COROFIN HARPS F.C.

40TH ANNIVERSARY CELEBRATIONS
2007 will mark the 40th Anniversary of organised soccer in Corofin and it is planned to celebrate this occasion in style. An organising committee has been established to put a programme in place. It has been agreed to hold these celebrations on the weekend of April 13th to 15th 2007. which is the week-end after Easter. A provisional programme, most of which is definitely agreed, has been prepared as follows:

Friday 13th: 8.00pm Mass for Deceased members of Soccer Club, Corofin Church
Friday 13th: 9.00pm Launch of Soccer Club History in Corofin Village
Saturday 14th: 2.00pm Coaching Course/Soccer Blitz for Schoolboy/Schoolgirl players
Saturday 14th: 8.30pm Anniversary Function at West County Hotel, Ennis. Music by Original Hound Dogs
Sunday 15th: 4.00pm Special Achievements Awards Ceremony, Corofin Village
Sunday 15th: 9.00pm Close of Celebrations

A special appeal is being made to all former and current players and officials to join in these celebrations. We are hoping that as many as possible will attend the Anniversary Function on April 14th. We are also appealing to anyone who has anything that they feel should be included in the Club History, in particular old photographs, to forward these to any of the club officers as soon as possible, to ensure their inclusion.

RESULTS - TABLES - FIXTURES
For an update on the fortunes of both the Junior and Schoolboy teams log on to the websites given at the bottom of the page.


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.

OFFICERS 2006 -07
Chairman: Gerard Kennedy
Vice-Chair: Declan O'Loughlin
Sec. John O'Donohue
Treasurer: Joseph O'Connell
Committee: Pat Lane, Martin O'Donohue, Tom Hayes, Michael Keane, Tommy O'Doherty, James Neylon
Junior Mentors: Gerry Halpin, Gerry McMahon, Martin Tierney
U-17: Ronnie Meere, Michael O'Dell, Declan O'Loughlin
Schoolboy Managers: [u-11] Tom Hayes, Pat Lane, [u-13] Val Egan, Alan Cherryman [u-14] Val Egan, Michael Concannon


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