The Portmarnock Sports and Leisure Centre has been very supportive of the soccer club providing dressing rooms and showers in the late 1980s at Carrickhill. Private facilities had probably been the dream of everyone from the beginning and it was felt that the time had come to pursue this objective. By the mid-1990s there were more than 30 teams in the club, making it the largest in the country.
At this time a new development plan for the Portmarnock/Malahide area which would include sporting facilities emerged. A committee of sports clubs was established to pursue the matter. An agreement that would lead to our own facilities was entered into and the club now has its own private facilities at Paddy’s Hill, Portmarnock.
Portmarnock AFC is now one of the foremost clubs in schoolboy and junior football. With six senior teams, more than 20 schoolboy teams and two ladies teams the club is one of the biggest in the country with a strong commitment to the development of soccer in Portmarnock and surrounding areas.
The club’s record over the past decade has put it to the forefront of Junior Soccer. Portmarnock AFC won the FAI Junior Cup in 2000 and we were beaten finalists in 1997 and 2003, losing on both occasions to Fairview Rangers of Limerick. Our first team has also reached the final of the Leinster Junior Cup on two occasions and won the Liddy Cup and reached the final of the Heineken Cup.
The club has also enjoyed success in the AUL Premier A league, plus Cup and League honours for the remaining teams in our senior section.
Stephen Dawson was the first Portmarnock player to win a schoolboy international cap. He played for Ireland at Under 17 level and is now a signed professional with Leicester City.
Another of our former players, Stephen Ward, enjoyed a successful spell at Bohemians before transferring to Wolverhampton Wanderers in 2007, where he is now a regular on the first team. He spent most of his schoolboy career with his local club, Portmarnock AFC.
Players from the club have been selected for representative teams at DDSL, Brenfer, AUL, Leinster, Irish schoolboy and junior international levels.
Emma Merrigan was capped for the Irish girls Under 16 team and was also selected for the DWSL Cup team. More recently our Under 14 ladies team won their league. Our club was also honoured in 1997 when our Under 12 boys team won the Dublin Community Games Final.
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