COROFIN HARPS F.C.

A BRIEF HISTORY The first soccer club came into existence in Corofin shortly after the World Cup was held in England in 1966.

The club adopted the name Newtown United as many of the players were from the Newtown area of Corofin village. The original club colours were tangerine and red which are now more associated with Ennis club Avenue United.

Together with Newmarket Celtic and Bridge United, Corofin were one of the first teams outside of Ennis to compete in Clare soccer competitions entering the league for the first time in 1967. [East Clare side Bridge Celtic competed in Limerick at that time].

The club reformed around 1970 as Corofin Albion when the club colours were black and white vertical stripes. The Clare League had developed into two divisions by that time and Corofin won it's first trophy the Division Two league title in 1972 defeating Bridge Celtic in a play-off.

The club has had a chequered history over the past four decades collecting a number of trophies along the way, but also spent three years out of the Clare League at the beginning of the 1980's. The club returned to the league simply as Corofin around 1983 and on occasion entered two junior teams. The club has also attempted to promote youths and schoolboys soccer over the years.

In the early 1990's the club decided to adopt the parish colours of red and white as the primary team colours.

In 1992 an u-12 team from the club travelled to the US for a tournament organised there. Many of those players are now members of the present junior squad.

The club has put considerable emphasis on development of schoolboy soccer in recent years and in the 2001 - 2002 season captured the u-11 cup. More or less the same players went on to capture the u-12 cup the following season.

The club also changed its name to Corofin Harps F.C. at the beginning of the 2002 - 2003 season.

The club has continued to play at Corofin Sportsfield since it was first established in the 1960's. The junior team has competed in Division One of the Clare Soccer League for several seasons. The ambition is to return to the Premier Division before the 40th anniversary of the club in 2007. Harps made an amazing breakthrough in 2005 winning the Clare Cup competition. This is probably the only occasion up to that point that a team from outside the top division had claimed this trophy. Even more amazingly the Corofin club retained the title in 2006. Also in this season Harps with tantalisingly close to promotion to the Premier Division, going down in two play-offs having finished in joint second place in the Division Two League.

Corofin Harps is extremely grateful to all of its sponsors and supporters without whom the club could not exist.

USEFUL WEBSITES
Log on to a2zSoccer and go to 'Results & Fixtures'. Here you will find 'Clare Football League' & 'Clare Schoolboys League' which provides fixtures, results and tables for junior, youths and schoolboy teams in the county

Log on to Schoolboys Soccer for an excellent website covering schoolboys soccer in Clare