Camogie Club History
A Short History 1997-2007
Foreword
It is a great pleasure for me to present to you the history of
Kiltale Camogie Club one decade on. Special mention must go to
our founding members who had the foresight and vision to
establish the Club in 1997. Since its formation there have been
tears, cheers, but above all, lots of laughter. The Club went
through a number of transition phases down through the years
whilst we waited patiently for some of the younger talent to
make the breakthrough to the senior ranks. This is especially
needed in a small parish like ours. All through the years we
have had the support of the Hurling Club and without that
support things would have been a lot harder. To Paddy Kelly Jnr
thanks for the enormity of your efforts to make Kiltale Hurling
& Camogie Club a better facility for everyone to benefit from.
Whilst the history focuses primarily on our achievements on the
playing field, we too have had great fun off the field. One
remembers especially those famous Halloween parties in the
Parish Hall where children laughed and laughed with water and
flour covering every inch of them, including their Fancy Dress
outfits. One cannot forget the amazement in the eyes of young
children at the sight of fireworks lighting up the Kiltale
sky-line at Halloween. Of course, though illegal, the fireworks
display was organised in a competent manner, albeit on one
occasion a certain person got their coat blown off when a
firework exploded accidentally and then the coat was duly fired
into the dug out and on top of the bag of un-ignited fireworks!!
Of course we learned a lesson, better leave the fireworks to the
young lads rather than the big boys!!
I want to pay special thanks to a number of people who provided
help in putting this history together. Thanks to the Gilsenan
family for trawling the archives and coming up with material for
the earlier years. To Mary Herlihy for searching my PC at work
for photos & club reports. To Ann Mulligan for checking her
attic. To the Mc Groader family for solving the mystery in
2001!! To Emer Lynch and Charlene Cooney for identifying some
young faces in old pictures. To my husband Tossie whose memory
worries me!! Lastly I want to thank Ann Gilsenan and Belynda
Weldon for putting the booklet together.
In conclusion, one cannot leave the past behind without
mentioning the future. Already this year Louise Donoghue has
helped Athlone IT to win the Purcell Cup, whilst Deborah
Wigglesworth with her Trinity team mates were beaten in the
Purcell Shield final. At the time of writing the Intermediate
team are doing well in the League and as I am prone to do I am
going to make a prediction that Kiltale will do the double this
year by winning the Junior League and Intermediate Championship.
All that is left for me to say is thanks to everybody who helped
our Club in the last decade and I look forward with great
anticipation to a wonderful next 10 years.
Louise Byrne
Chairperson
And so this is how it all started….
1997
Rumour has it that Kiltale Camogie Club was established as a
result of a bad day at the office followed by a good night in
Warrenstown Arms! A number of dedicated employees were already
playing with our near neighbours Kilmessan but alas the saying
“Far away fields are greener” isn’t always true. Ann Gilsenan
and Marie Claire Hickey had slept with the enemy but decided
enough was enough and so stemmed the start of the bad day at the
office. Kiltale Camogie Club was formed on the 23rd March 1997.
Needless to say the team didn’t fare too well in their first
year and if memory serves me right the loudest cheer (similar to
that of a team winning the County Championship!!) was reserved
for the only score of the year. Yes, it is not a typo, the only
score of the year!! Back in 1997 the team consisted of family
and friends and was known more for their social skills than
their camogie skills. The trainers of the 1st camogie team were
Louise Byrne and Gerard Brady.
1998
Great fun was had in 1997, so much so that word got out about it
and thus enticed a few new players in 1998 and a new trainer
Peter Farrell (also of Grange stock). In only the clubs 2nd year
the girls managed to get to the county final where they were
beaten by Navan O’Mahonys in the Junior Championship Final on a
scoreline of 5-6 to 1-2. The Meath Chronicle described the
Kiltale women as “gallant in defeat” and Marie-Clare Hickey was
described as Kiltales “hit-woman”!! The team was as follows:
Maura O’Leary, Vanessa Gaughan, Carmel Reilly, Deirdre Dixon,
Martina Walsh, Ann Gilsenan, Shirley Dixon, Caitriona O’Leary,
Donna Mc Gann, Marie-Claire Hickey, Freda Gilsenan, Evelyn
O’Connor, Patricia Gilsenan, Rebecca Rooney, Mary Gilsenan,
Wendy Mc Cormack, Niamh Mc Groader, Donna Kane & Deirdre
Cummings.
Back in 1998 Kiltale had only one underage team, an U-14 team
who were defeated by Trim in the Plate final. The team was Jenny
Dunne, Noreen Wiseman, Laura Bannon, Donna Kane, Leah O’Daly,
Elizabeth Madden, Meave O’Reilly, Susan Madden, Evelyn Maguire,
Sarah Lee, Sarah Bannon, Lisa Lynch, Paula Dunne, Katie Byrne,
Louise Donoghue, Victoria Langrishe, Jennifer Mc Cormack,
Theresa Kane, Elaine Reilly, Evelyn Dixon, Laura Wigglesworth,
Aisling Carty & Jennifer Stephens.
