On Saturday morning the Under 9 hurlers travelled to Ringsend to take on the up and coming Clan nA Gael boys in Go Games hurling. Pacing the sideline was club legend Claire Graham. She is still playing herself, but decided to drop back to the recently formed Junior squad where she led them to championship victory last year. On Saturday she was marshalling the sideline as a hurling mentor and parent. The kids don’t realise her pedigree and how she has coached so many player before them. Neither does the opposition mentor, a pleasant fella from Leitrim who encouraged players from both teams. “Who are ye again? St Brendan’s?” he asks. At least he didn’t call us SAINT Kevins. “It’s great the way ye let the girls play with the boys” he quips. He hadn’t seen it before in Dublin. It reminds him of his days in Leitrim, when they gathered players from wherever they could. Claire nods and agrees that it’s great for the girls. I’d say it brings them on a bit” he continues. “It does” confirms Claire, as she has one eye on the game. Meanwhile on the next pitch young Alice Gavin is tearing down the right wing with three opposition boys chasing her as if she’s stolen their pocket money. But they can’t catch her and as she gets close enough, she glides the ball into the bottom left corner with some empathy for the keeper. “Go easy on the boys” I can hear myself saying.
About 30 years ago another young whipper snapper landed up in the club Nursery in St Clare’s School in Harold’s Cross. Jenny Kearns and her brother David arrived in style in the back of their dad’s left hand drive station wagon. It wasn’t long before Jenny was lining out with the boys and this author remembers her leading the charge up in Silver Park in their first game. The boys were a bit intimidated in their first ever game against Kilmacud Crokes. We had a bag of second hand helmets some half decent hurleys and one lad was playing in his shoes. But after a half time grilling, Jenny decided to do something about it and the tide turned with Jenny leading the charge in the second half. At one stage I wasn’t sure if we had scored another goal or if we were to be awarded a try as the ball was carried over the line that would make Paul O’Connell proud.
Jenny is still playing and on Sunday she plans to tog out against Kilmacud Crokes in the Intermediate 2 Championship Final. When Jenny takes to the field with the rest of the Kevin’s girls, they will be better prepared than that day 30 years ango and will be playing for another piece of silverware. But the significance of the occasion goes well beyond the result. Regardless of what happens in the final, Kevin’s will be promoted to Intermediate 1 next season, the highest grade reached by the club since camogie was re-established in 1993.
A little known fact is that the club has a camogie history stretching back more than 100 years. The contribution made by Kevin’s to the formative years of camogie is a largely untold part of our history. The game itself was devised in the Craobh a’ Chéitinnigh (Keating Branch) in 1903, with practice sessions taking place that summer in Drumcondra and later in the Phoenix Park. An Cumann Camógaíochta was formally inaugurated in Dublin in February 1905 and, just one year later, Kevin’s established its own Camóg club.
By 1911 Kevin’s was involved in efforts to foster and popularise the game in Dublin. Kevin’s players featured prominently on representative Dublin teams, with names such as O’Reilly, Mordaunt, Kearns, Molloy, Hynes, Jenkinson and Brown appearing among those early camogie pioneers. At an Aeridheacht organised by O’Tooles at Jones Road in August 1912, Kevin’s again provided a large contingent to the Dublin South team. These women were playing camogie when the game was still finding its feet. And they were good at it! Coincidentally there was a Kearns togging out back then. We can clarify that it wasn’t Jenny!
Approximately thirteen clubs affiliated to the Dublin League for the 1912/13 season and Kevin’s emerged as champions. So while Sunday’s team will be attempting to add another trophy to the cabinet, they will not be the first Kevin’s camogie team to stand at the top of their game in Dublin. The major Dublin camogie title won more than a century ago was a Senior league title. Of course the standard of camogie has come a long way since then and there was no Intermediate and Junior grades at the time.
The influence of the club extended beyond the playing field. K. O’Reilly, who had captained Dublin South was also appointed Chairperson of the Dublin Committee in 1913. Kevin’s remained active through the difficult years that followed, but by 1918 the club had disappeared from the league. It would be many decades before Kevin’s camógs took to the field again.
The modern story began in 1993. Kevin’s had enjoyed considerable hurling success during the 1970s and 80s, reaching senior status and winning three senior league titles. But by the early 1990s playing numbers were beginning to decline. The club was active in boys’ schools such as Synge Street and Francis Street CBS, but it was becoming increasingly obvious that Kevin’s needed to broaden its base.
Women were already making a significant contribution to the running and social life of the club. The obvious next step was to give young girls in the area the same opportunity to play Gaelic games as the boys. The Chairman at the time, Tony Hyland, put the word out looking for people interested in getting involved. Áine and Mícheál Ó hÉigeartaigh answered the call. Áine was a teacher in Loreto College Primary School and wanted to establish camogie, while Mícheál brought a structured approach to coaching from his experience with Ballyboden Saint Endas. With the support of the Executive Committee, training began in Loreto in September 1993. At around the same time, Sister Anne Dempsey in St Clare’s, Harold’s Cross, approached the club with similar ambitions. After meetings involving the school and principal Mrs Spring, parents and Kevin’s, hurling and camogie were introduced there as well. Within months the girls were playing their first matches.
