Following approval at the Club’s 2024 AGM to adopt a corporate structure, Galwegians Members Company Limited by Guarantee was incorporated on 13 August 2025. The Club’s assets will now transfer to the new company structure.
The final AGM of the Club in its current format will take place on Thursday 18th June 2026 at 7pm, followed by the first AGM of the Company at 8pm.
This marks a historic moment for the Club, with the Trustees retiring and a new board of directors, including a Director of Governance, guiding Galwegians into the future.
Members are encouraged to attend and acknowledge the outstanding contribution of the Trustees and former Trustee Peter Crowley over many years.
In the footsteps and tyretracks of Galwegians before them, the Ken Larkin-coached Under13s pulled away from Glenina shortly before 03:00am Friday morning, Mar 27, bound for Lisbon. In what has become a rite of passage for Crowley Park pre-teens, Estádio Universitário de Lisboa (Lisbon University) welcomed 24 players, 22 parents, five siblings and a coach on Saturday morning for a 27-team pool-play seeding competition.
Just short of noon Friday and awaiting hotel check-in, the 52-strong complement invaded seaside resort suburb Estoril for a long-awaited lunch. Pow’s Chick took every bit the hammering Ballina did in league and cup fixtures this year, but fired out more than four dozen meals in no more than 40minutes. As far as we are aware, staff took the rest of the afternoon off and retired to the south of France for the summer. The diners nearly all napped.
Played under 10-a-side format on 60m x 40m pitches, Galwegians met tournament hosts Sporting Clube du Portugal, 10:15am Saturday morning. Albeit on constricted pitch-widths, the Baby Blues made great use of space farther out winning several one-on-one collisions and, ultimately, the match 35-05. A vocal parents & friends support crew welcomed them back to the stand, one-from-one first job done, watched by an overseas audience via tournament video link.
Larkin and co-coaches Aidan O’Brien and Jamie Connolly unloaded the bench for game two, and all tourists had seen pitch minutes by full-time against Rugby Vila da Moita, at 13:35 Saturday afternoon. RV Moita, from Lisbon’s southside, fell prey to a similar scoreline (40-nil), outmuscled by kilos and pace courtesy of the touring Irish. That said, stiff resistance emerged from a handful of RV Moita and Sporting CP players in both games, which mimicked Galwegians’ best for evasive footwork and crisp passing width. Portugal, contesting their third rugby world cup next year, has a thriving player population in its main centres particularly among youth rugby grades.
Maidstone RFC, one of England’s oldest clubs, was to prove a thornier issue for the buoyant Galwegians, last game of day one, 17:20 Saturday. Maidstone’s size and ability to dominate the breakdown saw them to get away to a two-try lead within seven minutes, and while Galwegians went toe-to-toe on the scoreboard thereafter, Galwegians finished 10-20 down, but well placed to contest the second tier of the draw (ninth to 16th) on Sunday.
Unfortunately for Galwegians, Moita was its last on-pitch success, day two’s fixtures proving too formidable a hurdle. St Julian’s (Lisbon) exerted every ounce of physical prowess to outmuscle and outflank Galwegians’ best efforts late morning (25-15), and the 15th and 16th playoff v de la Salle Palmerstown Chiefs was a close-run three tries to two loss.
Competition birthdates allowed for players born after 01 September 2012 to contest the U13s, giving several opposition players a few months’ maturity (and moustache bragging rights) over a handful of our 12yr-old Irish lads. That said, all opposition contested the 20min matches as gentlemen (and gentlewomen), the U13 grade allowing for mixed panels. All in all, tournament hosts complete more than 300 games on at least nine pitches in two days across seven grades (U13 mixed, U15,17 and 19 boys; and U15,18 and 20year girls).
While playing and flight schedules afforded little opportunity to see much of Lisbon beyond the university, Estoril’s Piccadilly Circus, and the hotel we managed to catch daily glimpses of Estádio José Alvalade (the 50,000 seater Sporting CP soccer headquarters), Benfica’s 65,000 seat stadium, and Estadio Nacionale du Jamor (athletics), a 37,000 seat open-air terraced theatre. Needless to say, those three arenas comprised a wholly appropriate and fitting parade route for the Ken Larkin-coached elite athletes of Galwegians’ Under13s.
Our thanks to all parents who travelled each contributed to everybody coming home again, commiserations to those who stayed in Galway – your support in the groupchat was shared with all present. Particular thanks to Caroline Heary (Kelly) whose monumental fundraising efforts significantly trimmed player costs. Special mention also to Bon Secours Hospital, Renmore; Dunnes Stores, Briarhill; Connacht Rugby; Flannerys Hotel and countless others who donated to the cause.
It was in every sense another roaring and runaway success by memory-making metrics, life experience, and friendships made.
Squad : Jude Landy, Aaron Kristopaitis, Cillian McParland, Cathal & Conor Keady, Dara & Oisin Hernon, Ruadhan Ó Dómhnaill, Rían Mitchell, Iarlaith O’Brien, Tadhg Kelly, Éanna Fanning (and fanclub), Adam Chodola, Iarla Cavan, Jakub Glomba, Derren Cahill, Conor O’Brien, Flynn Wilson, Senan Larkin, Tom McCafferty, Jack Kelly, Julian Kotonski, Cillian McCarthy and Pierce Noonan.
Coaches : Ken Larkin, Aidan O’Brien, Jamie Connolly. Manager Michael O’Brien.
One of our new player recruits this season is Tom Gormley, who took the pitch last Saturday for his 100th AIL match against his former club of Sligo.
Although most of his AIL matches were for Sligo, Galwegians were delighted to celebrate the achievement with Tom and take the chance to welcome him to Crowley Park.
Where are you from?
