St.kevin's Fc Book 1-21

St Kevin’s Boys Club

First published 2009 St Kevin’s Boys Club Larkhill Road Extension Whitehall Dublin 9 Phone: 01 837 4411 Website: www.skbfc.com © St Kevin’s Boys Club All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise without prior permission in writing from St Kevin’s Boys Club.

Photographs: St Kevin’s Boys Club, Gerry Murtagh, Paul Dolan, Sinead O’Callaghan, Mick Quinlan, Patsy Brown, Derek Bauer, The Evening Herald, The Daily Star, The Derry Journal, Billy Strickland and Sportsfile Book Design, Photography, Scanning and Retouching by: The Black Mountain Design Company, 65 Strand Street, Great, Dublin 1. Tel. 01 8734 322 Printed by: Hudson Killeen, Ballycoolin Business Park, Blanchardstown, Dublin 15

Acknowledgments Writing a book such as this is a partnership between many people. Sincere thanks are due to all the authors who put pen to paper. Hopefully the final product does justice to their efforts. The family of the late Bobby Redmond along with John Kelly and Frank Loftus kindly supplied many of the older photographs and newspaper clippings used throughout the book. The more recent photographs were supplied by Gerry Murtagh, Paul Dolan, Sinead O’Callaghan, the Evening Herald, the Star and Derry Journal. We greatly appreciate the support of our advertisers (and Mrs M Heffernan) in offsetting some of our costs. A huge debt of gratitude is owed to Michael O’Callaghan and Dermot Wilkins for their efforts in getting this publication over the white line.