Sadly, Tony Hyland passed away earlier this year. As Chairman when those first steps were taken in 1993, he played his part in opening a door that has never closed. In recent years he’d often potter up to the games and keep an eye on progress. One can only imagine the pride he would have felt watching this generation of Kevin’s camógs secure promotion to Intermediate 1.
The early years brought remarkable progress. Kevin’s entered juvenile competitions, reached championship finals and supplied players to Dublin development squads. Loreto College also enjoyed considerable schools success. But building something is one thing. Keeping it going can be much harder. As some of the people who had driven the initial development moved on, momentum began to stall. By the end of the 1990s, Kevin’s was struggling with parental involvement, pitch availability and eventually struggled to field camogie teams.
That is where another part of Sunday’s story begins. Among the parents who had become involved through St Clare’s was Patsy Kearns, the father who drove his two kids through the gates of St Clare’s one Saturday morning. Patsy set about rebuilding Kevin’s camogie with a number of parents in the early 2000s. Some of those parent have a connection to the current squad. Gerry and Kate Brennan also brought their kids along and Louise Brennan is still togging out. Geraldine O’Leary was another familiar face. Always ready and willing to roll her sleeves up without any fuss. Geraldine passed away a few years ago, but lives on in the memory of everyone who had the pleasure of meeting her. Her daughter Cara – another St Clare’s girl- lines out between the sticks on the 11th!
It is a small detail, but perhaps it says more about the people who keep juvenile clubs alive than any list of trophies ever could. They approached local schools, organised blitzes and worked hard to attract another generation of girls to Kevin’s. The recovery was slower than the remarkable growth of 1993, but they persisted. And eventually the rewards came! New people joined and in 2008 Kevin’s established its first adult camogie team. Juvenile numbers grew again. Féile finals followed, along with championship successes and two Intermediate Shield victories. Slowly, Kevin’s began climbing the ladder and new parents coming with their daughters.
JJ and Marie O’Mahoney have made huge contributions to the clubs development and the south inner city in general via the Sporting Liberties movement. Their daughter is the feisty Muireann and we will no doubt hear the Corkonian and Clare lilt on the sideline. Emmet Corrigan’s greatest GAA achievement was once posting a picture of himself with the Sam Maguire Cup on social media. Then he got involved helping with teams when his daughter Holly took an interest, and it’s fair to say that he has played a key role in building the modern day Kevin’s Intermediate Camogie team. It’s a rare occasion that the Evergeen Michelle Madden is not seen on the sideline with her daughter Chloe. A dedicated mentor who once drove her daughter back to Dublin after a marathon All-Ireland Rounders Final in Westmeath, to just about make it back to Dolphin Park in time for camogie league final, only for Chloe to pull off a last minute save to secure a win for Kevin’s.
This brings us to Sunday. There will be a very special connection between the team taking the field and the people who built Kevin’s camogie more than three decades ago. Rachel Sheehy from Cork and Kiara Collins Galway have joined the girls. They are starting to develop Dublin accents with so many Jackines in the dressing room. The rest of the panel have come up through the ranks. Emma Young and Meadhbh Hicks have transitioned from being the new kids on the block to being leaders on the pitch. Their inter county experience will stand to them. There’s another batch of new kids on the block too, a number of whom stood up in the semi-final and scored vital points in the 45 shoot out after extra-extra time against Thomas Davis. Holly Corrigan, Chloe Kearns and Meabh Ramos Finnegan joined Meadhbh Hicks in slotting over the points. Jenny Kearns will line out alongside her daughter Chloe. Jenny was there when her father Patsy was rebuilding the Camogie section. Now Patsy’s daughter and granddaughter will play together in an Intermediate final. Three generations of one Kevin’s family connected by camogie.
There is a thread running through the history of Kevin’s camogie. It stretches back to those largely forgotten women who wore the Kevin’s colours when camogie itself was barely a decade old. The pioneering Kevin’s camógs of 1912/13 once stood as Dublin Senior League champions. Claire Graham and Jenny Kearns are the modern day camogie pioneers. More than 100 years later, the Kevin’s girls are climbing the ranks once again. The names and faces have changed, but the game has been handed on. Regardless of the result we will continue to build and the girls will continue to play alongside the boys to help “them” develop. We will continue to develop leaders on and off the pitch. The essential ingredient will be the parents involvement, regardless of their background.
If we win? Well we have Mickey Finnegan on speed dial. He’s a traditional musician from Belfast and will be getting the call up to join the old guard of parents in the post match analysis. We might even get Olga to belt out a French tune or two along with their daughter Meabh!
By the way, if you haven’t heard we play Kilmacud Crokes on Sunday 11th October in Abbotstown. Throw in at 12.30 pm. Get up and support the girls!
