Club Record: 

Club Name: Sean McDermotts / Sean MacDiarmada.

Date club was founded:  February 1961

History of GAA in Kilmore & Drumsnatt

The first accounts of known of Gaelic Football in the parish came from the 1889 files of the "People's Advocate". Corcaghan Sons of Erin and Threemilehouse Healy's were 2 teams at that time that were affilliated to the GAA.  The first major GAA sucess was in 1928 when the Corcaghan Gaels brought great honour to the parish when they won the Monaghan Senior Football Championship.

Over the following three decades, there were periods, when there there were 2 teams affilliated in the parish, times when there was one, and times where there were none, and indeed, there was such a period stretching for 9 years from 1935, when no team was affilliated.

The Threemilehouse team of the 1950s enjoyed a period of success winning the Junior Championship in 1955, and the Intermediate double in 1956. 

Around 1960, there arose a possability of a second team once again affiating in the parish. County board officers of the time Mick Duffy (Chairman). Leo Burns (Secretary) and Paddy O Rourke (Treasurer), realised that for the GAA to survive and thrive in the parish of Kilmore and Drumsnatt, it's purpposes would be best served by the formation of a parish club.  They moved swiftly to broker discussions on this topic within the parish and at their invitation, a meeting was held in St Mary's Hall Threemilehouse, which was attended by the intrested parties.

Following lengthy discussions it was agreed that, the existing Threemilehouse club would disband, the aspiration to affiliate a second club would be shelved and a unified parish team under the name of Sean Mc Dermotts would be affiliated. Pat Connolly Drumuck is credited with the proposal that the newly formed club should be named after Irish Patriot and Freedom Fighter Sean Mac Diarmada.

Founding Fathers:

At that inaugural meeting the Officers elected were: Chairman: Seamus Timoney; Vice Chairman: Mick Mc Mahon; Secretary: Eamonn Mulligan; Assistant Secretary: Michael Mc Phillips; Joint Treasurers: Pat O Reilly & Tom Connolly.

The beginning was somewhat uncertain for the fledgling club but a historic step had been taken but success at minor level in 1962, wining the Fr. Maguire Cup and Minor Football League heplped the club on their way. In the period 1967-1969, the club won the Dr Ward Cup 3 in a row and the Junior Championship, signallig that the club has arrived.

Seán MacDiarmada

Seán MacDiarmada was one of the leaders of the Easter Rising of 1916 in Ireland. He was born John MacDermott in County Leitrim in 1883, though later in life he adopted the Irish form of his name: Sean MacDiarmada1. In 1908 he moved to Dublin, by which time he was already involved in several separatist organizations, including Sinn Fein, and the Irish Republican Brotherhood (IRB). He was soon promoted to the Supreme Council of the IRB upon the recommendation of a senior member who was being removed for excessive drunkenness, as part of the ongoing reorganization, and he eventually was elected secretary. In 1910 he became manager of the radical newspaper "Irish Freedom," which he founded along with Bulmer Hobson and Denis McCullough. He also became a national organizer for the IRB, and was taken under the wing of veteran Republican Tom Clarke. Indeed over the year the two became nearly inseparable. Shortly thereafter MacDermott was stricken with polio and forced to walk with a cane. In November, 1913 MacDermott was one of the original members of the Irish Volunteers, and continued to work effortlessly to bring that organization under IRB control. MacDermott proved himself to be one of the most radical and Machiavellian members until his death. When his close friend Bulmer Hobson voted to allow the Irish Parliamentary leader John Redmond to take control of the Volunteers, MacDermott never spoke to him again. In May, 1915, MacDermott was arrested in Tuam, County

Galway, under the Defense of the Realm Act for giving a speech against enlisting into the British Army. He was released in September, where upon he joined the secret Military Committee of the IRB, which was responsible for planning the rising. Indeed it was MacDermott and Clarke who were most responsible for it. Being somewhat crippled, MacDermott took little part in the fighting of Easter week, but was stationed at the headquarters in the General Post Office. Following the surrender, he nearly escaped execution by blending in with the large body of prisoners, but was eventually recognized by a British Officer Lee-Wilson (who would himself be killed in retaliation in County Cork on the orders of Michael Collins (Irish leader) during the Anglo-Irish War) and summarily executed by firing squad on May 12 at the age of 33.