St Kevin’s Boys Club One of the very first teams

St Kevin’s Boys Club

Contents

1

The first fifty years: an overview

12

by Michael O’Callaghan

2

A view from the outside

34

by Eamonn Scott

3

The great teams of St Kevin’s Boys

40

by Billy McCormac and Michael O’Callaghan

4

Selected for International duty

50

List of players who served St Kevin’s and Ireland

5

Virtual teams for a virtual match

52

by The Secret Selectors

6

St Kevin’s Academy and our cross-channel links

58

by Ken Donohoe

7

Participating in the Foyle and Milk Cups

64

by Ken Donohoe

8

FA I Carlsberg Cup 2001/02

70

by Paul Dolan

9

Heroes all

76

by Michael O’Callaghan and Dermot Wilkins

10

Training in the Assembly Hall

84

by Stephen Walsh

11

Playing the field

88

by Des Lawlor

12

Memories of St Kevin’s Boys

92

by John Kelly

13

Impressions of Kevin Behan

96

by Michael O’Callaghan

14

Fifty years with the same club by Michael Quinlan

4

98

St Kevin’s Boys Club

15

Let’s start a club

102

by Des Williams, Auxillary Bishop of Dublin

16

The St Christophers

104

by Derek Bauer

17

Camping under canvas and indoors

110

Terry Duignam and Des Havelin

18

The Road Leagues

116

by Brendan Bermingham

19

The Mini Leagues

122

by Brendan O’Callaghan

20

Building the Clubhouse 1981 - 83

128

by Brian Reid

21

Our new pitch opens 2002

130

by Ciaran Heffernan

22

The Luke Kelly Festival

132

by Pat Daly

23

The Foley Perspective

134

by Derek Foley

24

The Dallas Cup

138

by Joyce Moore

25

A woman’s view

142

by Jan Quinn

26

A modern appraisal

146

by Robert Harvey

27

The Crew - past and present

150

The Board, Club Officers and Managers

28

All the young dudes

152

Listing of current players

5

6

The words on the opposite page taken from the St Kevin’s Boys club prayer, aptly describe the dedicated work that has been undertaken by so many officials and mentors in the club for the last fifty years. This book was written so that as many as possible of those who worked so unselfishly in the club might have their contributions recognised. By its voluntary nature a club such as ours has a steady flow of adult helpers. We have tried to include as many names as possible, but inevitably some names will have been omitted. For this we apologise but we trust that the enjoyment achieved in working for the club will be its own reward. The book is based on the recollections of a number of senior members who met in 2008. These meetings were augmented by interviews with some more of the ‘old guard’. An overall picture emerged from these sources which led to the general history as outlined in chapter 1. In the other chapters a number of club members volunteered to record their reflections on specific topics of the club’s history based on their own experiences. In adopting this approach it was hoped to include mention of the maximum number of names from the past. The club would like to express its sincere gratitude to all those, named and unnamed, who have given their time and effort to the club over the last fifty years. In particular we thank the administrators and managers without whom there would have been no history. The authors who contributed articles also deserve great praise for their work. Sincere thanks are also due to the editorial group who collated the articles, supplied and selected the photographs and prepared the book for the design team. In particular great work was done by Dermot Wilkins and Michael O’Callaghan to bring the book to a conclusion. Ó bunaíodh an club seo ‘St Kevin’s Boys’, ba fhoinse iontach é chun maitheasa i measc aos óg Fionnbhrú agus an cheantair máguaird. Bhain, ní hamháin na céadta, ach na mílte daoine óga taitneamh as oícheanta gan áireamh, ag traenáil is ag foghlaim ceird na peile. D’imríomar iliomad cluichí agus thugamar a lán turas in Éirinn agus thar lear. Níos tábhachtaí fós, spreag an club na daoine óga chun na cluichí a imirt sa spiorad cheart agus ag smaoineamh i gcónaí ar Chothrom na Féinne. Chabhraigh an club leis na daoine óga a n-áit a thógáil sa tsochaí agus iad ag fanacht dílis do phrionsabail na mbunaitheoirí. Tá creidiúint iontach ag dul do na bunaitheoirí céanna agus dóibh siúd a tháinig ina ndiaidh. Is fíor an ráiteas “Má tá an méid seo feicthe againn, is de bharr a bheith ag seasamh ar ghuaille fathach”. Tá súil againn go mbainfidh sibh aoibhneas as an leabhar seo agus go músclóidh sé ionaibh smaointe taitneamhacha, anois agus sna blianta atá romhainn amach. The club has been a great source of good in the local area and in football in general. In seeing beyond the football side of the club it has helped so many of our young members to take their place in society. For this a debt of gratitude is due to the founding fathers and to their successors down through the years. Enjoy this publication. Hopefully it will bring back many happy memories of so many sporting and social occasions but especially of so many outstanding people. They say that a good start is half the battle. We have had a decent run at the first fifty years, here’s to the next fifty!

7

8

Liam Brady poses for the camera in St Kevin’s Boys colours!

As a boy growing up in Whitehall, St Kevin’s Boys was a huge part of my life. My recollection is of being involved with the club since I was around nine years of age. The older boys I knew joined up when the club came into existence and I couldn’t wait to join the club and play organized football. The people at the club were first class and did a remarkable job of giving young boys a huge interest in the game of football. We were lucky to have as our manager Mr Des Lawlor who loved the game and soon put together a squad of players that was the envy of every club in Ireland. We dominated schoolboy football winning many trophies - the highlight was winning the All Ireland Cup at Under 15. I have had such a happy career in professional football for the last 37 years and I am immensely grateful for the care and coaching I had in my formative years - from 9 till 15 - at St Kevin’s Boys. As Head of Youth Development at Arsenal I have come to realize that you give young boys the passion and love of skill of football at a very early age. St Kevin’s gave me that and it has served me well through all these years. I am very proud that St Kevin’s is my club and I wish them continued success. I congratulate the club on its service to the community and to Irish football over the last 50 years.

Liam Brady

9

T HE F OOTBALL A SSOCIATION OF I RELAND

It gives me great pleasure to wish St Kevin’s Boys all the best in this, the club’s 50th anniversary year. St Kevin’s Boys is one of the largest schoolboy and junior football clubs in the country and has played a vital role in nurturing some of our greatest talent, players like Damien Duff, Stephen Carr, Ian Harte, Alan Maybury and Liam Brady. Much of the club’s success is down to the excellent structures, good governance and high standards of coaching put in place by its Board of Directors and sub committees. And while this dedication to the game has led St Kevin’s Boys to many achievements over the past half century, the future is equally bright. The fact that St Kevin’s Boys now has over 900 people involved, between players, coaches and administrators across 40 teams really speaks volumes about a club that is planning for the future by focusing on the development of young players. All of the volunteers involved in running the club, over the past fifty years deserve huge praise and recognition for their good work in building and maintaining such a successful club. Well done on making it through your first 50 years and good luck for the next 50!

