ALL-IRELAND CLUB FOOTBALL SEMI-FINAL COROFIN v KILMACUD CROKES:IT'S SATURDAY morning in the Stillorgan area. A group of stylishly-dressed girls are waiting on the bus to the Dundrum Town Centre. A little boy with a hurl in his hand is asked if he's lost. A stranger goes looking for the GAA club and is told it's across from the old shopping centre.
The story of the life of Kilmacud Crokes – one of the most successful yet often misplaced GAA clubs in the country. The cream of south Dublin, yes. Rich and thick, no. A product of suburban sprawl with only a very recent tradition, perhaps – but more tradition than the old shopping centre.
Just about. Fifty years ago, practically to the day, Fr Robert Walsh of the Stillorgan parish presided over a meeting in old St Laurence’s Hall, proclaiming “the time was overdue to provide facilities for our boys to play games . . . ” and with that Kilmacud GAA was founded.
Shortly afterwards St Laurence’s Hall was demolished, along with the surrounding cottages, to make way for the first suburban shopping centre in Europe, opened in 1966. The rubble was dumped across the road to help level the land that became Páirc De Búrca, the playing field of Kilmacud. Around the same time they merged with Crokes hurling club and later with Benburbs football club from nearby Clonskeagh – and the rest is Kilmacud Crokes history.
The defining moment in that history came in 1995, on a frosty St Patrick’s Day, when Kilmacud won the All-Ireland club football title. Emerging suburban clubs weren’t meant to win All-Ireland titles, least of all from well-spoken south Dublin. And even if they did it couldn’t be with the same community spirit and ethos of the rural GAA club.
“All that All-Ireland title did was complement the work being done on the ground,” says Tommy Lyons, who managed that team, and later, Dublin. “It maddens me to still hear Kilmacud being talked about as some sort of super club that buys in players. We’ve never once paid a penny for a player.
“From the beginning this club has been about the very ethos of the GAA. About community welfare. Giving youngsters a grounding in sport. The spirit of the volunteer. Because the club is where you belong. They’re the core values of Kilmacud.”
On a Thursday evening last week, the team looking to repeat that moment in history were gathered in Glenalbyn House adjacent to Páirc De Búrca – an almost stately home, even by GAA standards. Outside, some of the 70-plus teams Kilmacud now field were training, evenly split between football and hurling. Inside, the senior football team seemed as relaxed as any family gathering. One life, one club.
“It is very much an urban area,” says manager Paddy Carr, “but all the players see the importance of the community, and the strength of the club in that community. I hear things said about us, ‘the glamour boys of Kilmacud’, as if they somehow don’t work as hard. Or they’re somehow all bought in.
“Nothing could be further from the truth. Whether it’s a youngster who has come through from eight or nine, or someone like Brian Kavanagh, a young teacher who has settled in the parish, unless everyone is on an equal footing, you can’t move forward at all. Maybe our values are old-style, but we have worked exceptionally hard at having top quality respect for each other.”
Carr’s accent is slightly deceiving but he too is genuine Kilmacud. He grew up and went to school in Stillorgan, played all his underage football with the club. In 1979 he moved on, playing county football with Donegal, the home of his parents, and club football with Walterstown in Meath.
That gave Carr another valuable club experience, as Walterstown contested the 1981 All-Ireland club final (losing to St Finbarr’s) and again in 1984 (losing to Nemo Rangers).
He’s since served time with Louth and underage teams in Meath and then last year was offered the chance to return to his roots. Carr still lives in Navan but was pleasantly surprised how little had changed around his old haunt.
“Having worked in a rural club, to come back here to a very urban setting, an area I suppose associated with other sports, and see the spirit in the club, has been very special. Because a lot of people from the country settled here, and brought a lot of those values with them. There are the kind of values that still sustain the club.
“It’s given me a sense of the huge respect in the community for what goes on here. A lot of Dublin clubs do function in difficult circumstances, travelling around to find pitches. For most rural clubs, there is a physical centre for most parishes. It used to be the church. The centre of this community is the people. . . . the success of this club is families knowing what’s important for their children . . . .”
