Formation of the current club
The current Robert Emmets GFC club was formed in 1966. A call for a public meeting described in the Armagh Observer refers to Clonmore as ‘A once famous County Armagh club…is to be revived after a lapse of nearly 20 years’. The article goes on to name many of the historic figures of the football club in previous years:
Frank O’Neill, Bernard, Edward and Frank O’Neill, the Coynes, the Caseys, Malachy Foye, Johnny Foye, Jimmy McGeown, The Grimleys, the Dalys, John Farmer, Seamus Carberry, the Molloys, Mick Teggart, the Mullen brothers and others.
The Observer notes of 12/02/66 records the outcome of this ‘revival’ meeting speaking of a large attendance presided over by John Farmer, Chair and Armagh County Chairman, Dan McAreavey. The rhetoric of the meeting was one of hope that the team could progress to have three or four championships to their credit in the next twenty years and would possibly provide two or three players to the county panel to help Armagh make a dramatic comeback. The article recounts details of the first committee of the ‘new phase’ of the Clonmore Robert Emmets:
President—John Pedan, Chair—John Farmer, Vice Chair—Jim McAlinden, Secretary—Malachy Dynes, Treasurer—Tommy Tierney, Assistant secretary– Seamus Crossey, Committee—D Daly, S Dynes, M Tierney, P Grimley, J McAlinden
The name, colours and logo or Clonmore Robert Emmets GFC
Name
No-one is certain where the idea for club’s name originated from, however the late Jim McAlinden recorded that the old AOH band of the early 1900s was called ‘Clonmore Robert Emmets’. There had been suggestions to change the name in 1966 but it remained as Robert Emmet. It is a tradition that teams pick an important figure in Irish history or an Irish saint for identification. There had been a team known as the Emmets in Armagh earlier in the 20th century around 1918 so it is unlikely that the earlier team of 1916/1917 had used this name, but certainly the team of the thirties utilised it.
Team colours
The earliest team and the team of 1953 wore blue and white with Cavan being a big influence in the thirties and forties. But the emergence of the new club in 1966 brought a desire to change the club colours to Kerry’s green and gold and thus these have remained. At times causing controversy – as in the September of 2005 while Clonmore was in full colour for the Junior Championship final, some Tyrone supporters inadvertently thought that Clonmore was supporting Kerry in the All-Ireland final…which of course wasn’t true!
Logo
Over the years the logo has remained virtually unchanged in content – the familiar profile of Robert Emmet accompanying the club name. As time has progressed it has become more defined and is an instantaneous identifier of the club in the local area.