1999
The Kiltale ladies went from strength to strength and in 1999
the team went one better than in 1998 when they captured the
Junior Championship title from Donaghmore-Ashbourne in a “tense
and tight” battle in Stamullen. The weather was brutal but it
didn’t prevent Paddy “The Doc” Walsh out-witting his opposition
and gave Freda O’Leary (formally Gilsenan) the honour of being
the 1st winning captain in the Clubs history. Final Score was
3-2 to 2-3. The Kiltale team were: Maura O’Leary, Deirdre Smyth,
Mary Smith, Laura Bannon, Deirdre Dixon, Donna Mc Gann,
Caitriona O’Leary, Marie-Clare Hickey, Sinead Smith, Meave
O’Brien, Ann Gilsenan, Freda O’Leary, Meave O’Reilly, Louise
Adams, Patricia Gilsenan, Elizabeth Madden, Wendy Mc Cormack,
Rebecca Rooney, Noreen Wiseman, Niamh Mc Groader, Ruth Adams, K
Farrell, N O’Leary, Laura Wigglesworth, Jenny Stephens & Siobhan
Kelly.
2000
After tasting the sweet smell of victory the Kiltale women went
for the double in 2000 under the watchful eye of Aidan Devlin
with Tossie Byrne as selector. Marie-Clare Hickey one of the
founding members captained the team to victory over Kilmessan.
The team were: Carmel Reilly, Mary Smith, Evelyn Dixon, Ann
Gilsenan, Patricia Gilsenan, Decorah Wigglesworth, Elizabeth
Madden, Lisa Lynch, Donna Mc Gann, Caitriona O’Leary, Niamh Mc
Groader, Louise Donoghue, Regina Heslin, Sarah Bannon, Theresa
Kane, Ann Fitzhenry, Deirdre Dixon, Jane Wigglesworth, Elaine
Reilly, Meave O’Brien, Meave O’Reilly, Marie-Clare Hickey &
Sinead Smith. Louise Adams was lying in Navan Hospital on final
day but needless to say the celebrations made there way from
Trim to Navan Hospital and back to Warrenstown Arms!
The underage teams had no success in 2000 but the Minutes of the
AGM note “The underages-with no victories during the year, still
went out in every match full of life and enjoyed every minute of
every game!!” Also appearing on the minutes of the same AGM (and
I am sure if we could locate minutes of previous years AGMs) was
Emer Lynch. Emer has been the resident First Aid Officer for the
Club since its inception. Many people may not be aware that she
also trained the underage teams in the early days. But don’t ask
her to play- that is a step too far for Emer!
2001
2001 saw the emergence of the Kiltale underage teams as a force
to be reckoned with. The U-12 team won their first ever
tournament, the Donaghmore-Ashbourne Camogie Blitz. Kiltale
entered two teams on the day and the winning team included Jane
Walsh, Louise Donoghue, the Courtney sisters Sheila & Aine,
Ciara Cummins, Seana Devlin, Aoife Crone and Clare Mc Loughlin.
They beat near neighbours and rivals Kilmessan by 1 goal in a
closely fought encounter.
Kiltale were represented in the U-12, U-14, U-16, Junior &
Senior Championships. We won the U-14 Shield and U-16
Championship for the first time ever. The U-14s beat Naomh
Padraig in the final and the day was made most memorable by
Deborah Wigglesworth been awarded “Most Valuable Player”. The
Club newsletter noted that “the U-16 decider against Kilmessan
saw one of the finest displays by any Kiltale team”. The team
was : Jenny Rispin, Deborah Wigglesworth, Ruth Ennis, Evelyn
Dixon, Jane Wigglesworth, Elaine Reilly (Capt), Meave O’Reilly,
Doireann Collins, Susan Madden, Jenny Dunne, Sarah Bannon,
Theresa Kane, Elizabeth Madden, Louise Donoghue, Sheila
Courtney, Aoife Crone, Rachel O’Connor, Alanna Madden, Andrea
Pearle, Anna Conlon. Team trainer- Louise Byrne.
