Club History.

Castletown Liam Mellows features strongly across the history of the GAA in Wexford. Following the foundation of the GAA in 1884, three years later national championships were organised and Wexford is one of a handful of counties which fielded teams in both football and hurling. The majority of the earliest founded GAA clubs in Wexford were formed for the sole purpose of football and the playing of games between them. Reports of crowds in excess of 15,000 attended games between these clubs as well as fixtures between clubs from Wexford and neighbouring Wicklow.

Records show that organised team games of football have been played since 1887. Two separate reports show a team from Castletown played a game in a field near the Kish in 1887 whilst in the same year a game was played on Jun 19th at White Heaps, an area on the road between Ballyfad and Woodenbridge. In this game a team from Tara Hill played ‘The Camaigners’. In 1888 another report in The People details a game which took place on 16 June between Kilanerin and Tara Hill ‘in a field kindly given by Lady Esmonde, Coolnagoose House’. The game on this occasion was won by Kilanerin on a score of 1-5 to 1-2 and ‘the play made by Hempenstall and Sheehan of Kilanerin and by Gannon and Noctor of Tara Hill was greatly admired’.

Despite this loss, football continued to be played in the area and in 1923, the Ballinglen club was founded and this team played at venues across Ballinglen, Tara Hill and Kilmurray. Ballinglen was a highly successful club in the 1940s, continuously winning the district title but falling short in the county final. In 1946, difficulties emerged in fielding a team and it was decided to amalgamate in 1946 with Tara Rocks, however following the arrival of Father Sean Kitt from Galway in the Castletown Parish in the 1950s, a new footballing dawn would begin.

Father Kitt would change the club colours from all white to maroon and white, similar to his native Galway. From the arrival of Father Kitt, the provision of football for youths of the Parish was of the utmost importance and Fr Kitt is credited with organising underage teams to participate in the Rackard League. The club won it’s first county junior football title in 1960, quickly following up with a maidan senior football title in 1965. Intotal the club has contested 18  senior football finals, winning 12. Along with regularly competing for titles in senior football the club has a proud history of producing players to line out for Wexford senior and junior football teams throughout the years, two of the most famous being Andy Merrigan  and GAA Hall of Fame Member Michael Carty.

The Andy Merrigan Cup is awarded to the winners of the All Ireland Club Football Championship each year and the cup was donated in memory of Andy who died in a farming accident. The trophy was first presented in 1974 to winners University College Dublin.  In 1975 the Andy Merrigan Cup was presented to UCD again, with the captain being Michael Carty. Michael was inducted into the GAA hall of fame in 2013 and is one of the most decorated footballers in the history of Wexford football having won one Leinster Minor Football Title, captained Wexford to a National League Division 2 title, 1 Wexford U21 title, 6 Wexford Football titles, 2 Dublin senior football titles, 1 All Ireland Club championship title along with 5 Sigerson Cup titles.