David Blood President Football Association of Ireland (FAI)

10

The first fifty years: an overview Michael O’Callaghan

Life in and around 1959 It is difficult to comprehend how different life was in Ireland in the late 50s and early 60s. The rate of change has been astounding as highlighted by some of the following reflections. Communications were very different. Only about 5% of people had a home telephone and making calls from work was outlawed. You had to get an old many-sided three penny bit and a coin box that worked and press button A (or was it button B?). The club used to notify players of training or match changes by writing to them and sending the card by post. Many of the older managers recall walking or cycling on a Friday night to such far flung outposts as Finglas or Ringsend to tell their players that the match the following day was at an earlier time. Most families did not have cars. This meant that teams would meet at the ‘lights’ (the intersection of Collins Avenue and The Swords Road) or UCC (under Cleary’s clock) for their away match. The trip to Sallynoggin was a nightmare. Meet at 10 am and get the bus into town. Then walk to the quays to get the bus to the Noggin. Arrive after 12 noon and kick off at 12.30 or so. Then the bus back to town. Some of the players had to be walked to the 41 bus stop while the others had to get the number 3 or 16. Arrive home at four or four thirty, tired and exhausted and maybe even beaten. The buses had conductors to collect the fares and open platforms that you could jump on and off while the bus was moving. Televisions hardly existed and if they did they were in black and white. The picture was poor as it came from an aerial on the chimney of each house. There was no such thing as SKY or live matches on the TV. RTE did not broadcast a television service until 1961 and Match of the Day did not exist until 1964. None of the local secondary schools existed. Many students left school after doing their one and only state exam, the Primary Cert which was taken at the end of sixth class. If they wanted to go on to secondary school they had to travel into town to find a school. Whitehall church was only newly built (1957) and there was still a blacksmith in Santry village. There were no motorways or dual carriages; the road in front of the church was the main Dublin to Belfast road. McCairn’s Motors occupied the site where Omni Park now is and a motor assembly plant was based in the Garda depot opposite our club pitch. Ellenfield Park was recently converted from allotments where people grew vegetables, hence its nickname as the ‘plots’. Some of the more noteworthy happenings in 1959 were: the first Barbie doll was sold, Fidel Castro took over in Cuba, Alaska and Hawaii became States in the U S , Paul McGrath and Simon Cowell were born, Buddy Holly died in a plane crash, the Soviet Union spacecraft LUNA 2 was the first man made object on the moon (it crash landed), the first photocopier was made by Xerox, Sean Lemass became Taoiseach (and the government ‘considered’ bringing in PAYE tax!), the first female Gardai were appointed (one of whom was from Ellenfield), Waterford beat Kilkenny in the All Ireland hurling final and Kerry beat Galway in the football, St. Patrick’s Athletic won the FAI cup while Shamrock Rovers won the League of Ireland, Wolverhampton Wanderers won the English first division and Nottingham Forest won the FA cup. Meanwhile in Ellenfield Park some young boys were playing football and a young priest was taking a walk.

13

St Kevin’s Boys Under 14 Team 1960-61 Season

The foundation In the early spring of 1959 Fr Des Williams was the chaplain to the nuns in High Park convent. Legend has it that as he walked through Ellenfield Park he noticed that there no soccer goalposts. This suggested to him that there was not a lot of organised football being played. He noticed some lads kicking around and asked them who they played for. They told him there was no team or club in the area. Amongst these lads were Kevin Osbourne, Mick Quinlan, Mick Smullen, Brian and Andy McSweeney and Sean Smith. A meeting was arranged for Sean Smith’s house. Initially it was intended to name the club Beaumont Celtic (as many of the players were from the Beaumont area). At the first meeting Fr. Williams suggested that Beaumont was too narrow a focus and his original proposal was to name the new club St Lawrence O’Tooles Boys or St Kevin’s Boys. The first decision was made! Initially the club played in yellow short sleeved jerseys which were loaned from the High Park altar boy’s side. The original team was under 13 and was managed by Fr Williams and Peter Bennett. The first match was played against a team of altar boys from St. Nicholas of Myra near Francis Street. This team was managed by John Hyland and ‘Luger’ Murphy. The former was very involved in later years with the inauguration and development of the St Francis club. At that time the altar boys had a league for themselves. The St Kevin’s team, captained by Sean Smith, got off to a flying start winning the first match 9-0. Fr. Williams wanted a distinctive colour for the club. With that in mind he went into Kingston’s in O’Connell Street and selected a tangerine set of jerseys. He bought a single pair of black shorts from Kennedy and O’Brien’s in Frederick Street. As times were tough and money was in short supply he bought a bale of black cloth and asked Mrs Smith to make copies of the pair of shorts he had bought. During the summer of 1959 application was made to the Dublin and District Schoolboys league. The team was given a place in the 13C league. The first competitive match took place in September 1959 against Blackburn Rovers (the Dublin schoolboy side) in Ellenfield Park. Details of this match are given elsewhere in this publication. In the early years the club was totally based in Ellenfield Park. However gaining entry to the dressing rooms was proving difficult as they were exclusively the preserve of the local GAA

