Although the club grounds are currently located in Leinster, it has always competed at underage, junior and senior level leagues in Connacht as Athlone RFC had previously.

The team's name originates from the Shannon Buccaneers club founded by Diarmuid Murtagh from Athlone in the early 1930s.

Fielding players such as British and Irish Lions captain Sammy Walker, the club later disbanded due to the Second World War.

More recently, in the 1993/94 season, the Athlone and Ballinasloe amalgamated in order to take part in the All-Ireland League.

Dubarry Park is a 10,000 capacity stadium with a state of the art club house and dressing room facilities, and has hosted U-21 and U-20 Irish home games for the Six Nations Championship.