Official Opening 1988
The Official Opening of our playing pitch and Clubrooms took place on Sunday August 7th 1988. A Meath team fresh from winning the county’s first All-Ireland since 1967 in 1987 and on their way to back to back All-Ireland’s wins played Cavan in front of a packed house.
This was a proud day for the club and its members who had worked so hard to reach this goal. The 5 acre field was purchased back in 1977 for £5,000, the pitch development work began in 1984 and was ready for use at the latter end of 1985 at a cost of £18,000. The Clubrooms were completed in 1987 at a cost of £40,000.
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Fr. Paddy Adams celebrated Mass and blessed our Clubhouse in October 1988, we held our first dance there shortly afterwards and we celebrated our Intermediate championship victory with another dance there in 1989
Here is a selection of photo’s from those memorable nights.
THE FOLLOWING PHOTOS COVER THE LEAD UP TO THE OFFICIAL OPENING, PHOTOS FOR PROGRAMME, MASS & BLESSING OF CLUBHOUSE, FIRST FUNCTIONS IN CLUBHOUSE & OFFICIAL OPENING
ALL PHOTOS BY AND THE COPYRIGHT OF PASCAL REILLY
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OPENING DAY PROGRAMME
ALL PHOTOS BY AND THE COPYRIGHT OF PASCAL REILLY
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WHAT IT SAID IN THE PAPERS
O’CONNELL PLEASES CARLANSTOWN FANS
Meath 4-19, Cavan 0-11.
Courtesy of The Meath Weekender dated August 13th 1988.
With Meath minds firmly concentrated on Sunday week’s meeting with Mayo and the Cavan senior championship limiting the visitors scope the outcome of Sunday evening’s challenge to open St. Michaels new home at Carlanstown was always predictable.
The most pleasing aspect of the All-Ireland champions win was the forwards stylish scoring which held the interests of the crowd when the result had become inevitable.
And when Martin O’Connell’s 48th minute goal hit the back of the net the local supporters were able to leave well satisfied with their captains performance which also included two points.
Meath’s three first half goals broke Cavan’s resistance and by the interval a ten point margin, 3-7 to 0-6 stood between the sides.
Mickey McDonnell hit the first after nine minutes and Joe Cassells and Mattie McCabe added the next two before the break. McDonnell started at full-forward and the home teams early ploy was to bring him into the game as often as possible. It certainly worked as the Summerhill clubman turned in his best display for some time in a green and gold jersey.
With him in the attack, Colm O’Rourke went through trojan work while Finian Murtagh, Colm Coyle and McCabe linked well in the half forward line. Gerry Cooney moved well and picked off two points over the hour while the three attacking substitutes – P.J. Gillic, Padraig Coyle and Liam Smith also found the target.
Joe Cassells and David Beggy provided the partnership at mid-field with the more experienced of the pair quite impressive. Beggy made a few defence splitting runs but his finishing was not at its best while his O’Mahony’s mate Donal Smyth had little to do between the posts.
A 20 point margin of success against against opposition which was greatly depleted is hard to Judge but with Mickey McQuillan, Kevin Foley, Liam Hayes, Gerry McEntee and Bernard Flynn all absent from the Leinster final side Sean Boylan cannot but be happy. Brian Stafford and Brendan O’Reilly were still out through injury.
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CAVAN PROVE NO MATCH
Meath 4-19, Cavan 0-11.
Courtesy of The Meath Chronicle dated August 13th 1988.
The value of challenge matches is often difficult to access and this was certainly the case at Carlanstown on Sunday evening when Meath trounced a poor Cavan side in a game which marked the official opening of the St. Michaels grounds.
With the match taking place only two weeks before the All-Ireland semi-final against Mayo the most important thing is that Meath appeared to suffer no injuries.
Several players were rested for the whole or part of the game, either due to injury or the fact that they had lined out with their clubs earlier in the day.
A number of players battling for positions in the side did their prospects a fair bit of good, including Terry Ferguson, Pauric Lyons, Frank Foley and Mickey McDonnell. Donal Smyth was most reliable in goal and proved himself an able number two to Michael McQuillan. Ferguson, Lyons and Foley all performed well in a solid defence which coped well against a potent Cavan half-back line.
EASY CHANCE
McDonnell didn’t get off to the best of starts and missed an easy goaling chance after six minutes, but once he settled he won plenty of ball and finished with a tally of 1-3.
David Beggy was in flying form at midfield before being substituted, while his partner Joe Cassells did much to prove that he still has a lot to offer.
Colm O’Rourke was very busy before being withdrawn and seemed determined to give himself a good run out. Local hero Martin O’Connell pleased his fans with a lively display and notched 1-2 when pushed forward. Cavan half-forwards Niall O’Donnell, Jim Reilly and the very promising Fintan Cahill often posed a threat, but once Meath settled down they put some nice moves together and emphasized the depth of talent in the squad.
BAD WIDES
Cahill and Barry McArdle opened with points for Cavan but after Meath kicked a number of bad wides they began to find the target and held a commanding 3-7 to 0-6 interval lead.
McDonnell had quite a simple task when he scored the first goal in the seventh minute and Cassells and McCabe netted within the space of 45 seconds later in the half.
The introduction of P.J. Gillic added life to the attack in the second half and the Carnaross player kicked four fine points.
Meath added their fourth goal in the 48th minute when O’Connell cut in from the left and finished with considerable confidence.
Overall this was a typical challenge match. Considering they were without so many regulars, Meath looked quite sharp and effective, but some of the nine first half wides were atrocious.
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Meath:
Donal Smyth, Terry Ferguson, Mick Lyons, Pauric Lyons, Frank Foley, Liam Harnan, Martin O’Connell 1-2, Joe Cassells 1-1, David Beggy, Frank Murtagh 0-2, Colm Coyle 0-1, Mattie McCabe 1-0, Colm O’Rourke, Mickey McDonnell 1-3, Gerry Cooney 0-2.
Subs:
Dermot Lane for M. Lyons, P.J. Gillic 0-4 for McCabe, Padraig Coyle 0-1 for O’Rourke, Liam Smith 0-2 for Beggy, Barry Ferguson for O’Connell, Robbie O’Malley for Harnan.
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CAVAN:
C. Green, B. Sweeney, D. Reilly, M. Rowntree, N. O’Donoghue, S. Kiernan, B. McArdle 0-1, P. Kiernan, J. Dillon 0-2, N. O’Donnell 0-3, J. Reilly 0-4, F. Cahill 0-1, S. O’Donoghue, P. Lynch, B. Lynch.
Subs:
A. Watters for Rowntree, D. O’Donnell for B. Lynch, P. Shalvey for Green.
Referee: Paddy Kavanagh, Harps.
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