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St Kevin’s Boys Club Celebrat ing 50 Years 1959 - 2009 club. Despite numerous requests and letters of application the matter was not being resolved. In a tactical masterstroke Fr Williams, who was not based in the parish, appointed Fr George Sullivan (who was based in the parish and was reputed to say mass in fifteen minutes) as the club chaplain. Fr George also had a role with the local GAA club. The combined pressure of both clergy men and their Archbishop, John Charles McQuaid, along with a number of meetings with Dublin Corporation officials, soon brought matters to a head. Goalposts were erected and the pavilion was to be shared.

The Shanowen connection Around about 1960 Pat Gilsenan (who lived on Larkhill Road and later on Collin’s Ave.) was involved in the local church. He approached another church helper, Maurice Coffey, to assist him in managing a football team in Shanowen. This team played their home matches in the Catholic Youth Clubs (CYC) league in Ellenfield Park. Circa 1961 Maurice Coffey, Kevin Scully and Fr Williams organised the Parish road leagues during the summer. At that stage Lar Madden, Pat Hurney, Jack Bracken, Hugh LeBlanc and Frank Loftus had become affiliated to Shanowen. Also involved in St Kevin’s at that time were Jack Smith, Peter Troy and the very youthful John Kelly and Brian Halpin (both of whom had seen service with Home Farm (to their eternal shame!). Other managers in the early years included Ken O’Brien (the egg man), Mr. McGuinness (from Glenaan Road) and Jimmy Dixon (from Glencloy Road). St Kevin’s Boys Under 14 Team 1960-61 Season Left to right Standing: Andrew McSwiney, David Loughran, Bernard Troy, Peter Heffernan, Paul White and Patrick Kelly (Trainer) Left to right in Front: Sean Smyth, Brian McGinn (Capt.) Brendan Dornan, Patrick Ormsby, Brian Kenny and Desmond Shaw

It was soon realised that two clubs sharing the same grounds was not the best arrangement. In 1963 Shanowen and St Kevin’s amalgamated with the players and mentors coming under the name of St Kevin’s Boys. By that time the club was running about ten teams, with two sides at each of under 13, 14, 15 16 and 17s.

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Names from the early days Jack Smith (father of Sean(y) Smith) was the first chairman. Peter Bennett was a most assiduous treasurer. Legend has it that at an early committee meeting he spent from 10.30 p.m. to 11.00 pm. in almost darkness trying to balance the books to the last six pence! Fr Williams, who was later to become Bishop Williams, was a guiding light and wrote the constitution on which the club still relies for its ethos. It was he who promoted the concept of providing football for all, irrespective of their ability. To this day we are almost alone of the higher profile clubs in the schoolboy leagues who encompass this concept. One of the best remembered players from the early days was Frannie Swan who joined in 1960. His sister was married to Jimmy Ingle (of the famous boxing family). Jimmy is remembered as one of the first coaches, as opposed to managers, in the club. He introduced a board with markers to show positions and was the first to start discussing tactics. From his boxing experience he also introduced great discipline and revolutionary training devices such as a medicine ball. In the early days Paddy and Willie Dunne were managers who pioneered skipping ropes. Paddy was a city councillor who later went on to become Lord Mayor of Dublin. As the 1960s progressed a steady stream of stalwarts joined the club. These included Tom Byrne, Jack Loftus (who later went on to the Amateur League) and Alex O’Reilly. Noel Whitehead can still recall Tom Byrne (who was one of the most kind and gentle people you could ever meet) wiping tears of disappointment from his young eyes in 1962 or 63 after a particularly unexpected defeat. By the mid ‘60s the managers included Lar Madden and Con Flanagan, Bobby Worrell and Arthur Sparks, Mick Quinlan and Tom Byrne (Jr), Willie Mooney and Joe Carrick along with Tommy Sneyd and Barney Dowler. Con Flanagan is attributed with being the first of our managers to seek out and attend coaching courses. At that time such courses were very rare and there was no encouragement from the club or from the FAI to attend such courses.

