastic run in the Senior B Championship this year, which really captured people's imaginations. It went to a replay against Delvin. We were very lucky not to come on the right side of that after extra time in the reply.
As a community focused club having facilities and opportunities for young people is vital: “We have a very active academy level for the nursery grades. We work very well with the schools and we've got healthy numbers at under 8's and 10's. Even younger, 6-year-olds and upwards, both boys and girls. It's a pyramid. You have to feed the bottom tier.
“If you keep the bottom level strong and the numbers healthy at that level it pays it forward through the club. If the structure of the club is good and you have the numbers at the younger level, then the rest looks after itself.”
St Oliver Plunketts Hurling Club boasts some impressive facilities. The club grounds is located in Robinstown Mullingar, with two full size playing pitches and a 20 metre hurling wall: “We all owe huge debt of gratitude to the club officers and members who worked so hard to procure the land and construct the facility we now enjoy today. We've undertaken a lot of refurbishment work down in Robinston,” Conleth says, “We've installed state-of-the-art floodlights on our practice pitch. We've resurfaced and redrained one of our pitches as well.
“This year, we're building a new gym for the whole club. We're developing and trying to improve the facilities all the time.”
Those facilities are essential for any modern GAA club: “We are blessed this year with quite a large senior B squad. A lot of our players who won the minor championship last year have gone up to adult grade now. We've got a big influx of players from the minor team of last year and they've come into the senior team.
“That's given us huge energy. The big target this year is the senior B championship and trying to get back up to senior A status as soon as possible.”
As the county town enjoys a growth spurt, with new housing and business to attract new dwellers to the town, sports clubs in Mullingar will benefit from increased membership: “That growth will benefit all the town clubs and even the surrounding clubs as well. It's a factor we keep an eye on.
“We've always had decent numbers, we've always attracted players and children from around the local housing estates in Mullingar and the surrounding areas. The key thing is to match the level of coaches and the quality coaching with the number of players we have. That's a thing we're very mindful of. That's always ongoing.”
Conleth clearly has the mindset of a hurling enthusiast. A similar viewpoint that instigated the establishment of St Oliver Plunketts Hurling Club 50 years ago: “It's a game that you need to start early to really master it. The kids that start at a very young age have a huge advantage. We have children starting maybe at under 14 or 15 level and they have a bit of catch up to do. So it certainly is a game that you can't just turn up and play, not like rugby or soccer or even like football.
“You have to have the basic skill level to be able to compete and enjoy it. We focus very heavily on developing those skills of the game from a very early age so when they get to under 12 and start playing competitive games, they have the basics. That certainly is important.
“It's a game you can't just pick up, then go away for a year or two and come back to it. You have to keep at it. The skill level always needs to be worked on, even at adult level. Your touch and your skill has to be A1 to be able to compete at a high level.”
Offering the opportunity to participate with such dedication is a significant aim for St Oliver Plunketts, Mullingar: “From six year olds up we offer indoor training in the wintertime. Our indoor hurling set up is in Loretto for the first six to eight weeks of the winter. The youngsters can play in an indoor environment and then go on to the pitch in April.
“Basically it's quite a long year, quite a long season. We start from the end of January to finish up in October.”
Such dedication is why the club has enjoyed a distinguished and successful history and a thriving juvenile section. It has placed the club at the heart of the Mullingar community and established partnerships with all the local schools.