I’m from a small village called Coolaney in Co. Sligo
Tell us about your life off the pitch
I’m married to Joan, and we have two small boys, Tadhg 2.5 and Paudie. I work as an IT Business Systems Analyst as my day job.
Give us a fun fact about yourself that people wouldn’t guess
I’ve been a keen beekeeper for the last few years
You’d better tell us about your career on the pitch too
I started playing rugby at U15 level so a good while back now, and played at Sligo for many years. My standout memory was winning the Connacht J1B League with Sligo, which was a whole season of craic. I just joined Wegians this season so am getting to know the club.
What position do you play?
I’m a specialist tighthead prop but I can cover the full front row. My darts are a bit questionable though.
Not many players get 100 AIL caps. How does it feel to reach this milestone?
I’m very grateful because it took me quite a number of years to reach the milestone, both with Covid and injuries. Returning from a big injury it was a goal I had set, so from that point of view it is especially cool.
What are your hopes for the rest of the season?
We have had a great start to the season so for me it’s about keeping the group together and building week on week. If we can do that, the sky’s the limit.
We are saddened to announce the death of our Past President Adrian Glynn.
A much liked and well respected Galwegian, Adrian served as President of our club in 1986-87 and is from one of the great Galwegian family dynasties. He was the son of the legendary Johnny Glynn who died while serving as IRFU President in 1958-59.
Adrian is survived by his wife Bryde and children, one of whom, David, is a very active club volunteer and a recent Club Person of the Year twice over.
May his gentle soul rest in peace. We will form a guard of honour at Adrian’s funeral, club attire please.
This is one of our biggest fundraising events this year and will be a significant contributor towards the considerable cost of running our Club in the coming season.
The draw is fully funded by the IRFU and all monies raised through ticket sales go directly to the Club. There are incredible prizes on offer, tickets are €10 each and are available online through the link
I am asking all members to get involved and support this key fundraising initiative by personally purchasing tickets and promoting the draw with family and friends.
The closing date for draw entries is 24th November and if every club member sold a book of tickets (10) each over the next 5 weeks, it would go a long way in making this fundraising campaign a real success.
Our challenging opening qualification campaign resulted in a narrow 31-29 loss to local city rivals Corinthians, meaning we unfortunately missed out on securing a spot in the JP Fanagan Premier 2 competition.
However, under the leadership of Captain Brian McHugo and Co-Captain Jack Quinn, our squad has demonstrated remarkable resilience and gone from strength to strength.
We started our league campaign by winning our first 5 league games in JP Flanagan Premier 3 consecutively. Notable features were dominant performances that included holding both Malahide and Coolmine to 0 tries against us.
Despite facing numerous injuries in key positions, our team exhibited great character and depth with players stepping up to play out of position.
The only setback in the first half of the league has been a narrow 24-19 defeat to Blackrock, a match where either team could have emerged victorious.
As we approach the Christmas break and halfway point in the league, we find ourselves only 3 points behind Blackrock in the standing thanks to bonus points earned. We are firmly in contention for the top spot in the New Year.
Anticipation is high for our upcoming rematch against Blackrock. Throughout the season, we have delivered an exciting brand of rugby, scoring an impressive 224 points over 6 games.
We aim to continue our style in 2024 when we face Naas away in our first fixture on January 14th.
Galwegians RFC (“the Club”) is presently an unincorporated association. It operates under a constitution which provides that the property of the Club shall be held by the Trustees of the Club. The present constitution provides that the Trustees “shall be not less than two and not more than five in number”.
Presently, there are three Trustees namely Peter Crowley, Michael Deacy and Billy Glynn. These Trustees have acted diligently on behalf of the Club for many years and two of them now wish to retire.
For liability and other reasons it is more appropriate that any unincorporated association, such as the Club, would operate as a corporate structure. The present Board of Management of the Club propose that the Club should move in this direction.
This would mean that the present structure would be wound up, that a company limited by guarantee would be formed and that this company will take over the operations, activities, assets and liabilities of the Club.
It is proposed to hold an information evening in relation to this proposed change on Thursday 8 February 2024 at 8 p.m. in Crowley Park with a view to holding a Special General Meeting (“SGM”) some weeks later for the purpose of moving to a corporate structure.
The matters to be dealt with at the SGM would be:
The approval of a new corporate constitution.
Authorisation to immediately incorporate a new company limited by guarantee.
The dissolution of the present Club structure
The transfer of the operations, activities, membership, assets and liabilities of the Club to the new corporate entity.
All members are invited to attend the information evening on Thursday 8 February 2024 to discuss this extremely important step for the future of the Club.
Draft new constitution is available for viewing and download below.
Galwegians RFC formally launched their centenary book publication ‘Galwegians RFC – 100 Years of Rugby History’ at the clubhouse in Crowley Park on Thursday Dec. 7th.
A huge crowd of past & present Galwegians, friends and invited guests and dignitaries were present to witness the culmination of over 3 years’ work.
As part of their centenary celebrations, the club committee decided to document their history and commissioned well-known Galway-based rugby author Linley MacKenzie to write the book. Designed and printed by local company iSupply, it features almost 200 pages. It vividly captures the club’s history from its foundation in 1922 through to present day, with numerous stories, recollections and photographs featuring many of the club’s key personalities.
Many of the local public representatives were present at the event, including Mayor of Galway city Councillor Eddie Hoare who addressed the audience, commending Galwegians on their history, their contribution to the sporting and social fabric of Galway city and the quality of the book’s publication.
Master of ceremonies, Galwegians President Erc Dunne, also introduced the author Linley MacKenzie, who spoke about her experience of writing the book and researching the club’s rich history. The book was then formally launched by Galwegians Trustee Michael Deacy, a long-serving life member, past President and a member of one of the club’s most influential families.
Galwegians RFC – 100 Years of Rugby History is available to purchase at:
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