St Kevin’s Boys Team 1964-65 Season Back row left to right: Popper Anderson, Tom Byrne, Tom Moore, Noel Garland, Brian Halpin and Gerry Graelan Front row left to right: Sean O’Neill, Mick Quinlan, Paddy Horgan, Jeff Breen and Brendan McDonnell

Training In the early days all the club’s activity took place in Ellenfield Park (then known as the ‘plots’). This included matches, training and committee meetings. Training could not take place in the heart of the winter. As a result teams did not see each other from match to match. This meant that teams had to be notified by post about the following week’s fixtures. Frank Loftus recalls his father (Jack) writing out cards for every player in the club. These were made out from the fixtures in the paper on a Tuesday. The players were told the time to meet in Ellenfield for home games or at McBirneys on the quays for away games. Even in the early days there was always a danger of players being poached, especially by our

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St Kevin’s Boys Club Celebrat ing 50 Years 1959 - 2009 near neighbours in blue and white hoops. Des Lawlor recalls that in 1960 or 61 himself, Willie Nolan, Billy Kelly, John Kelly and Peter Troy gathered together and hid in the bushes in the park. Their objective was to run Paddy Mulligan (who at the time was suspected of inviting players to join Home Farm) out of town. It speaks well of his athleticism that they did not catch him! In the mid 60s the club got the use of the Parish Assembly Hall in Larkhill. This was available only on one night of the week, namely Thursday. Every team in the club trained in the hall, even when we had about forty teams in the late 70s and early 80s. At this stage we had progressed from no training for part of the year to one session of 45 minutes once a week. Details of the crack and camaraderie that arose from such sessions are reported elsewhere by Stephen Walsh. Originally it was forbidden for teams to leave the hall. However in later years we spread our wings and would undertake runs to such far flung places as Fairview and back. It is widely rumoured that certain Ellenfield players would stop off at home on the outward leg of the journey and rejoin the tail end of the group as they came back exhausted from Fairview. At one stage we even had army trainers and runners from Clonliff Harriers to guide us. Training one night a week for all teams meant that the club administrators could get a better handle on the members. It also meant that all players got to know each other very well. All of this changed when we switched to training Monday to Friday in our present clubhouse in 1983. Some of the older members feel that the club lost some of its soul with the switch to our new and improved facilities. Certainly the club became more disjointed. The various committees found it much more difficult to coordinate discipline and standards in the club. This culminated in one team flying solo, to the extent that they even had a different set of jerseys to the rest of the club.

Football in the early years As mentioned earlier our first gear was yellow. Once we joined the DDSL we switched to tangerine jerseys, with short sleeves and huge numbers. The numbers were so large that often they could not be distinguished as they were tucked down into the shorts. It is thought that tangerine was selected because at that time no other clubs played in that colour. The shorts were black and the woollen socks were black with a red top. Initially only ten jerseys (plus a goalkeeper’s jersey) were issued to each team. This was because no substitutes were allowed. Teams carried a panel of fourteen players, but this meant that if they all turned up three of them did not even tog out. If a player got badly injured the team played on with ten players, despite three members of the squad being available on the sideline. What an injustice!! It was only in the late 1960s that the first long sleeved jerseys appeared. In later years our jerseys were famous (or infamous) for having tiny numbers on the back. The footballs were laced and very heavy, even before they absorbed loads of water on a wet day. Many players saw stars when they headed the lace of a ball on a cold, wet afternoon. Remarkably there were no goal nets; the referees had better eyesight then. Very often the pitches were not even marked.

