History
of Clonduff
The history of Gaelic games in Clonduff
spans a century and press reports of 1887, how the
parish to have had two icanis - one the Hilit(iwn
Amateurs, the other. the Red Hands.
Gaelic games flourished for a few
years but then subsided and it was not until 1910
that the parish could again field a gactic team. For.
the next ten years Clonduff fielded teams at Junior
and Senior levels bearing such patriotic names as
the Emeralds, The Harps and the Sarsfields.
1920 can he identified as the founding
year of'thc modern Clonduff Shamrock's. For the next
ten or so years success on the playing field was commonplace
and it was in this era that Clonduff's long tradition
of'providing County players began. Names like MePolin,
Brannigan, Doyle, Mussen and O'Hanion were synonomous
with County teams.
For most of the Thirties the club
was in cold storage but re-emerged in the early Forties.
Once again the Clonduff tradition of providing County
players was to the fore and when Down won the 1946
Junior All-Ireland Clonduff provided six of the panel.
In 1955 the club split into two distinct
entities, Cabra and Hilltown, and two years later
they met in the County Final. The teams amalgamated
in 1959 and the following year two of their players
won All-Ireland Senior football medals. The club opened
its' own grounds in 1968 and became one of the leading
clubs in the newly formed Scor competitions.The club's
greatest honour was when Kevin Mussen, as Down's Captain,
took the Sam Magire Cup in 1960.
