The story of how Carbery GAA was formed 100 years ago

One hundred years of history, full of ups and downs, but Carbery GAA is still alive and kicking today.

The West Cork division is celebrating its centenary this year and a gala banquet will take place in November of this year, with the president of the GAA, Jarlath Burns, the special guest.

A person who has been heavily involved with Carbery GAA down through many years and is still in situ today is Tommy Lyons. Speaking to the media at the launch of the Carbery GAA championship draws for 2025, he went back to the start of how the division began 100 years ago. 

“Football came to West Cork first around 1887,” Lyons said.

“It was all run by the Cork County Board and then a committee was set up in West Cork to run affairs around 1900. That board was more or less in control of proceedings until the war of independence and then it was coming and going. It wasn’t too successful, but West Cork was the only committee in the whole county apart from the Cork County Board.

“Then you had the civil war and then the West Cork committee kind of collapsed. They weren’t organising games around 1924 into early 1925. There were five clubs on the eastern side of West Cork who were playing in a South Cork league. They decided between themselves that they needed to sort out games in the West Cork area as no games were being organised.

“They asked the county board for permission to set up a separate board to organise championship games between the five of them. They did that and then the old West Cork committee that had kind of collapsed, sprung into life then and they started organising their own championship at the same time.

“Funnily enough, the winners of both met in a county championship game afterwards. Clonakilty then joined the five teams that had their own committee and as Clon were the most western team in that board, they called it the South West Division and it has retained that name ever since. 

"The old West Cork committee went out of existence in 1926 so the South West board took control of all of that area from Bantry over to Valley Rovers.” 

26 clubs are now under the umbrella of Carbery GAA today. A thriving organisation with a huge history and tradition. They have most certainly come on leaps and bounds over the past 100 years.

“In the early years of the board, they were just running the Junior A championship,” Lyons says.

“There was no B championship or whatever. It was only when you came into around 1931 time, that they decided to run a novice competition for smaller and weaker teams. In terms of the colours of Carbery, it’s purple and gold. 

"They first started wearing the purple and gold around the time of Seán de Barra and Dinny McCarthy in the 1980s. Up to that point, the team that won the Carbery Junior A championship, the Carbery GAA divisional side would then wear that teams jersey the following year.” 

One of the events planned for this year to celebrate Carbery GAA’s 100th birthday is on Sunday, May 11 in Parkway Hotel in Dunmanway. A day where all the clubs in the division will be able to tell everyone what they are about.

“There’s a lot of work going into it. Tim Buckley, the Carbery GAA PRO, is the man in charge. The idea is to get every single club in the division into one place, one big hall. Every club would have a stand of their own to showcase their own history on the day.

“It should be a great day for West Cork GAA. Anyone who wants to know anything about the clubs in West Cork, should try and make the event. The venue is Dunmanway, a central venue in West Cork.”