Road leagues From the very earliest days Parish leagues were organised for six weeks during the summer months. Teams were drawn from the local streets and areas and matches were played in the evenings in Ellenfield Park. Originally Maurice Coffey enlisted the help of a number of people to distribute forms in each area. In an era where the vast majority of the club was locally based (for a long time it was forbidden to sign players from outside the parish) rivalry at the road leagues was intense. Initially the teams were selected from under 13 to under 18s. There were some serious skirmishes and wars

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of attrition both during and often after games. In particular there was great rivalry between Ellenfield and Larkhill and for several years there was murder when Larkhill Upper was playing against Larkhill Lower. While they were originally set up as parish road leagues they eventually morphed into club organised road leagues. At times the crowds totally surrounded the pitch and frequently games had to be stopped to ask spectators to move back outside the white lines. The road leagues were a great source of new players. Managers would be ever vigilant to see what new talent might appear in their age group. Managers of road leagues teams were adept at stretching the boundaries in order to include star players from farther afield. Indeed in 1960 the Santry under 14 team surprisingly beat Shanowen. Unknown to the organisers the Santry team included a few imports from Swords (and possibly beyond). In particular the goalkeeper was superb. His application form indicated that he was the son of Eugene O’Reilly, the owner of the pub now called the Swiss Cottage. You can imagine Maurice Coffey’s annoyance when he called the parents to sign the new superstar only to be told their son was not playing in the road leagues. It was from the road leagues that the club recruited new managers. Any parent or half-mature individual who showed any enthusiasm got a tap on the shoulder and was told (not asked) that he was the new manager of a particular team. The original road leagues presentations were held in venues such as the School for the Blind in Drumcondra and the Busmen’s Hall in the city centre. Later the presentations were made by a local celebrity on the second Sunday in July, the traditional date for the finals. For many young boys the road leagues was their only involvement with organised sport. We have often been regaled by stories of those whose only sporting trophy was a road leagues medal. Such a medal was a bauble more treasured than a world cup winner’s medal. In recent years the age groups have got younger and younger. There is no longer a demand for road leagues from those over about twelve years of age. With SKY TV, live premiership matches and champions league football in every household it is no longer ‘cool’ to play in road leagues. Another factor that reduces the appeal is the lack of local involvement. This results from our membership being drawn from a wider base so that many players are no longer associated with the street on which they live. However the appeal of the road leagues continues with the players (and the parents and grandparents) of the younger age groups. Refereeing road leagues matches became so fraught that we have had to introduce ‘official’ referees.

St Kevin’s Boys v Tramore Athletic August 1965

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St Kevin’s Boys Club Celebrat ing 50 Years 1959 - 2009

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Committees When the club had only one or two teams it could run efficiently without the need for formal meetings. By the early 60s there was a need to coordinate our efforts and a structure was put on our affairs. From the early days we always had two main committees: the officers or executive committee who met weekly and the management committee or Board of Directors which met monthly. The first meetings took place in the pavilion in Ellenfield (which has been modernised since then). There was no electricity or heating and light was provided by paraffin Tilley lamps. One of the early treasurer’s reports showed that the club had overspent by six old pence (about two pence in today’s money). The loss was due to the money spent on methylated spirits for the lamp. Ken O’Brien and Paddy (Whacker) Horgan were the first pavilion managers. In the late 1960s our committee meetings were held in the Four Winds. This was located in the basement of a building in Parnell Square (it is now a photography studio close to the present teachers club). Along with a meeting room with light and heat this premises also had dart boards, rings and a pool table. It was also used by a group in the club called the St Christopher’s (which is documented elsewhere by Derek Bauer). Getting in and out of town for meetings was proving to be too difficult so in the 70s we moved to the Greenfield Community Centre in Shanowen for a brief time. We later relocated to an old cottage, called the Den, located in the grounds of the Bishop’s Palace in Drumcondra. This cottage was accessed from a laneway opposite Kennedy’s pub. The cottage was old, derelict, damp and cramped. It had light and was heated (badly) by a Super Ser heater. Many of the present officers of the club can recall training in the park in front of Tolka Park from six to eight at night. Then it was a quick run to Fagan’s pub to wash some of the muck off your hands before heading to the Den for a meeting from eight to ten thirty or eleven. Were we mad or what? By the late 70s, having briefly met in the back of the church, we had progressed to meeting in the Penthouse Suite of the Airport Hotel (now the Regency). This was luxury indeed. Unfortunately such luxury had to be paid for and this necessitated a financial contribution from each member to offset the rental costs and the provision of tea and biscuits. Once we moved to the clubhouse in 1983 our meetings could be held on our own premises, at no cost to the sitting members. Around this time the structure of the club changed for legal reasons and we became a limited company under the guidance of a Board of Directors. However our new structure mirrored the old structure, thanks in no small part to the doubting mind of Michael (Gigga) Madden RIP. St Kevin’s Boys 2nd Team in the 70s Back row left to right: Paddy Daly Sr., Stephen Walsh, Shay Giles, Brendan Gorman, Mick O’Dwyer, Noel Snell, A N Other, Gary Reilly and Mick O’Callaghan Front row left to right: Brian Reid, Noel Garland, Paul Dolan, Andy Dunne, Noel Carroll and Peter O’Reilly

