Early history
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Foundation
Loreto Hockey Club was founded in 1926 by Mother Bernadette and Una Murray for past pupils of Loreto schools. -
Colors
The club took the wine and white of Loreto St. Stephen’s Green as their club colours and these have remained over the years.
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Early beginnings
The club started with one league team and was based in Dartmouth Square. In the 1930’s, the club moved to Cherryfield in Templeogue, and the pitch was actually a field at the back of one of the club member’s houses.
The club remained here for around a decade and in the mid 1940’s moved to the then Leinster Branch grounds in Templeogue–behind the present GAA club Ballyboden St Enda's.
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First trophy!
At this stage the club had grown to 3 teams and in 1946 celebrated its first major success, winning the Leinster Cup in that year. We also had our first international representation during this era.
New beginnings
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1950’s –1970’s
Loreto really came into its own in the 1950’s, winning the Leinster League and Cup and the All-Ireland on numerous occasions. The club continued to expand and remained in the Leinster branch grounds, sharing the 6 pitches there with 4 other clubs.
The game of hockey itself began to change in the 1970's and teams were expected to train twice a week with coaching for 1st and 2nd team players. This new venture paid off, and Loreto Hockey club was very successful in the League and Cup at all levels.
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Homeless in the 80's?
When the Leinster Branch grounds were sold for development in the early 1980’s the club was homeless again. The Loreto Order came to our rescue, allowing us the use of the pitch in Loreto Abbey, Rathfarnham for our home games.
In 1987, with the nuns' support and after much fundraising, we laid our own floodlit all-weather (grit) pitch in Nutgrove school.
At this stage we had up to 8 league teams with physical training on a Tuesday night and team coaching on a Thursday night. During this era we started to hold coaching for schoolgirls on a Sunday morning and so our Junior Section was born.
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Astroturf arrival in the 1990’s
Hockey changed again in the early 1990’s with the development of the astro-turf pitch. To move with the times, Loreto hired astro-turf facilities in other clubs for our team coaching night.
In the 1997/1998 season we decided to lay our own astro-turf pitch in conjunction with the school in Loreto Beaufort.
Since co-laying our own pitch we have had huge success; winning many Leagues and Cups including the Leinster Senior League and the Irish Senior League and Cup. The playing surface on our pitch was replaced in September 2006, with a top of the range “sand-dressed” pitch.
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First trophy!
At this stage the club had grown to 3 teams and in 1946 celebrated its first major success, winning the Leinster Cup in that year. We also had our first international representation during this era.
Into the 21st century and beyond!
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A growing club
Today Loreto Hockey Club has 2 sections: the Senior club; and the Junior club.
The Senior club fields 6 teams that participate in the LeinsterLeague and Cup from Division 1 right through to Division 9.
Our Vets team has also been re-established to much success, playing matches midweek, and on Friday evenings.
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Junior section
The Junior section of the club is thriving, with a range of teams from Under 8s right through to Under 16s. Find out more about our Junior section. -
Development & improvement
We are focused on continued development and improvement of our playing and training facilities. In 2010/2011 we further expanded our training facilities in the Loreto Beaufort grounds.
2012 proved to be another exciting year for Loreto HC when we applied for planning permission to build a two storey permanent clubhouse, complete with viewing balcony on Loreto Beaufort grounds.
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New clubhouse
In 2013 we opened our new clubhouse. In so doing, Loreto has become the first womens-only hockey club in Ireland to have its own purpose-built clubhouse, a major milestone in our 90-year club history.