Our Club came into existence in 1887, just four years after the founding of the Gaelic Athletic Association.

In an article featured in the Cork Examiner of the meeting which of established the G.A.A. in Mitchelstown, it reads: “ A public meeting was held a few evenings ago at Mitchelstown to organise a branch of the Gaelic Athletic Association in the district.  There was a considerable attendance and the neighbouring districts were represented.  Mr. Cullinane  P.L.G. Bansha, presided. About sixty members were enrolled and the election of official appointments in the club took place.  Mr. John Mandeville was unanimously chosen as President;  Messrs. P. O’Callaghan and M. Powell were elected as Vice-President and Treasurer respectively. Mr. W.J. O’Mahony appointed as Hon. Secretary and Messrs. J. O’Mahony and P. Condon as Assistant Secretaries.

The meeting took place on 2nd February 1887. It was John Mandeville , also, who presided at the first public meeting which was held at the National League Hall, Mitchelstown on Sunday 3rd July 1887 to demand a better deal from Countess Kingston. This would seem to suggest that the G.A.A. club was closely associated with this struggle. Some of those present at the public meeting are worth noting: Daniel Crilly M.P., Thomas Condon M.P., Ambrose Mandeville, John Sarsfield Casey, Thomas Mannix, Thomas Roche, Thomas Dunne, James Mannix, John Roche P.L.G., J. Quinlan P.L.G.

As the struggle continued with tenents being evicted and their property confiscated and sold, tensions rose and resistance stiffened. A monster meeting was held in the Square at Mitchelstown on Friday, 9th Sepember 1887 to which people came in their thousands from miles around. Blackthorn sticks were much in evidence although no violence was planned. Events, however got out of hand  and resulted in what is since known as “ The Mitchelstown Massacre” when three men lost their lives, gunned down by the police.

So, in those circumstances, it is not surprising that when a G.A.A.Club was formed it would be called the “Mitchelstown Blackthorns”. Later the Blackthorns was dropped and it became just Mitchelstown but, of course our minor teams still play under the name “Blackthorns”.

It took until 1895 for Mitchelstown Blackthorns to appear in the championships run by the Cork County Board. Our first opponents were neighbours Kildorrery with Mitchelstown winning that day on a scoreline of 2-02 to 1-01. Mitchelstown suffered defeat in the next round to Fermoy who went on to become County Champions that year.

Mitchelstown drifted in and out of championship campaigns over the next few years but managed to win the first of our Intermediate titles in 1911over William O’Briens. It was quite over the next decade or so but Town once again captured the County Intermediate title in 1925 beating Kilmurry in the final at Riverstown and in 1929 over south east side Owenabue at U.C.C.’s sportsground.

Mitchelstown  won the first of it’s 27 North Cork Junior Football titles in 1928 and have been to the forefront when coming to Championship titles in the Avondhu division.

The mid 1950s to mid 1960s were a special time for Mitchelstown as along with the Minor County title of 1960, County Junior title of 1961 and 1965 County Intermediate title came many successes at divisional level with North Cork Junior titles in 1955, 1956, 1957, 1958, 1960 & 1961. The Club also won five North Cork Minor titles in this period as well as our first U 21 title in 1966.

Mitchelstown had ten players on the starting Avondhu  Senior County Championship winning team of 1961. This is a remarkable achievement from a Club who themselves went on to spend much of the 1960’s at Senior level.

The seventies saw a new brand of youth arrive and the Club competed in numerous County finals at both Minor and U16 level with the u16’s being successful in 1976. The Club opted to enter the Intermediate ranks in 1976 but returned to Junior level in 1987. Since then the Club have won six North Cork Junior titles  1995, 2001, 2002, 2010, 2011 & most recently in 2013 , a year that also saw the Club win their second County Junior title .

While the glory days of the past are often spoken about with great pride , the good work of those involved in the Club today continues with the current decade being exceptionally positive , an era that has seen our first team appear in three County Finals in the past seven years losing out to Kanturk in the Junior final of 2011 before capturng  the Cork JFC in 2013 & the Donal O'Sullivan Cup when beating St.Colms .

Having been plying our trade at Intermediate since then we made it all the way through to Cork IFC Final in 2017 where we once again lost out to Kanturk on 29th of October on a scoreline of 0-14 to 0-13.

The Club continues to work on producing quality footballing sides & hopefully further success will not be very far away.