In October 1997 Fingallians fielded an adult hurling team for the first time. This was a new departure for a club which was founded in 1884 but for over a hundred years considered itself to be a traditional football club only.
That first year of hurling in Fins generated great enthusiasm. As well as young players who had come through from a successful minor team run by Liam Connor and Frank Kelly we also attracted new hurlers who had moved to Swords. We started at Junior C level and advanced to the championship final in our first season where we were unlucky to be pipped by Round Towers Clondalkin. Havingalso competed strongly in the league we found ourselves promoted in both league and championship in 1998.
The early success encouraged more hurlers to turn out and we were able to field two teams in our second year. Again our first team gainedpromotion to Junior A level.
1999 was a fantastic year for hurling in the club when we secured our first trophy – indeed our first three trophies when we won the U21 B championship, the Eddie Barron shield and Junior Hurling League title. The celebrations at that years Awards night were mighty.
Moving into the new millenium we were still making progress in 2000 and 2001 with our first team now competing strongly in both league and championship at A levels and our second team also making progress.
In 2002 we had an excellent year and won Junior A league to advance to Intermediate level. In that year’s championship we had a great run and advanced to the final in Parnell Park. Unfortunately we came up against a very good Kilmacud Crokes side and went down by two points. Being runners up meant that we were still promoted to Intermediate championship for 2003.
For the first team 2003 was a year of settling in at the higher level but our second team got to the semi-final of their championship.
In 2005 we reached the semi-final of the Intermediate championship and were now hurling in Division 3 league.
From 2006 to 2008was a difficult period for hurling in Fingallians. We lost a number of players . The second team had to withdraw and we struggled to make an impact at Intermediate level and in 2007 slipped back to Junior championship status. In 2008 we also were relegated from Division 3 to Division 4 league. We did continue to have some excellent hurlers and in the last three years a number of our hurlers have performed with distinction for the NE regional team in the Dublin SHC and for Fingal in National hurling League and Nicky Rackard Cups.
However in 2009 we have seen an improvement in our own club fortunes. For the first time in several years we had a good turnout and managed to get some serious training done. The results were evident on the field and in junior A championship we were unlucky to lose out to eventual winners and subsequent Leinster champions St Sylvesters. We finished towards the top of the league table and look forward to 2010 with anticipation.
This year Fingallians hurler Dermot Vaughan was selected as on the Nicky Rachard All Star Team the clubs first hurling all star.
