Tanavalla and North Kerry
Listowel football with a town heart
Listowel Celtic gives boys, girls and adult players a football home at Pat Kennedy Park in Tanavalla.
Listowel’s soccer club
Listowel Celtic AFC is the soccer club tied to Listowel and Tanavalla in north Kerry. Its home is Pat Kennedy Park at Islandmacloughry, Tanavalla, a football base with the town close by and the River Feale not far away.
That Tanavalla setting separates the club from Killarney Celtic, Glasgow Celtic and other sides carrying Celtic in the name. The crest is local too: a green and yellow shield with a ball, shamrock, town motif and Est. 1963.
Founded in 1963, rooted in the town
Listowel’s town history marks 1963 as the founding year of Listowel Celtic. The club grew in a town already known for strong Gaelic games, the racecourse, Writers’ Week and the Feale side identity around north Kerry.
The soccer story here sits inside that local life: Listowel first, Celtic as the football name on the crest and teams.
Pat Kennedy Park and Tanavalla
Pat Kennedy Park is the match and training home at Tanavalla. Families travelling to fixtures can use Pat Kennedy Park, Tanavalla, V31 XE92, with Islandmacloughry giving the local townland setting.
Follow the team note for pitch, parking and entrance before travelling. The venue has grass pitches, a clubhouse, dressing rooms and astro space from the mid 2000s development period.
Youth, girls and senior football
Listowel Celtic carries football for boys, girls and adults. By 2008 the club had twenty schoolboy teams from U7 to U16, five senior men’s sides, a senior ladies side and four schoolgirl teams. The numbers belong to that period, but they show the pathway was already broad.
Today the underage pathway sits in the Kerry Schoolboys/Girls League setting, while the adult men play in the Kerry District League. Parents should use the current fixture or coach message for age group detail, as teams change by season.
A ground with an international memory
In April 2008, Pat Kennedy Park hosted Republic of Ireland v Germany at U16 level, the first international fixture played in Kerry. About 3,000 people came to Tanavalla on a wet evening.
The match later gained an extra story because Germany’s Mario Goetze had played there before becoming a World Cup winner. It remains a genuine Listowel Celtic football memory, and a sign of what the local ground and volunteers could carry when Kerry soccer was given a big night.
Visiting, joining and local contact
The practical visitor note is simple: use Pat Kennedy Park, Tanavalla, and confirm times before travelling. Kerry weather and pitch load can change youth fixtures quickly.
For joining, the Listowel Celtic AFC town entry links to the club’s Clubforce membership page. New players and parents should use that entry or the contact route shared by the club, then confirm training times directly with the relevant team.