History
It was as a football team that Glenealy set out in Wicklow GAA. The first game they played was at Avondale on 20 March 1887, when they suffered defeat at the hands of Glendalough, 0-4 to nil. There was very little coverage for G.A.A. in those days, but they were noted in action again at Newrath on 19 February 1888, and this time they went down to Brittas 0-3 to 0-0. No names were mentioned in relation to either of those matches.
Another mention was found of Glenealy footballers in 1907. On 21 April, they beat Killiskey 2-11 to 0-1 in some kind of a tournament game. Byrne, Doyle, Hennessy, Murray, Ellis, Farrell, Newsome and Healy were mentioned as playing well in that game. A small entry was located about the fact that they reached the Wicklow Junior final in 1921.
They were beaten in that final by two points to one, but only one name was mentioned and that was Chris Mernagh of Ballinacor. However, Tommy Glynn (club PRO) did manage to dig up the names of that Glenealy team — Tom Porter (goal), Jack Horgan, Jack Jordan, Gen Dunne, Mick Durneen, Jack Flynn, Mick Dunbar, Frank Newsome, Paddy Doyle, Jim Porter, Bill 'Budget' Glynn, Lar 'Cricket' Byrne, Jack 'Bough' Byrne, Jim 'Doctor' Byrne, Jack 'Cocker' Byrne. Subs: Hugh Cooney, Jim 'Can' Byrne and Paddy 'Tige' Byrne.[1]
Hurling
In 2013 at Aughrim GAA grounds Glenealy senior hurlers completed the club's first ever '4 in a row' of Wicklow SHC titles by defeating Bray Emmets 0-17 to 0-14.
On 5/10/2014 at Aughrim GAA grounds Glenealy senior hurlers were denied their first ever '5 in a row' when they lost by the narrowest of margins to last year's beaten finalists Bray Emmets. Despite a cracking start to the second half when Glenealy stormed ahead the final score was 2-09 (15) to 1-11 (14).
Glenealy - J Driver, C O'Neill, M. A O'Neill, R Byrne, G. Byrne, T Doyle, G Devlin, J O'Neill, D Staunton, S Nolan, W O'Gorman, L Glynn, G Weir, E Glynn, A Nugent. Subs: T McGrath for G Devlin (26m), N Driver for G Weir (52).
Glenealy won their 15th SHC title with a 2-12 to 0-11 victory over Bray Emmets at Aughrim in October 2017.
In November 2018, Glenealy retained the Senior Championship with a 4-10 to 1-12 victory over old rivals Carnew who have not won a senior title since 2009.
Glenealy: Cian Staunton; Emmet Byrne, Danny Staunton, Ronan Manley; Garry Byrne, Warren Kavanagh, Joe Driver Jr.; Jonathan O’Neill Snr., John Manley; Jamie Byrne, Robert Byrne, Paul O’Brien; Jonathan O’Neill Jr., Alan Driver (c), Gavin Weir. Replacements: Leighton Glynn (for J. Byrne), Gary Hughes (for R. Byrne), Andy O’Gorman (for J. Manley), Thomas Doyle (for G. Byrne), Enan Glynn (for P. O’Brien). Scorers: Jonathan O’Neill Jr. (2-01), Jonathan O’Neill Snr. (0-04, 0-02f), Gavin Weir (1-0), Warren Kavanagh (0-01), Robert Byrne (0-01), Paul O’Brien (0-01), Alan Driver (0-01).
