Kilmihil: Throughout the Decades

Kilmihil Athletics Club was founded on January 6th, 1942 by Fr. Pat O’Connor. Before this time, many athletes in the area competed with Kilrush A.C., however after it disbanded in 1941 there was no athletics club in West Clare and so Kilmihil AC was born. The club is the oldest and longest surviving athletics club in County Clare. In the early years of the club it quickly went from strength to strength, beginning as a senior club and going onto cater for all ages.

Throughout the decades the club grew and grew with new members being added continuously and in the late 1980’s St. Michael’s Vocational school built an athletics track which the club could avail of, providing an excellent training ground for their athletes. With this new facility came great success and throughout the 90’s the club became one of the strongest clubs in the county, winning the O’Gorman / McNamara trophy for Best Club at the County Championships four consecutive years.

At the turn of the millennium the club became part of newly formed Athletics Association of Ireland. Club members, John Devine and Michael Lillis were dedicated to making Kilmihil AC the best club they could to ensure its survival and prosperity. Through their hard work the club put in place great foundations from which it could grow and cater for their athletes at present and beyond into the future. This hard work from both men was rewarded with John being elected as Chairman of the Munster Juvenile Board and Michael becoming the first chairman of the new Clare Athletics Board. 

In 2020 after a couple of quiet years the club elected a brand-new club committee for the coming season and have currently 50 juvenile and senior club members registered with more being added every month. The club has use of the local Community Hall for training in the Winter to make sure they can still get their sessions in regardless of the weather and continues to this day to use the track laid out in St. Michael’s school grounds.

The club is in safe hands with head coach John Dalton and with lots of help from the committee members and eager coaches. The primary aim of Kilmihil AC is to add value to the small, close-net community and provide exercise education through fun coaching. The club works to develop children not only as an athlete but as a person with a goal to provide them with strong long-lasting values that they will use throughout their life by promoting health and fitness, and also developing essential skills such as confidence, determination, motivation, self-discipline and teamwork.

The club is always looking to expand and develop further and is currently fundraising to upgrade the training grounds to ensure quality training can be provided for all of their members.

New members are always welcomed, and you can contact the club via email at kilmilhilathletics@gmail.com.

Or visit the clubs Facebook page Kilmihil Athletic Club.