County Carlow Football Club is a

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club in

Carlow Carlow ( ; ) is the county town of County Carlow, in the south-east of Republic of Ireland, Ireland, from Dublin. At the 2022 census of Ireland, 2022 census, it had a population of 27,351, the List of urban areas in the Republic of Ireland, ...

, Ireland, playing in Division 1B of the

Leinster League The Leinster League is the second tier of Rugby union, rugby in Leinster Rugby, Leinster, behind the Leinster Senior League (rugby), Leinster Senior League. It has five divisions. The champions qualify for a round-robin tournament with the champio ...

. The club was founded in October 1873, and is one of the oldest rugby clubs in Ireland. As was usual in the days preceding the development of Gaelic football and soccer and prior to the foundation of the Rugby Football Union, the earlier clubs were known simply as "football clubs" with no mention of rugby in the title. The County Carlow club was formed, therefore, (and is correctly known) as ''"County Carlow Football Club."''

History

The club was constituted at a meeting in the Club House Hotel, Carlow in October 1873. It was to be known as the County Carlow Football Club. The founder, Colonel Horace Rochfort of Clogrennan, County Carlow, was elected the first president. The club colours were registered as black and amber. Colonel Rochfort, a landowner of approximately in counties

Dublin Dublin is the capital and largest city of Republic of Ireland, Ireland. Situated on Dublin Bay at the mouth of the River Liffey, it is in the Provinces of Ireland, province of Leinster, and is bordered on the south by the Dublin Mountains, pa ...

Laois County Laois ( ; ) is a county in Ireland. It is part of the Eastern and Midland Region and in the province of Leinster. It was known as Queen's County from 1556 to 1922. The modern county takes its name from Loígis, a medieval kingdom. Hist ...

and

, was a keen sportsman of the time. He was also the founder of the County Carlow Cricket Club in 1831, and the founder and first secretary of the

All Ireland Polo Club All or ALL may refer to: عرص Biology and medicine * Acute lymphoblastic leukemia, a cancer * Anterolateral ligament, a ligament in the knee * ''All.'', taxonomic author abbreviation for Carlo Allioni (1728–1804), Italian physician and profe ...

in the

Phoenix Park The Phoenix Park () is a large urban park in Dublin, Ireland, lying west of the city centre, north of the River Liffey. Its perimeter wall encloses of recreational space. It includes large areas of grassland and tree-lined avenues, and since ...

, in 1873, having founded the County Carlow Polo Club in 1872. County Carlow Football Club played unofficially for the first 25 years of its existence, with Trinity (

Dublin University The University of Dublin (), corporately named as The Chancellor, Doctors and Masters of the University of Dublin, is a research university located in Dublin, Republic of Ireland. It is the degree-awarding body for Trinity College Dublin, whi ...

), Wanderers and Kingstown providing the most frequent early opposition. Fixtures with Bective and Lansdowne were recorded in the 1880s, and in the late 1880s the formation of

Athy Athy ( ; ) is a market town at the meeting of the River Barrow and the Grand Canal in south-west County Kildare, Ireland, 72 kilometres southwest of Dublin. A population of 11,035 (as of the 2022 census) made it the sixth largest town in Kil ...

, Baltinglass, Carlow College (1882) and Portarlington College provided an alternative opposition to the Dublin clubs and heralded the early days of provincial rugby.O'Brien, Thomas J. (Editor) - ''County Carlow Football Club, Rugby History 1873 - 1977''

1977 Events January * January 8 – 1977 Moscow bombings, Three bombs explode in Moscow within 37 minutes, killing seven. The bombings are attributed to an Armenian separatist group. * January 10 – Mount Nyiragongo erupts in eastern Zaire (no ...

/ref> Affiliation of County Carlow FC to the Leinster Branch of the

IRFU IRFU or Irfu may refer to: * Irish Rugby Football Union, The Irish rugby football union (IRFU), is the national rugby association of Ireland *Interprovincial Rugby Football Union, a four-team league that merged with the Westerm Interprovincial Rugb ...

was achieved on 1 December 1899 when it was proposed by T.Thornhill of Wanderers and seconded by J.B. Moore of Lansdowne. Hence the club became eligible to compete in the

Leinster Junior Challenge Cup The Leinster Junior Challenge Cup was the forerunner of the Leinster Towns Cup. The cup was established in 1888. It was established as a competition for clubs below senior level who were affiliated to the Leinster branch of the Irish Rugby Foot ...

, which they won in 1904, becoming the first provincial club to do so. County Carlow FC won the Junior Cup on four subsequent occasions before the competition was restructured to become the Provincial Towns Cup in 1926. County Carlow FC have appeared in 16 finals of the Provincial Towns Cup and were victorious on 12 occasions - (the most appearances and the most wins by any club). In 1997, they became the first club ever to achieve the Provincial Cup and League double. The Provincial League win of that year earned them a place in the All Ireland Round Robin qualifier competition with

Midleton Midleton (; , meaning "monastery at the weir") is a town in south-eastern County Cork, Ireland. It lies approximately 16 km east of Cork City on the Owenacurra River and the N25 road, which connects Cork to the port of Rosslare. A satelli ...

(Munster), Connemara (Connaught) and Omagh Academicals (Ulster). County Carlow won the play off, and became a senior club for the first time in its history for the 1997/1998 season. In 1997/1998 - their first season as a senior club - County Carlow FC won Division 4 of the All Ireland League. Promotion to Division 2 was achieved two years later, and by the end of the 2000/2001 season they attained Division 1 status, finishing second in Division 2 to UCD. Historically, County Carlow FC won the Leinster Senior Cup in 2003, becoming the only club to have won both the Provincial Towns Cup and the Leinster Senior Cup.''Irish Rugby : Co Carlow Create History''
16 May 2003 Accessed 15 April 2008 The win in 2003 was also the first time in the 120-year history of the competition that the Leinster Senior Cup was won by a non-Dublin club. This historic win was repeated in 2004 when County Carlow FC recorded back to back wins, beating DLS Palmerston in the final on both occasions. County Carlow FC played for 5 consecutive seasons in Division 1 but were relegated to Division 2 for the 2006/2007 season and subsequently to Division 3 for the 2007/2008 season. The club currently plays in Division 1B of the Leinster Senior League.

Club honours

* Leinster Senior Cup (2) 2003, 2004 *

AIB League The All-Ireland League (AIL), known for sponsorship reasons as the Energia All-Ireland League, is the national league system for the 50 senior rugby union clubs in Ireland, covering both the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland. The league w ...

Division 4 (1) 1998 * Navan 10-a-side (1) 2002 *

(5) 1904, 1912, 1913, 1919, 1922 * Provincial Towns Cup (12) 1929, 1931, 1933, 1957, 1961, 1965, 1977, 1992, 1993, 1994, 1996, 1997 * Provincial Towns Plate (4) 1964, 1968, 1971, 1973 * South East Cup (8) 1975, 1976, 1985, 1988, 1990, 1991, 1992, 1996 * IRFU Award Top Club in Leinster 1993 * IRFU Award Top non-league club in Ireland 1997

References

External links

County Carlow Football Club

Irish Sporting Heritage
{{Irish rugby links 1873 in Ireland Rugby union teams in Ireland Rugby clubs established in 1873 Rugby union clubs in County Carlow Sport in Carlow (town)