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St Kevin’s Boys Club Celebrat ing 50 Years 1959 - 2009

Phases in our development The administration of the club could be roughly considered under three stages. Firstly there were the founding fathers that started the club and developed its philosophy and ethos. A second wave of leaders came along in the 1970s to support the likes of Maurice Coffey, Des Lawlor and TJ Kileen. This wave of new blood included Alex McQueen, John Kelly, Brendan Bermingham, Brian Reid, Pat Daly and Michael O’Callaghan. These, with the help of so many more, saw the club develop its own clubhouse. This changed the nature of the club and provided us with a base from which to kick on.

St Kevin’s Boys The old and not so old Left to right: Brendan Bermingham, Maurice Coffey, Michael O’Callaghan and Bishop Des Williams

Finally by the mid 1990s the club was firmly established in our own clubhouse. A FÁS scheme had been inaugurated to help in cleaning and maintaining the premises. By this time the club had acquired the site for our present pitch and all weather training ground. Senior figures such as Alex McQueen, John Kelly, Noel Hayden and Des Havelin were replaced by the likes of Billy McCormac, Peter Murray, the return of Des Lawlor and Michael O’Callaghan while Brendan Bermingham, Pat Daly and Brian Reid provided continuity. The last ten years or so have seen the development of our own pitch and all weather training ground and a renewed effort to upgrade all matters relating to football standards in the club. This involved providing coaching courses for our managers, the redevelopment of the pavilions in Ellenfield Park, the formation of our academy and close cooperation with the coaching structures of an associated professional club in England, the appointment of a club coach (initially Pat Cleary, later Paul Boyle and now Alan Caffrey) and an increased emphasis on our premier teams. While much of this was driven by the executive officers (fully supported by the Board of Directors) the process was given further impetus when Ken Donohue was appointed as Director of Football in 2000. In recent years others such as Paul Dolan and Brian Halpin have given great support to the modernisation of the club. However the one name that stands out as a link from the early days to the late 80s was Maurice Coffey. While many people gave great support and commitment to the club, Maurice stood head and shoulders above all. His life was devoted on an almost constant basis to organising and running the club. It was he who held the club together, organising managers, road leagues, camps and finances. The club truly owes a huge debt of gratitude to Maurice Coffey. An article such as this can only touch on the main brush strokes in the development of a large club such as ours. Those named above were led, trained, guided and helped by a large number of others. While not named here many others have made huge contributions in terms of time, effort and dedication to making the club what it is today.

Highs and lows on the field While the club exists to provide football and a social outlet for young people we also attempt to provide winning teams. Over the years the club has been stretched to accommodate both of these aims at the same time. The yardstick used for great teams must be those that won All Ireland competitions or who had prolonged success over many years in local competitions. The exploits of these teams are dealt with in detail by Billy McCormac elsewhere in this publication. The first great era in our footballing history would have been associated with the 13C team that came together under the guidance of Des Lawlor in 1967. This team, which included Liam Brady and Pat Daly, went on to win the under 15 All Ireland in 1970. This victory helped to establish the credentials of the club a s a serious footballing force for the first time. Another team that helped raise our profile was the first senior team run by the likes of Jack Loftus and Tom Sneyd. This team won leagues and cups year after year in the Amateur League (and also provided many of the managers for our schoolboy teams). In 1980 another top class St Kevin’s side emerged to win our second All Ireland under 15. This side was managed by Jimmy McMullan. They went on to win their second All Ireland (this time under 16) the following year, 1981. This side continued to win domestic leagues and cups over the next number of years. In fact many of these players went on to form the backbone of our very successful senior squad in the 1990s.

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