South Kildare sides excelling on pitch

SPORT-WISE, it has been a remarkably good few weeks for clubs in south Kildare. Clonmullion AFC are once again Lumsden Cup champions after a two-goal to one-goal victory over Kildare town.

The club, founded in 1995, has brought professionalism to the playing of soccer which has attracted praise and excited supporters for quite some time. I recall writing an article some years ago on Clonmullion’s key player, Cody Mulhall, who continues to play and star with the club. He has been joined by many other excellent players who have combined to make the club one of the best provincial soccer clubs in the midlands.

Our neighbours, Grangenolvin Gaelic Football Club, recently won the Junior Championship final. I visited the Grangenolvin club grounds recently to watch two of my granddaughters play in a Gaelic football match.

I was impressed by the playing facilities in Grangenolvin, even if to my disappointment the local team were obliterated by a very skilful Leixlip team.

I could not but recall three great Grangenolvin players of the past who are still remembered by older generations. Mick Carolan, whose first appearance on the Kildare senior team was in 1958 in the NFL divisional final played in Carlow against Tipperary, was a Grangenolvin club member.

Other superb footballers from the same club were the late Johnny Morrissey who sadly passed away at a relatively young age and the late Johnny Miller.

An unusual aspect of this year’s Grangenolvin winning team was the number of brothers on the team and on the panel. The four Bergins, Oran, Cillian, Fionn and Conall, were joined by two Doyles, two Cullens, two Dooleys and two Bowens, making what I believe is a unique team combination. I ndeed, I doubt if there is any Gaelic team in rural Ireland consisting of four brothers who have won a championship final. The man of the match award went to Conall Bergin.

St Laurence’s Gaelic Football Club clenched their first title since 2016 when the club’s ladies won the Kildare LGFA senior title. At the same time the club’s men’s footballers qualified for the intermediate final against Sallins. The club won its first Kildare senior football title in 2009 after losing four senior finals between 1982 and 2005.

The Athy GFC senior players’ success against Sarsfields in this year’s county championship semi-final was perhaps the story of the week, for an Athy ‘blow in’ at least. Athy faces Naas in the final, with the latter club chasing five-in-a-row county titles, which undoubtedly puts Naas in the position of favourites to win out.

Let’s hope the young Colm Moran who scored a whopping three goals and eight points in the quarter final is at the top of his form.

Colm’s father, also named Colm, played in the Kildare County team and was on the Athy team which won the championship in 1987.

Also on the 1987 winning team was Sean McGovern, whose two sons, Shane and Liam, feature on this year’s panel, as do Niall, Barry and Brian Kelly, whose father Joe also won a championship medal alongside Sean McGovern.

Ben Purcell is a son of Shane Purcell and Tony Gibbons’ father, of the same name as the player, completes the link between the winning team of 1987 and the finalists, hopefully the winners, of 2025. David Hyland, who captained the 2020 winning Athy team, and who captains this year’s team, is joined on the Athy senior team by his brother Mark.

The team management consists of Ross Bell, Conor Ronan, James Eaton and Patrick Dunne, all of whom won senior champion medals in 2011.

Patrick is the grand-nephew of the legendary Barney Dunne who was the only Athy player to win four senior championship medals while playing for Athy in the 1930s.

Two of the most famous footballers who played for Athy were the late Danny Flood and Mick Carolan. Mick had started at juvenile level for Athy and was on the Athy team which won the minor championship in 1956 and the league in 1957.

He was selected for the county senior team in 1957 and remained a county team member until 1974.

He made 134 county appearances for Kildare seniors over 17 years and played alongside Athy players Danny Flood, Brendan Kehoe, Liam O’Shea and Mick Coughlan. He won two Railway Cup medals with Leinster, but sadly did not win a Leinster medal playing on the losing Kildare teams in 1966 and three subsequent Leinster finals.

The Athy club was in the doldrums for much of Mick’s football career, but he assisted the club to regain club status in 1974. Mick also played for Grangenolvin for a short period and was perhaps the most famous footballer ever to don the Grangenolvin jersey.

It's a remarkable sporting coincidence which sees four sporting clubs from south Kildare doing so well this year. The Clonmullion Soccer Club are well accustomed to winning trophies but for Athy GFC, St Laurence’s GFC and Grangenolvin GFC it is not a regular feature.

Let’s hope the gods are kind to Athy on the day of the final as I write this article a few days before the match is played. Good luck to David Hyland and his teammates.