Name of club: 

Liverpool Wolfe Tones CLG

Location:

Wavertree Playground, 85 Wellington Rd, Liverpool, L15 4LE

Club website:

http://www.liverpoolwolfetonesclg.com/

Year founded:

2010

Club Officers:

Chairperson: Frank Hayes

Vice-Chairperson: Michael Gallagher

Treasurer: Nicola Donaghey

Secretary: Finnian O’Callaghan

Vice Secretary: Laura Farrell

P.R.O: Jason Patton

Fundraising Coordinator: Laura Toal      

Officer for Irish Language and Culture: David Coughlan

Health and Wellbeing Officer: Colm McEoin

History of the club:

Liverpool Wolfe Tones CLG was founded in March 2010, to provide the vast numbers of Irish arriving on Merseyside with the opportunity to play Gaelic games and become involved in the ever growing Irish community in Liverpool.

Initially the club only comprised of one Men’s Gaelic Football team. However, in only just 5 years the club has managed to develop into the only Club in the North West, and one of the only clubs in Britain, to have teams playing in each code of Gaelic games. The club now has a Men’s Gaelic Football team, Junior Ladies Gaelic Football team, Senior Ladies Gaelic Football team, Hurling team and a Camogie team.

Since its inception, the club has welcomed members of all ages and abilities. It also encourages the involvement of new comers to Gaelic Games and social members who just want to get involved in the craic. The clubs members come from the breadth and width of Ireland and Britain. A lot are working professionals within the city either staying for job prospects after attending University in Liverpool or having moved here for work. The club also has student members who attend one of the local Universities. The growth of the club has proved that Gaelic Games and the Irish community have are well suited home on Merseyside.

Men’s Football:

Since the clubs birth the Men’s Football has continued to grow from strength to strength. The team commenced regular competitive football in 2011 reaching 3 finals in their first year. In 2012 the teams were promoted up to senior football spending two seasons playing at this level before returning to Junior level football. The mens footballers won their first silverware in 2014 by capturing both the ‘Pennine League Divison 2’ and ‘Wolfe Tone Cup’ titles.

Ladies Football:

The Ladies Football team was formed in August 2011 and the team played their first competitive games in 2012. The team finished their first season with 47 registered players making Liverpool Wolfe Tones one of the biggest Ladies Football clubs in terms of membership in Britain. Amazingly of the 47 registered players only 3 girls required transfers showing that the vast majority of girls had not played for at least 3+ years, or if at all before the clubs formation. The team have continued to be a very diverse group with a range of all ages, nationalities, and sporting backgrounds such as camogie, soccer, netball and rugby.

The clubs Ladies Footballers reached the Junior All Britain Provincial Final in their first three competitive seasons in 2012, 2013 and 2014 winning it on their third attempt. The Ladies Footballers were promoted to the Northern Division of the All Britain Intermediate Ladies Football Championship in 2015. The club now has both a Senior and Junior Ladies Football teams, which provide players of all abilities the chance to gain game time. The Junior Ladies Footballers captured the Lancashire Junior Football League title in 2015.

Hurling:

In the summer of 2012 a Facebook page called ‘Liver Hurling’ was set up, with the aim of determining the number of people interested in playing Hurling on Merseyside. Soon the group were regularly meeting for informal puck arounds and basic training sessions. The early training sessions were strictly non-contact as most players did not have helmets with some players even having to borrow hurleys to participate. After determining that there was sufficient interest the group approached the Liverpool Wolfe Tones and asked to join and form a Hurling team. The team was officially ratified at the club AGM in late 2012.

The team played their first competitive games in 2013 with the majority of games consisting of challenge games and blitz format tournaments. In 2014 the team was allowed to enter the newly created All Britain Hurling Shield Championship and successfully managed to win the competition in its inaugural year, they also reached the Lancashire Senior Hurling Final. The team were promoted and now also compete in the All Britain Junior Hurling Championship. In 2015 the Hurlers won the Lancashire Senior Hurling Championship in the competitions second year of existence following an extended hiatus.

Camogie:

The clubs Camogie team began training during the summer of 2014 and were formally inducted into the club at the club AGM in November 2014. The backbone of the team consisted of a core group of players who had previously played together for the Liverpool Universities Camogie team back in 2011 and 2012. However the team has recruited many other members ranging from novices to experienced players.

The team commenced competitive games in 2015 and had a fairy-tale inaugural season. The Camoges competed in the Spring All Britain Junior League and the All Britain Junior Championship.  After collecting the wooden spoon in the League, the team bounced back beating several more experienced teams to be crowned Junior All Britain Camogie Champions 2015. The team has 25 registered playing members in 2015 and are sure to go from strength to strength as they continue to develop.

Roll of honour:         

Men's Football:

2014 Wolfe Tone Cup 

2014 Pennine Junior Football League

Ladies Football:

2014 All Britain Junior Ladies Football Championship

2014 All Britain Northern Junior Ladies Football League

2015 Lancashire Junior Ladies Football League

Hurling:

2014 All Britain Junior Hurling Shield

2015 Lancashire Senior Hurling Championship

Camogie:

2015 All Britain Junior Camogie Championship

Did you know this about the club:

The club crest depicts the Liver bird which is the main symbol of the city of Liverpool, Theobald Wolfe Tone who was an historic Irish figure, the Red Rose of Lancashire which is the symbol associated with our County of Lancashire, and a ship which represents the voyage of all those club members who have immigrated from Ireland, making Liverpool their temporary or permanent home.

In 2015 the club had members representing 28 of the 32 counties of Ireland, with only County’s Clare, Kilkenny, Longford and Carlow without representation.

The club has almost 1900 twitter followers making it one of the most followed Gaa clubs outside Ireland on twitter. 

Club contact: Club Secretary - Finnian O' Callaghan (secretary.wolfetones.lancashire@gaa.ie). Follow us on twitter @Lpoolwolfetones