Galway Corinthians R.F.C
Corinthians or Galway Corinthians Rugby Football Club was founded in the 1932/33 season and as such celebrated its seventy fifth anniversary in the season 2007/08.
The founding members of the club were a group of young lads, mostly then immediate and recent past pupils of St. Josephs, the Bish together with some of their teachers, most notably Harry Warner who served as first President of the club and was also for many years secretary of the Galway Chamber of Commerce (& Industry). The first Secretary of the club Bernie O’Connell from Woodquay only passed away in June 2006.
Success was immediate, with the club winning the Connacht Senior Cup in its inaugural year in March 1933. Corinthians retained the cup the following year, 1934. The Connacht Senior Cup, like the other provincial cups, was at that time the major event of the rugby season. There had been an All Ireland competition for the Bateman Cup but it had been discontinued some ten years earlier.
Like all the city clubs Corinthians made extensive use of the Sportsground and the grounds of the adjacent Galway Grammar School for training and for matches. The club had many temporary homes in the early days such as the Skeffington Arms Hotel in Eyre Square for togging out and Cullinanes of Eglinton Street for committee meetings. In the mid sixties the club bought a three story private residence, Ard na Cregg, on College Road directly opposite the Grammar School and it proved a most popular club house and meeting place.
Due to the continued expansion of the club particularly in the pioneering work of the underage section and the consequent need for more pitches the club bought a property in the townland of Cloonacauneen on the Tuam Road some fifteen years later, known today as Corinthian Park. IRFU President Des McKibbin opened the gleaming new facilities in 1985. Of course the old clubhouse Ard na Cregg gave its name to the popular ongoing competition of the same name. Corinthian Park is by any standards one of the best appointed clubhouses and grounds in the country.
The recent renovations to the clubhouse make it a most welcoming rendezvous for members and visitors alike. There is a new warmth about it, not always evident in many clubhouses and it also provides a big viewing area onto the main pitch.
