Club History

The village of Oola is situated in the East of the County on the main Limerick to Waterford road the N24. The parish of Oola and Solohead is split in loyalties with Oola lying in the East Limerick area and Solohead lying in West Tipperary. Oola is a club richly steeped in football tradition and holds the distinction of winning the first Limerick Senior football Championship of the Twentieth Century. It is said that football competitions usually involving four teams were played in the parish before the foundation of the GAA.

Roll of Honour
Founded in 1887-88, Oola holds the distinction of winning the first Limerick Senior football Championship of the Twentieth Century & has won 6 County Senior Championships 1900, 1918, 1922, 1925, 1961 and 1979.
(1900 Capt. John Moloney,  1918 Capt. Jack Ryan,  1922 Capt. Jim Horan,  1925 Capt. Jim Horan,  1961 Capt. Willie J Gubbins,  1979 Capt. Patsy Ryan).

Foundation to 1940's
Oola affiliated to the County Board in 1888 and became the first country club to win the County Senior Football Championship in 1900, defeating Abbeyfeale.
Further senior success came in 1918 and in 1922, when Oola also overcame Abbeyfeale and in 1925 Ballylanders were beaten in the final.
During the mid-thirties Newtown Rangers from the Oola parish lost two county senior finals in 1934 and 1935 respectively, both to Glin.
In 1944 the present club was reformed and has been in existence ever since.
During this period we regraded to junior and reached the Junior County Final where Ballysteen were too good for us.
But in 1947 we tasted victory over Glin.

1950's and 60's
After playing a few years in the senior grade Oola stepped back down to Junior.
In 1952 we were back in the Junior final but on this occasion were beaten by Ballylanders.
In 1959 the club contested another Junior final were we prevailed in a great contest against the mighty Newcastlewest.
This victory lead to Oola re-joining senior ranks in 1960 where we remained for over 40 years.

In 1961 Oola bridged a thirty six year gap by beating Western Gaels in the County Senior final.

1970's and 80's
From 1970 to 1980 Oola played in five County Senior football finals, managing to win only one in 1979 where we beat Askeaton comfortably by ten points to two.
We lost the Finals in 1970 and 1971 to Claughan. We lost to Croom in 1976 and to Thomond College in 1980.
The Oola junior team also reached their County Final in 1975 where they found Na Fianna too strong.

1990's to present
Oola were relegated to Intermediate in 2002 and remained in the intermediate grade until 2015.
We contested our first intermediate final in 2010 losing out to Galbally in Bruff.
The following year we found ourselves back in the final were we were beaten by Mountcollins in the Gaelic Grounds after a replay.
In 2013 we suffered defeat at the hands of St Mary/Sean Finns of Rathkeale.

2015 saw us at last reach our holy grail defeating Claughan in the final and bring senior football back to Oola following a 13 year absence.

We performed creditably in the senior ranks in 2016, and the growing strength of football in the club was highlighted late in the year when our Junior B team captured the county title in dramatic fashion.



1922 County Senior Football Champions

1925 County Senior Football Champions
1979 County Senior Football Champions
2015 County Intermediate Football Champions
2016 Junior B County Champions


Ladies Football
Ladies Football has been going from strength to strength in Oola in recent years. In the early 1990’s there was a ladies team playing in the Limerick championship from the Oola parish called “St Nicholas”. This team was an amalgamation team being made up of players from Oola and from some nearby West Tipperary parishes like Solohead and Cappawhite. St Nicholas went on to capture the Limerick Junior Football championship in 1992 but finished playing a few years after this.

Following a number of years of inactivity, the current Oola Ladies football club was established in 2002 and  we now field teams in all ages from U6 up to adult. 2016 has been a successful season for our ladies teams winning county league or championship titles at u14, u16 and minor levels.
Our junior team completed the league and championship double, and will return to the intermediate grade in 2017. In addition, Siobhan Moloney was part of the county squad that captured the Division 4 national league title in 2016. We can look forward in the knowledge that the future of our ladies club is in good shape.

2016 Junior County Champions