County Carlow Football (Rugby) Club
With thanks to County Carlow Football Club for their support for the Irish Sporting Heritage Project, particularly Dan Carbery and Leslie Dowley.
The history of County Carlow Football Club reflects the development of many rugby clubs across the country with its origins among the landed elite but long term survival dependent on extensive voluntary effort and limited funds. Moreover, its location, Oak Park, which is currently home to rugby, golf and GAA, tells its own story of the ways in which sport and politics are never far apart in Ireland.
Oak Park Estate was purchased in 1775 by Henry Bruen who had spent a good part of his life in America, much of it in the Quartermaster’s Office of the U.S. Army. He was the first of five Henry Bruens to own Oak Park. The last died without a male heir and this eventually led to various sporting clubs buying parts of the estate from the Irish Land Commission.
In 1964 Carlow Football Club bought 12 acres from the Commission, ending almost 100 years of itinerancy for the club which had been founded in 1873 by members of the local gentry. Although its first games were played in Oak Park the club had survived the intervening years with no fixed home.
This put a great strain on the club and, by the late 1950s, it had barely enough members to field one team, had only essential equipment – a set of touchline flags and a pair of goalposts – and club meetings were held in different premises each season.
Once the land was purchased, finances for the development of the club were raised by the organization of dances which were held as far apart as Wexford and Drogheda. Ingenuity and an eye for a bargain not only helped Carlow Football Club but have preserved a building from one of Ireland’s premier racecourses. In 1972 it purchased at auction the Georgian-style building which had served as jockey changing rooms at Baldoyle Racecourse. With its sprocket roof and corrugated iron walls it is an interesting piece of sporting architecture. A contractor agreed to take on the job of reconstruction but would not take responsibility for transporting the material from location to location. Club members therefore undertook the task of moving the dressing rooms from Balydoyle.
The Land Commission has been a vital agent for the purchase of land by clubs from all sporting codes. It has a long history of dealing with the break-up of vast estates and an interesting tale surrounds its involvement in Oak Park. When the last of the Bruens died in 1954 the estate was initially sold at auction to an English syndicate. This was met by a great deal of antagonism by local farmers and things came to a head in 1960 when the head of the syndicate, Mr G.W. Harold, received a letter containing an Irish postmark and a single bullet. This, coupled with verbal threats to his life and poor harvests, persuaded him to contact the Land Commission to dispose of the estate. In May 1961, Carlow Golf Club purchased the site from the Commission for a sum of £2,500.
Photographs 1 and 2 are taken from County Carlow Football Club Rugby History 1873-1977, compiled by Thomas O’Brien.
Photograph 4 shows the impressive arch that forms the entrance to the Oak Park Estate. It was residential while the estate was owned by the Bruen family.
Photograph 6 shows the former jockey changing rooms at Baldoyle.
