Recruitment claims tarnish relationship between Clare GAA clubs

Clare GAA chairman Kieran Keating said the matter was not a clear-cut one. Pic: Ray McManus/Sportsfile

Claims of recruitment have tarnished the relationship between two neighbouring clubs in Clare.

The disagreement between Cratloe and Parteen-Meelick has been going on for a few years but raised its head at last week’s county board meeting in Kilrush.

Parteen and Meelick had drawn players from the same parish but amalgamated in October 2022 following years where Meelick had struggled to field teams, especially in football.

During that time, a number of juvenile players began lining out for Cratloe but following the merger with Parteen there have been attempts to bring them back to their original club.

The Clare County Board were requested to intervene and former GAA director general Páraic Duffy was involved in a bid to resolve the matter. However, his recommendations were not published.

Speaking at last week’s meeting, Parteen-Meelick delegate Kieran O’Halloran outlined the club’s frustration with the county board’s handling of their concerns. 

“In 2025 there was a judgement that Cratloe had fielded and registered illegal players in competitions. In January of this year, I wrote to Clare GAA’s head of operations to know if Cratloe had informed those players that they could no longer play with Cratloe. That e-mail got no response.

“Another email was sent asking the same question and again no response. Both fell on deaf ears. In May of this year, we had an U11 football match where neighbour played against neighbour, one in a Cratloe jersey and one in a Parteen-Meelick.” 

O’Halloran claimed further correspondence was issued to Clare GAA but there was no reply. 

“We asked again if Cratloe had informed the players that they would not be able to play at championship level with Cratloe and we were told they had an undertaking from Cratloe that they had contacted the parents of the players and they would not play championship with Cratloe. We took that assurance on board and moved on.

“We then saw that four players from the Parteen-Meelick parish played U13 academy hurling with Cratloe. Again, we brought this to the attention of the county board.

“Cratloe said we have done this, we have registered players from the parish of Parteen-Meelick. The parents came to us and said they wanted to play with us and we have registered them. They said there were more than the ones we had brought to the attention of the board, there were now seven players they had registered.

“Nothing has moved on. We have been asking for answers since January. We are now in the middle of October and we have no idea. People living in the middle of the parish of Parteen-Meelick are being allowed to continually register and play for Cratloe. They have continued to recruit and play players from Parteen-Meelick.” 

Clare GAA PRO Aaron Carroll and assistant secretary Deirdre Chaplin, both Cratloe club members, contradicted O’Halloran’s claim, insisting it’s “not true”.

Carroll said: “No one ever went into Parteen-Meelick and said, ‘Come over and play with us.’ They have come to our gate and I don’t know if it’s in our remit to say, ‘You can’t bring your child in that gate.’” 

Speaking to the Irish Examiner, a Cratloe club official said they would not be publicly commenting on the matter but that “there are two sides to every story and we have ours.” 

At the meeting, Clare GAA chairman Kieran Keating said the matter was not a clear-cut one. 

“These are children and it’s not as simple to say, 'Ban them all.'” 

Clare GAA insisted they have and continue to engage with Parteen-Meelick and are still investigating the matter.