The Neale GAA Club's History.
The Neale GAA club origins can be traced back to the early 1900's when there were two local teams in the parish called "Lavelles" from Cong and "Cross" from Cross. The club is situated on the shores of two lakes, Lough Mask to the north and Lough Corrib to the south. The very first recorded history of the game of hurling happened in the middle of our little parish in Moytura.
It wasn't until 1944 that the club we know today as The Neale was formed, when Lavelles, Cross and men from the Neale got together. The club itself is the parish of St. Fechin's, some of which is in Co. Galway. This over the years has created some interesting debates, especially around Connacht Finals involving Mayo and Galway. The club at this time had early success in the local cup, the O'Mara cup, winning it eight times in their first nine years. In those early days the club played its football in various fields throughout the parish. It wasn't until 1968 that a small group got together and purchased an eight acre site in Deer Park, Lisloughrey, Cong. The cost of this site was for the hefty sum of £500 from the land commission and they named it St. Fechin's Park. Let us not underestimate the unthinkable task of raising £500 in the 1960's in the west of Ireland.
Since those early days numerous projects have been added to the club like dressing rooms in the early 80's, a major pitch drainage program in the 90's, a second set of dressing rooms and meeting rooms in the 00's and the most recent addition is an indoor Astro-Turf pitch with a fully equipped state of the art gymnasium.
The Neale field teams from U6 right up to Intermediate level and have been very fortunate to not to have had to amalgamate for so long. In 1981 the local ladies formed a club and throughout the years have had varied successes, most notably winning a Connacht Intermediate tile in 2008. Between the two clubs we have around 220 underage players and 100 adult players. The men have had good success at underage, winning a county minor championship in 1980. A member of that squad went on to Captain a Mayo U21 team to All-Ireland success. We have won numerous competitions over the years but a senior county title always eluded us. That was until October 27th 2012 when we won the county Junior 'A' title in a replay game straight out of a Hollywood movie. We were 3 points down in the 4th minute of injury time when we managed to get a goal from a 21 yard free. The rest, they say is history.
Over the years we have had players on many Mayo teams who have won All-Ireland medals and today we are lucky to have players with us who play on various county teams including two on the Mayo U21 panel.
All of our successes have been mainly down to the local help we get from selling lotto, training teams, making tea, cutting and lining the pitch or taking part in our fundraisers. None is more noted than that of the club's main sponsors McGraths Quarry Group.
To all our sponsors and members we would like to say a big thank you, because without their support we would have nothing.
Brian O'Malley.
Rùnaì.
