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Ned Cregan was a next-door neighbour of Willie Hough. He was born in 1901 and joined the volunteers as a young boy. He fought with distinction in the War of Independence. In 1927 he made his debut with the limerick junior hurling team and soon graduated to the great senior that included Mick and John Mackey, Garret Howard and Mickey Cross. He played in the All Ireland Finals of 1933,34 and 35 and was very proud of the fact that he never left the field of play because of injury. His sons Eamonn, Mickey and Conor all played for Limerick and Mickey trained the victorious Limerick senior side of 1973. Ned Cregan died in 1972 a short time before his son Eamonn, the first player in Limerick to follow in his father's footsteps by winning an All Ireland Senior-hurling medal.
Monagea contested the 1931 and '34 junior hurling finals without success and it would be another 39 years before Paddy Hogan captained the club to our only success in this grade in 1973. Monagea produced many fine hurlers over those years and none better than Tom McGrath whose career bridged two generations and he is still hale and hearty. At a later stage Paddy McCarthy, Jerome Keane, Con O'Keefe and Liam McKessey were hurlers of outstanding ability.
A forgotten side of most G.A.A clubs is our sister association the camogie club. Although there is no longer a club in the parish, they were a force to be reckoned with in the thirties and forties. During this period Kit McGrath and Mary Ita Connell (nee Delee) played for Limerick and in 1934 Monagea were County senior champions when they defeated Foynes in the final. In recent years Monagea Ladies football club have been very successful at under age level due to the great work of Dan Doherty, Joan O'Callaghan and Eileen Carmody.
During the 1950's Brother Eamonn Doody from Gardenfield was the guiding light behind Thurles C.B.S in Co Tipperary, when they won three Dr Harty Cup competitions and was trainer of the Tipperary minor hurling team when the premier county won six All Ireland Championships.
Monagea won the West junior b title in 1956. After failing to Tournafulla and Kilcornan in successive West Junior b finals. Monagea again won the title when they defeated an Abbeyfeale-Templeglantine selection in 1967 and repeated the success again in 1981 by defeating Kileedy in the final.
With the introduction of the Scor competitions in the early 1970's, Monagea's talent was to the fore. In 1971 Pat Mulcahy did the parish proud when he reached the Munster final in Public Speaking, a discipline which was annexed from the competition a short time afterwards. In 1995 Monagea's ballad group consisting of Deirdre Scanlan, Maria Heirlihy, Dan Brouder, Pat Heirlihy and John Flavin represented Limerick in the Munster final.
The 1980's was to prove an eventful decade in the history of the club. In 1986 David Hough who had taken over as secretary enlisted the services of the former outstanding Limerick and Dublin footballer Pa Leahy as trainer. Monagea went on to win the West and County Junior b football championship that year and repeated the success in hurling in 1987. These victories proved to be the turning point in the history of the club, and when Monagea again won the County junior B championship in 1991 with Stephen Murphy as trainer, nobody was surprised.
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