It all started in 1959 when Fr. Harry Sinnott had a vision to provide a recreational facility for young people in and around the Bishopswater area, he acquired a piece of land at the bottom of Whiterock Hill and enlisted local tradesmen to develop St. Joseph’s clubhouse.  His vision was to create a place for boys to enjoy themselves in an atmosphere that is healthy to the mind and body.

The first sod dug Monday 5th sept 1960 – the day after Wexford beat Tipperary in the All-Ireland hurling final – bonfires raged all over wexford as our own fire was just beginning.

After 3 years of hard graft the Clubhouse was officially opened in October 1962 and named after St. Joseph in honour of the tradesmen who had voluntarily given up their time to help build this amazing amenity – St. Joseph is the patron saint of craftsmen and Saint Joseph himself was a carpenter.

Our first year playing Gaelic games was 1963 and in those early years we played both Football and Hurling, but soon we came to an agreement with Faythe Harriers that we would focus on Football and send our hurlers to them, while they would focus on Hurling and send their Footballers to us.

The club originally started as a boys club but as the 60’s wore on it became a boys and girls club as girls became more active.

We had 6 players on the 1969 county minor team to win the Leinster title, we would go on to lose in the Semi-Final to Derry by 1 point on a scoreline of Wexford 3-4 Derry 0-14 in Croke Park.

We would become one of most successful underage football clubs in the county between 1966-74 winning 5 juvenile, 7 minor and 3 u21 titles.

By 1972 we reached senior football status having become junior champions in 1971.

By 1990’s it became harder to sustain the football side of things and sadly the club went into hibernation in 1995.

By the late 90’s St. Joseph’s Community Centre was falling into disrepair and activities were dwindling but the committee were determined to see St. Joseph’s survive and thrive for future generations.

In 2001 a public meeting was called to discuss the possible sale of the field beside the club to facilitate the building of the Gaelscoil, the sale of this field plus the successful application for a grant allowed the club to fund an extension and refurbishment of the existing building and so, work started in 2003 and in February 2004 the newly refurbished Community Centre was opened.  While this was wonderful news for the Community Centre, it marked the end of St. Joseph’s GAA Club’s official connection to the Community Centre.  Today we inhabit seperate organisations with seperate committees but at the same time we have a shared history and we maintain a close relationship with St. Joseph’s Community Centre using it as our main training base in the winter months.

In October 2005 a meeting of former players and officials decided to reform and relaunch the Gaelic football club.  In 2006 St. Joseph’s GAA Club was reformed and the black and white jerseys were back competing again on the Wexford GAA scene.

In March 2006 we had our first competitive game vs Clongeen in the all-county league – we won.  In that same year got to a district semifinal but we were beaten by The Volunteers.

In 2007 we won the district final vs St. Martin’s – our first trophy in almost 20 yrs.

In 2008 we won the all-county league and county Junior D title beating HWH Bunclody by 0-10 to 0-6.

In 2009 we lost the league final and Junior C final to Tara Rocks – both by 1 point.

In 2010 we would beat Duffry Rovers to win the County Junior C title, our seconcounty title in 3 years.

Over the next few years we lost a lot of good quality young players to emigration as the economy went into a period of difficulty after the 2008/09 financial crisis.

In 2011 we preserved our Junior status and reached the Quarter-Final in the County Championship.

In 2012 we beat Castletown in the All County league final and we’d go on to reach the Quarter-Final of the Championship.

In 2012 we secured a lease on land on Whiterock hill that will be the base for our pitches and clubhouse going forward.

In 2013 we finalised the purchase of land on Whiterock hill, which is very close to our spiritual home of Bishopswater. We have exciting plans to develop our pitches and clubhouse here in this growing part of Wexford, for current and future generations to enjoy.

In 2013 we beat Crossabeg/Ballymurn to become County Junior champions which meant that we played at the intermediate level in 2014, a tremendous achievement for our club having only started playing games in 2006 after our relaunch.

Since then our Mens team have suffered a few relegations and we are currently playing in the Junior A championship for 2024.  Since 2013 we have won numerous underage titles and shields as our underage section continues to go from strength to strength.  Our boys U16 team became county champions in 2023 beating local rivals St. Mary’s Maudlintown in a close final, this victory means that we will play in the premier grade for minor in 2025.  We are also incredibly proud of our girls underage teams which has been flourishing in recent years and in 2023 our U16 girls made it all the way to the county final in our first year at this grade, only to lose out to a very good HWH Bunclody side.