KILMACUD CROKES CAMOGIE
Kilmacud Crokes Camogie was founded in October 1973 when John Dunleavy, Chairperson of the Hurling Section of Kilmacud Crokes GAA club approached Eileen Hogan at the request of the hurlers and suggested that a meeting of interested persons be held.
The meeting showed a good deal of interest and enthusiasm and names of intending players were noted. It was decided to that two teams be registered and entered in the current leagues and so an Under 13 team and a Junior A team were registered to play in the Dublin Camogie leagues for 1973/74. Both teams did well in the league but it was the Under 13 team that took the honours by winning the Under13 Championship during their first season at play.
Since that time, Senior B, Senior C, Intermediate and Junior Leagues and Championships have been won. At adult level, we are fielding a Senior B team and an Intermediate team. Kilmacud Crokes Camogie Club is very active in promoting the sport amongst local children and presently has well over 250 children playing Camogie at juvenile level. We are fielding 10 juvenile teams at Under 9, 10, 11 , U12, U13, U14 and Under 16 levels. The club also encourages our transition year students to complete coaching courses and they coach in the local schools. Parental involvement at the juvenile level is crucial and we are fortunate in having very active, interested parents on board.
The Camogie Committee is made up of parents and players and this committee oversees the workings and the fund-raising for the Camogie section. The main fund raising event each year is the All Ireland Seven A Side competition. Expenditure during the season would include the purchase of jerseys, skirts, hurleys and sliotars, training equipment, entrance fees to competitions, payments to school coaches and the development of camogie in general. The committee for this year is as follows:
Chairman: Aidan Roantree, Vice Chairperson: Anne Noctor Secretary: Gay Byrne, Treasurer: Melanie Halpin
Committee Members:, Patricia Lloyd, Maria O Hurley, Deirdre Kelly Lestor, Mark Cregg, Brenda Keogh, Mary Tuck and Gerry McGough
ALL IRELAND CAMOGIE SEVEN A SIDE
In 1973, the Hurling and Football sections of the club held the inaugural All Ireland Seven A Sides on the eve of the respective All Ireland Finals. In May 1974, the Camogie section held their first All Ireland Camogie Sevens Tournament. It was held in May for the next 2 years until the late Padraig Purseil suggested that it be transferred to the eve of the Camogie All Irelands in September. And so it has been to now, 34years on.
In 1974, nineteen teams took part in the first Sevens and Buffers Alley took home the Proinnsias O’Croinan Memorial Cup. Proinnsias O’Cronan was the father of the Club’s Honorary President Eileen Hogan.
This year’s All-Ireland Camogie weekend will begin, as it has for over a quarter of a century on the Saturday morning in Stillorgan, Dublin, where 48 of the country's top Camogie sides will compete in Kilmacud Crokes All Ireland Camogie Sevens. The competition is organised into 2 divisions and takes place in 3 venues. Each team will have a minimum of 3 matches before the qualifying stages.
The competition is acknowledged as being one of the most exciting and important events in the Camogie Calendar. The Sevens form of the game emphasises good striking, maintenance of possession and score taking. The games are often high scoring and physically tough encounters with the latter stages of the tournament being as toughly contested as any championship final. Top players such as Angela and Ann Downey have played in the competition down through the years.
Top Intercounty referees such as Aine Derham, Biddy Phillips and Marion Graham return again and again to take charge of the matches. Top teams who have taken home the Cup include Buffers Alley and Rathnure of Wexford, St. Pauls of Kilkenny, Glen Rovers of Cork, Lisdowney of Kilkenny and St. Vincents of Dublin.
Sevens Saturday is now as much a part of the All Ireland weekend for many Camogie people as the trip to Croke Park. The day is about more than winning and losing. It about bringing likeminded people together for an “eve of the All Ireland” Camogie festival. It has become a focal point for conversation, celebrations, for memories and the great tales of the characters of the game. Old friends are greeted, new friends made, rivals are seen in a different light and the “craic” is great.
For Kilmacud Crokes, however, it is also our main fundraising event of the year. As you might well imagine, a competition of this size and prestige requires adequate funding to keep it running smoothly, to provide catering facilities, communications equipment, and of course our high quality bronze cast trophies for the winners. The competition is an accepted national event and growing in popularity every year, and with the assistance of an active sponsor, will in the near future stand equally among major club sporting events.
Camogie in Stillorgan – The Beginnings
Gaelic games were never popular in the area until the 1950s, as soccer was the main
Sport. However one family who kept the flag flying were the Cronins of Ard Lorcain. Parents Frank and Eileen who had played hurling and camogie instilled in their five children a love of the games from early childhood. They played over by the grotto in the Grove and in Merville before Allen Park was built.
In 1947 their eldest daughter (15yrs) joined the Maurice O’Neill club on the advice of local man Robert Goodwin. She had played camogie at school in Colaiste Mhuire, St. Stephens Green but on transferring to Loreto Foxrock, could only play hockey. Frank O’Croinin became involved in the Maurice O’Neill Club and became the chairperson in 1948, a position he held until his untimely death in 1961.
Canvassing produced a number of “budding players” in the Stillorgan area and apart from the three Cronin girls, Eileen, Maire and Una, Beaufield Park gave players to the club, Frances and Rita Maher, Moira and Joan Sweeney, May Doyle and in later years Pat O’Neill, the Keogh sisters and Stella Lawless Paisley, recently deceased, Maire Farrell and sister Elsa, Rosaleen Byrne and Peggy Carroll who played a championship final with a black eye.
The club had many successes and in the early days won Inter B Championship in 1950 and Inter A Championship in 1951. Success came to Eileen Cronin and Frances Maher when they won All Ireland medals with Dublin in 1955. Fran was on the first Gael Linn team in 1956.
In these days the club provided black gymslips and red/white-striped blouses, red sash, black stockings and ‘knickers’. “Mr” Cronin always carried a supply of stockings in the kitbag. Transport was his Ford Prefect and how the players were squashed into it was a miracle.
Nowadays players have it much easier and transport is not a problem. But in 1940/50 it was a different story!
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Eileen Cronin mentioned in the above article, married Paddy Hogan and had three daughters of her own who subsequently played camogie for Kilmacud Crokes, Una, Deirdre and Emer. She was instrumental in the development of camogie in Kilmacud and was the driving force behind the commencement of the All Ireland Camogie Sevens 31 years ago.. Eileen is the Honorary President of Kilmacud Crokes Camogie Club and retains an active interest in the activities of the club. The Prionsias O Cronain Cup for the All Ireland Sevens is named for her father.