21/10/2026
Owenmore Gaels are honoured to be nominated as Ocean FM Sport Club of the Year. On our 50th anniversary, we continue to enjoy one of the most successful years in our club’s history.
With both adults teams suffering a disappointing 2025, a reset was needed and both managements and sets of players have delivered with aplomb. Our women’s and men’s teams have each won three cups including their respective leagues and championships. On the men’s side, we competed strongly with two teams throughout the year, with both teams winning their respective league finals in dramatic fashion. Memories of captain Ryan Phillips last minute 2 point free to beat Geevagh in extra time and Gary Anderson’s last-minute goal to sn**ch victory against St Johns in Division 4 will live long in the memory. Gary was on hand again to score the winning point in our Junior A Championship final when with 10 minutes left and facing an 8-point deficit, all looked lost. Our ladies went unbeaten to secure the league and championship double and look forward to building on that success into next year.
Underage, we have won silverware in both boys and girls categories in 2026. Our U13 boys team won the C league and lost narrowly in the C championship final to Drumcliffe-Rosses Point. This competition generally prepares 12-year old boys for the following years U13A competition – so we look forward to competing strongly with this group in 2027. Our Under 13A team had a strong league campaign and were defeated at the semi-final stage by the eventual winners, St. Johns. The group went on to win the U13A Championship Plate later in the summer. It is an indication of Owenmore Gaels underage development over recent years that the club can have two teams competing at U13 boys level – and one of them participating at A grade, and the club endeavours to see this approach over the coming years as our underage academy structures go from strength to strength.
Further to success at U13B grade in 2025, most of the group advanced to our Under 15 boys team in 2026 and they had a very competitive season. The lads won the U15B2 League on the back of some fine performances before finishing off the summer at the semi-final stage of the championship.
Later in the year, Owenmore Gaels entered a Under 14 boys’ team in the Autumn series which is a new venture in Sligo GAA competition structures. Our lads won the Championship final by beating St. Molaise Gaels just last weekend and this augurs well for our Under 15 boys group next year.
On the girls front, we had high levels of participation across all age grades, and we are proud to be one of very few clubs in the county that averages over 20 girls per age grade from Under 8 right up to Under 18 level. Silverware was attained by our Under 14 girls’ team who won the Division 2 League Shield and that was followed later in the summer by the success of our Under 16 girls who won U16 B Championship Shield. Our Under 18 girls were defeated by the minimum in their Championship final.
Success is not always measured by silverware within our club and the long-term development and retention of our players is central to our club philosophy so that we have an many as possible, for as long as possible. Central to this is the clubs support for team bonding trips and many of our teams enjoyed days away with their relevant coaching groups. In September, the club hosted our Saturday morning Owenmore Óg coaching session in the Connacht GAA Air dome where 115 boys and girls from the ages of 4 up to 9 enjoyed a memorable day out. Our Under 11 boys visited Bay Sports in Athlone and our Under 12 girls had a day out at Lough Allen Adventure centre. Several of our teams participated in invitational blitzes in other clubs and counties across the summer.
Our Saturday morning Owenmore Óg sessions for 4-9 yar old boys and girls runs from early April until late September and this is the most important unit of our club – the foundation of our future. Our club had 313 underage members register in 2026 – 133 of which were part of Owenmore Óg. This is a club record for this cohort and it is a sign of our ever developing playing base serving the Ballincarrow, Ballisodare and Collooney areas.
One of the proudest days in our club calendar is the hosting of the Michael Brannigan Perpetual Cup & Shield which is an invitational competition hosted by Owenmore Gaels at Connolly Park every June. This year’s event was another success with visiting teams from several counties enjoying a festival of football and we are very proud to host such an annual event that pays tribute to a former club member who was central to the development of underage teams in our club over two decades ago.
The development of our volunteer coaches within Owenmore Gaels is treated with equal importance to that of our players. The club can proudly boast that in 2026 - we had over 75 coaches across all teams that gave up their free time over the season. The club ensures that all coaches are trained appropriately with the necessary Child Safeguarding and Garda vetting carried out. Our Coaching & Games working group meets monthly to set and monitor coaching objectives for the year; to assign and recruit coaching teams; to develop coaches and to build the club-school link with our four feeder schools. A central component of this club-school link is the provision of a Club Development Officer who spends three full days per week coaching the children of our four local national schools – and Owenmore Gaels covers 70% of the cost of this resource that is provided in partnership with Sligo Gaa and Connacht GAA.
Like all of the structures within our One-Club Model – all coaching and games development within our club is done so that male and female players and coached are treated the same and offered equal resources so that they can both flourish.
Away from the pitch, we kicked off the year in great style with a dinner dance to mark our 50th year anniversary in the Sligo Park. Our 50/50 draw, which was relaunched in 2025 continues to go from strength to strength with 42 winners so far this year and an average prize of over €1400. In the summer, over 100 kids took part in the Kellogg’s Cul Camp in Connolly Park and more recently, we celebrated winning first prize in the Kellogg’s Cul Camp club competition. Earlier in the year, major repair works were completed on our training pitch with significant maintenance works to the main pitch, and we are currently putting the final touches to plans for the next phase of our development of Connolly Park, a state-of-the-art gym and meeting space.
There’s still plenty to look forward to as the evenings get shorter. Our u20’s start their campaign at home this Saturday at 4pm against Geevagh/ St. Michael’s and Our men’s team will play the winners of the Galway championship on the weekend of the 21st and 22nd of November in the Connacht Club Championship. Before then however, we look forward to joining a whole host of great clubs and athletes at the Ocean FM Sports awards night on the 14th of November in the Sligo Park Hotel.
Gaels Abu
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