Penrith Gaels Cultural & Sporting Association

Website: www.penrithgaels.com.au

Phone: (02) 4722 8180

Gaels Irish Club Logo

Penrith Gaels had its humble beginnings in the early 70’s with the formation of a gaelic football team.

A few dedicated people decided to run dances to fund this team. From then it has gone from strength to strength with the establishment of a hurling side and by the early 80’s they had formed a very successful school of Irish Dancing, social Golf Club, Soccer teams and a Drama School. Penrith Gaels also boasted a travel club, which helped their members save for a trip home to Ireland. Around about this time Penrith Gaels changed its name to ‘Penrith Gaels Cultural and Sporting Association Limited’

Even way back then the Penrith Gaels Committee along with their members had high aspirations of building club premises in the area. Fund raising dances were held on a monthly basis in local halls. Through the 80’s and 90’s the above sub clubs maintained a very competitive standard in their fields.

The social and fund raising dances continued and we also held our very successful biannual ‘Ireland Over Here’ Festivals at Penrith football Stadium. These festivals were attended by the Penrith community and people from all over NSW.

It wasn’t until the mid 90’s that the current premises became available. At that time they were known as the ‘Kingswood Squash Courts’. The committee along with the extremely helpful Mt Isa Irish Association decided to purchase the building. We began our renovations early in 1997 and to the credit of all our voluntary labour, both Men and Women who gave up their weekends and evenings our beautiful club was finally opened in August 1997.

Since then, with the help of management and staff our club has thankfully been thriving, and with a few of the dedicated volunteers we now boast a wonderful auditorium and entertainment room at the rear of the premises.

Our club as you have just read was built from pure persistence of the committee and members and we are wonderfully proud of our achievements. So whether you are a staff member, club member, sporting representative or guest, we would like you also to be proud of the ‘Wee club with a big heart’.