For Jonny Magee, Mark Vaughan and Paul Griffin, Kilmacud has always been the centre of their parish. Magee is club captain this year and he takes the honour very seriously. He got married three days before the Leinster final – but there was no stag, no drink at the wedding, and no regrets either. “The best wedding present I could have got was a Leinster title. It was hectic, but Lindsey was understanding. Her family are big supporters of Dublin football, so when I first started going out with her they knew the priority would always be football.
“Because like any other club, it is a family thing. People think of Stillorgan and they think of the shopping centre, or the bowling alley, or Dundrum Shopping Centre up the road. But it is a very close-knit community. What makes this club are the members, the people who do all the untold work behind the scenes. Hours of their own time. When we came back with the Dublin and Leinster titles it was some way of showing our appreciation.”
Three years ago Kilmacud looked similarly poised to repeat their moment of All-Ireland history, only for Salthill to undo them in the semi-final. Vaughan was red-carded in the end and has added incentive for redemption.
“I think we lost that game five minutes into it,” he says. “We let them go 1-2 up, against the wind, and I think lads pretty much panicked. But I think we’ve got more experience now, a better mix, and a better chance, hopefully. It’s in the past, and doesn’t have any effect on this game, except to spur us on more.
“And we’ve had a lot of games this season where things were going against us. We’ve hung in, come through, where we probably shouldn’t have won. I wouldn’t call them flukes, but we’ve got goals when we needed them. In the Dublin championship against Oliver Plunkett’s, against Vincent’s even, we thought the game was over. Against Rhode. There were three or four games when we were in serious trouble and pulled through.”
Griffin joined around 1995 and part of his introduction to the club was travelling around the country dressed up in purple and gold.
“I remember going down to places like Seneschalstown. It was a huge thing for us, and I think in the 13 years since, the club has built massively on that. The effort they’ve put in by going around to the schools, getting kids in and getting more teams, has been huge, and this team is the culmination of that work.
“Most of the guys on this team joined the club around that time, and that success was their introduction. All that experience of 1995 is still bearing fruit now.
“But after winning our last two Dublin titles (in 2004 and 2005) I don’t think we pushed on. Definitely the last All-Ireland semi-final, against Salthill, we feel we didn’t take the opportunity. That’s the biggest thing this time round. To do ourselves justice.
“We’re a little bit more focused. And that comes with experience. Last time, it was the first time to win Leinster, but this time the ambitions are a little bit bigger. It’s about winning an All-Ireland medal, whereas last time we got a little bit distracted . . .”
Everyone has bought into the club ethos, including the few converts: Wing back Adrian Morrissey plays with Wexford but teaches in St Laurence’s, still the main feeder school for Kilmacud; midfielder Liam McBarron plays with Fermanagh but has been with Kilmacud for seven years; and Longford’s star forward Brian Kavanagh joined up last summer after getting a teaching post up the road in St Olaf’s.
“The lads have been very accepting, very open,” says Kavanagh. “I think it is easier to accept you when you have a genuine reason for being here. It can be hard to settle into a new team but the lads here have been great. And I’ve been enjoying it more with every game.”
Among the awards and trophies in the clubhouse is a photo of the 1995 All-Ireland-winning team. Lined up in front of the familiar faces of Mick Dillon and Mick Leahy are a group of youngsters, who on closer inspection are revealed to be a young Ross and Rory O’Carroll, and an even younger Barry and Shane O’Rorke – now the new faces of Kilmacud.
All-Ireland Club SF Championship
1995
Leinster Club SF Championship
1994, 2005, 2008
Dublin Club SF Championship
1992, 1994, 1998, 2004, 2005, 2008
Dublin Club SH Championship
1966, 1974, 1976, 1985
All-Ireland Football Féile
2003
All-Ireland Hurling Féile
2005
Other Kilmacud Milestones
1973: Camogie section of club set up
1973: First All-Ireland Kilmacud Sevens
1996: Women’s football section set up
2006: Full-sized astro-turf GAA pitch
2007: Indoor and outdoor hurling walls
