Conall Jones, seen here in a Derrygonnelly shirt in the 2022 Ulster senior club final, scored seven points for Leitrim Gaels in this year's Leitrim semi-final win over Mohill. Photograph: Bryan Keane/Inpho
On an otherwise typical Sunday around Leitrim village in November, 1996, a small band of locals shuffled towards the local school gym hall. There was talk of setting up a new GAA club in the parish. Some 43 people reasoned it an interesting enough proposition for them to attend.
And so began Leitrim Gaels.
A few months later, after affiliation had been granted, a list of 25 eligible players was cobbled together and presented to the county board for the 1997 season. There was support for the fledgling outfit but there was also scepticism.
After rather dubiously scanning down through the register of players provided by Leitrim Gaels, one county board official wondered wryly if some of the names presented to swell the list had been taken from headstones in the local graveyard.
“I believe our chairman at the time, John Flynn, responded with something along the lines of, ‘No, they’re all alive and kicking.’ But it was touch and go if that was even accurate,” smiles Bryan
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