page_title: Seir Kieran GAA
section_title: First twenty-five years, 1887 to 1912
hierarchical_section_title: Seir Kieran GAA / Early years / First twenty-five years, 1887 to 1912
caption_attribution_description: English: Windoe depicting St. Kieran, Seir Kieran Church, Bell Hill
context_page_description: Seir Kieran is a Gaelic Athletic Association club located in a parish and Electoral Division of the same name. Seir Kieran takes its name from Saint Ciarán of Saighir, who founded the parish as a civitas in the 5th century. The club's playing facilities are based in the village of Clareen in County Offaly in Ireland.
  Seir Kieran caters mainly for players of the games of hurling and camogie, although the club has also competed in the Offaly football competitions and reached the Offaly Senior Football Semi-final in 1927. Founded in 1887, for 67 of its 128 years, and continuously since 1970, the club has competed in the Offaly Senior Hurling Championship, winning the Sean Robbins Cup on four occasions. Seir Kieran have also had successes at Junior, Intermediate and under-age level, for example winning the Offaly Junior 'A' Hurling Championship for the seventh time in 2014.
  Players from Seir Kieran were on each of the four Offaly teams that have won the Liam MacCarthy Cup, and eleven hurling All Star Awards have been won by five players from Seir Kieran: Eugene Coughlan; Johnny Dooley; Kevin Kinahan; Billy Dooley; and Joe Dooley.
context_section_description: The advent of the GAA club at Clareen in 1887 coincided with the drive to build a new Parish Church, as the old one (erected in 1795 in the townland of Breaghmore) had become structurally unsound. The first secretary of the club, from 1887 until he emigrated in 1895, was Frank Pilkington of Bell Hill. Pilkington went on to become secretary to the Offaly GAA Club in New York for many years. Seir Kieran participated in competitions year on year. In 1907, the Offaly hurling championship was divided into Senior and Junior grades, and in 1909, the Offaly County Board introduced the "Parish Rule". These developments led to a first big breakthrough for club, when they beat Roscore (3-0 to 1-1) in the Offaly Junior Final for 1912. This final was not actually played until November 1913. Although a Central Council ruling, earlier in 1913, had reduced team size form 17 players to 15, this did not affect the still-unfinished 1912 championship. As such, Seir Kieran and Roscore may have been the last-ever teams to play a 17-a-side hurling final.
  It was during this period that Seir Kieran adopted their present club colours, of black and amber (similar to the Kilkenny county colours). In November 1911, John Drennan of Conway Hall, Kells, County Kilkenny donated a set of black and amber jerseys to the Kilkenny County Board, GAA. It is reported that prior to this gesture, he had won a large amount of money on a horse whose jockey wore those colours. John Drennan was a brother of Fr. Jeremiah Drennan, parish priest of Seir Kieran from 1904 to 1921. It is likely that Fr. Drennan emulated his brother's gesture by presenting the club with a set of jerseys identical to the Kilkenny ones.
caption: Window depicting St. Kieran, Seir Kieran Church, Bell Hill
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