Moortown St. Malachy's is a Gaelic Athletic Association

Gaelic Athletic Association

The Gaelic Athletic Association is an amateur Irish and international cultural and sporting organisation focused primarily on promoting Gaelic games, which include the traditional Irish sports of hurling, camogie, Gaelic football, handball and rounders...

 club based in the village

Village

A village is a clustered human settlement or community, larger than a hamlet with the population ranging from a few hundred to a few thousand , Though often located in rural areas, the term urban village is also applied to certain urban neighbourhoods, such as the West Village in Manhattan, New...

 of Moortown

Moortown, County Tyrone

Moortown is a rural area in the north east of County Tyrone, Northern Ireland. It lies on the western shores of Lough Neagh, beside Ballinderry and Ardboe. It is relatively close to the towns of Cookstown, Magherafelt and Dungannon. It is in Cookstown District Council area...

 in County Tyrone

County Tyrone

Historically Tyrone stretched as far north as Lough Foyle, and comprised part of modern day County Londonderry east of the River Foyle. The majority of County Londonderry was carved out of Tyrone between 1610-1620 when that land went to the Guilds of London to set up profit making schemes based on...

, Northern Ireland

Northern Ireland

Northern Ireland is one of the four countries of the United Kingdom. Situated in the north-east of the island of Ireland, it shares a border with the Republic of Ireland to the south and west...

.

History

Moortown are one of the most successful clubs in Tyrone having won four Tyrone Senior Football Championships in 1941, 1942, 1950 and 1992.

Their last county championship victory came in 1992 and the side was captained by James Devlin. However, the Malachys have a less than inspiring record in finals and on innumerable occasions have reached junior, intermediate and senior finals and then fallen at the final hurdle. Often perform best as underdogs.

The club used to field a Hurling

Hurling

Hurling is an outdoor team game of ancient Gaelic origin, administered by the Gaelic Athletic Association, and played with sticks called hurleys and a ball called a sliotar. Hurling is the national game of Ireland. The game has prehistoric origins, has been played for at least 3,000 years, and...

 team in the 1970s, competing in the Derry league

Derry GAA

The Derry County Board of the Gaelic Athletic Association or Derry GAA is one of the 32 county boards of the GAA in Ireland. It is responsible for Gaelic games in the GAA county of Derry, which covers virtually the same territory as the former administrative county of Londonderry...

.

Recent events

In 2007 Moortown were hot favourites to be promoted back to the Senior League in Tyrone and reached the Tyrone Intermediate Football Championship

Tyrone Intermediate Football Championship

The Tyrone Intermediate Football Club Championship is an annual Gaelic Athletic Association club competition between the 16 Tyrone clubs competing in Division 2 of the Tyrone All-County Football league.The winners of the Tyrone Championship qualify to represent their county in the Ulster...

 final against a non-fancied Killyman

Killyman St. Mary's

Killyman St. Mary's is a Gaelic Athletic Association club based in the parish of Killyman in County Tyrone, Northern Ireland. They were Tyrone Intermediate Football Championship winners in 2007. They also won the tyrone junior football championship in 2010 gaining promotion to division 2 in the...

 side who produced a storybook performance to defeat Moortown in Healy Park

Healy Park

Healy Park is a Gaelic Athletic Association stadium in Omagh, County Tyrone, Northern Ireland. It is the second largest stadium in Northern Ireland with a modern capacity of approximately 18,500. It is the home of Omagh St. Enda's and the Tyrone Gaelic football teams. It is located on the Gortin...

, Omagh

Omagh

Omagh is the county town of County Tyrone, Northern Ireland. It is situated where the rivers Drumragh and Camowen meet to form the Strule. The town, which is the largest in the county, had a population of 19,910 at the 2001 Census. Omagh also contains the headquarters of Omagh District Council and...

. Notable performances came from Peter Devlin (Son of James Devlin) Michael O'Hagan and county star PJ Quinn.

Their home pitch is Tobin park though there are plans now for Moortown to relocate to a new area in the village in a new leisure complex if adequate funds are raised.

The U-13 team won the County Title in 2010.Whilst the following year the same side won the U-14 Grade 1 League. The senior team gained promotion back to Division 1 by beating Kildress in the playoffs and are currently playing in Division 1.

In recent years the club also began to field a Camogie

Camogie

Camogie is an Irish stick-and-ball team sport played by women; it is almost identical to the game of hurling played by men. Camogie is played by 100,000 women in Ireland and world wide, largely among Irish communities....

 team.
Which the u-14s won the grade 1 championship 2009 and the U-16 championship in 2010

The Current Moortown G.A.C. Chairman Is James Devlin.

Notable players

• Jimsey Devlin
• Jimmy Conway
• Peter Crozier
• Joe Crozier
• Hughie Conlon
• Francis Quinn
• Chris Lawn
  Chris Lawn
  Chris Lawn is a former Tyrone Gaelic footballer. Along with Peter Canavan, he is one of only two Tyrone men to be on the panel for three All-Ireland Finals , although he was on the substitutes bench for the entirety of the 2003 final, and came on as a substitute in the 2005 final, for the injured...
  
   - winner of two All-Ireland medals with the Tyrone Inter-county Team.
• Stephen Lawn - Former member of Tyrone team and member of 1995 defeated All-Ireland finalists.
• Paul Devlin - Former member of Tyrone team and member of 1995 defeated All-Ireland finalists.
• James Devlin - Former member of Tyrone team and Inspirational Captain of 1992 Tyrone County Champions.
• PJ Quinn - Current Member Of Tyrone Panel