In his highly acclaimed book “Cavan’s Football Story”, the late Fr Dan Galloghy records the foundation date of Shercock GFC as 1906. His source is an interesting and perhaps unusual one, Dublin Castle the headquarters of British rule in Ireland. His Majesty’s government were anxious to monitor the activities of GAA clubs and their possible link to the Irish Republican brotherhood in an era of increasing nationalism.
Like many communities at the time, football was played in Shercock and Killann on an informal and casually organized basis. There are some fleeting references in the Anglo-Celt to games involving Lecks Rangers and Killann Brian Boru’s. In later years there was limited involvement in County competitions, with challenge games and tournament meetings the order of the day. In a small area on the Monaghan border, a mile from Knockbride parish and less than 2 miles from Kingscourt parish and in the same parish as Bailieborough the task of keeping a regular team in place often proved too much and amalgamations with those three units at different times was often deemed necessary. Home games were often played on McCahey’s meadow and Flanagan’s field. Occasional victories were much celebrated, especially a league win over Victor Sherlock’s Kingscourt in the early 1950s. Around this time a field was purchased from John O’Hagan and the venue is now the home of our club to this day.
In 1975 the late Gerry Freeman and a youthful Philip Burns called a meeting for St Patrick’s Hall and it was decided to go it alone. The arrival of Manor Farm Ltd in the village in 1970 and the building of a 30 house estate may well have been factors in this decision. It was to be the club’s golden decade. Honed on a very competitive tournament scene at the time (where have tournaments gone ?) our young and enthusiastic team left behind the old chorus of “Have we 15 ?” and began to think of making their mark in County competitions. In 1979 the club won its first ever Junior championship and by the end of 1981 had qualified for division 1 League status. That year saw the official opening of a newly developed O’Hagan Park complete with dressing rooms. In 1984 our strongest ever team won the Cavan intermediate Championship. The mid-1980s emigration wave meant that young team was never to see out its potential.
Though competitive in all competitions our club went 27 seasons without success at championship level when the famine ended with winning the Junior title in 2011. Defeat in the 2013 Intermediate final was followed by ultimate success in that grade in 2017,after which we campaigned in the Senior championship for four seasons.
Our club has continued to develop in recent years with the completion of three new dressing rooms and a gymnasium along with improvements to a training pitch at Killann. A thriving underage boy’s and girl’s section under the care of devoted coaches is bearing fruit. Plenty of reason for optimism in the coming years. Keep the amber and green flag flying high !