After winning the Junior Championship two years in a row, the
adult team played in the Senior Championship but alas found the
going too tough for this young team. The format of the
Championships in 2001 allowed the bottom teams to revert to the
Junior Championship and Kiltale did not disappoint and duly
obliged by beating Kilmessan in front of a large crowd in
Dunsany to retain the Junior Championship for the 3rd year in a
row. Tossie Byrne was team trainer and the team was: Sinead
Smith, Deirdre Dixon, Donna Mc Gann, Niamh Mc Groader (Capt),
Meave O’Reilly, Jane Wigglesworth, Marie-Clare Hickey, Carmel
Reilly, Doireann Collins, Gillian Scott-Aiken, Jenny Rispin,
Evelyn Dixon, Louise Byrne, Deborah Wigglesworth, Shirley Dixon,
Ruth Ennis, Lisa Lynch, Patricia Gilsenan, Ann Gilsenan,
Elizabeth Madden & Louise Donoghue.
2002
This was the first year the club had a “Senior” team in it’s
full meaning, in that there was no back door to the Junior
Championship. Definitely the going was a lot tougher. The team
were narrowly beaten by Trim and Killyon but well beaten by
Kilmessan in the preliminary rounds.
The Club reached the finals of the U-12, U-14 and U-16
Championships.
The U-12 and U-14 teams were in hard luck after being beaten by
Kilmessan in both Championship finals. The U-12 team were: Jane
Walsh, Keara Brennan, Shauna Devlin, Sheila Courtney, Aine
Courtney, Rebecca Mulligan, Ciara Cummins, Fiona Madden, Cliona
Martin, Sarah Whelan, Bebhinn Harnan, Alanna Madden (Capt),
Helen Lawless, Danielle Slattery, Aoife Crone, Lauren Lawlor,
Afra Schilder, Lynn Ennis, Clare Mc Loughlin & Evonne Harnan.
The U-14 final needed a replay to decide the outcome. Kiltale,
despite leading up to the last minute in the first match and
leading at half time in the replay, were beaten by a Kilmessan
team that showed true grit and determination to defeat Kiltale.
The U-14 team were Jane Walsh, Fiona Madden, Emily Brennan, Aine
Courtney, Ciara Cummins, Sheila Courtney, Andrea Pearle, Louise
Donoghue (Capt), Rachel O’Connor, Rebecca Mulligan, Deborah
Wigglesworth, Aoife Crone, Alanna Madden, Kayleigh Byrne, Sarah
Whelan, Seana Devlin, Cliona Martin & Keara Brennan.
Tossie Byrne and Michael Costello trained the Senior team in
2002. Emer Lynch, Grainne Harnan, Fiona Lawless and Louise Byrne
trained the younger club members.
2003
This year proved successful on a number of fronts. Although we
did not win any Championships we reached the final of the U-12
and U-16 competitions. We were very unlucky not to win the U-12
Championship. Kilmessan pipped us by the narrowest of margins
after a thrilling final in Trim. In the U-14 Championship our
girls were beaten by Ratoath after a replay. In the U-16 final
Kilmessan proved too strong for us. The Senior team found the
going tough against the likes of Kilmessan and Killyon in the
Championship and longed for another year to go by so that some
of the young guns could make the step up.
For the first time ever we held our own friendly tournament for
the ‘Glenburnie Cup’ which was kindly donated to the Club by
Lynn & Ger Lyons. Blackhall Gaels ran out winners of this
competition.
Feile na nGael was hosted by Meath, Westmeath & Kildare. Kiltale
participated for the first time ever and were unlucky to be
placed in Division 1 (God knows why!!). We hosted Athenry who
were a splendid team both on and off the field. The girls were
competitive in their games against the Clare champions & Delvin
from Westmeath. Team trainers for 2003 were Tossie & Louise
Byrne, Grainne Harnan, Emer Lynch & Fiona Lawless.
2004
Again we had another very successful year in 2004. This year we
reached the U-12 semi-final, the U-14 Championship final and
most importantly we won the U-10 and U-16 titles against our old
rivals Kilmessan! We also performed very well at senior level
reaching the Senior Championship semi-final.
The Club welcomed Pat Kane on board as Senior trainer. The team
had a good run in the Senior Championship beating Blackhall
Gaels and Donaghmore-Ashbourne but failed to overcome Kilmessan
& Killyon. The last game of the pre-lims was against Trim which
proved to be a cracker but Trim managed to shade Kiltale.
Nevertheless the team reached the semi-final for the first time
ever but our near neighbours defeated us once again.
This year saw a historic victory for the Meath Minor team in
capturing the Leinster Minor B Championship. Kiltale were
represented on this team by Louise Donoghue (centre back),
Deborah Wigglesworth (centre forward; 2-4 personal tally),
Alanna Madden wing forward) and Fiona Madden.
The U-16 team won the County Championship beating Kilmessan by 2
points in an exciting final in Longwood. The Clubs newsletter
read “This was an all-round excellent team performance. Praise
must go to the full back line that endured serious pressure in
the dying minutes of the game. Every Kiltale supporter had their
hearts in their mouth. A special word of thanks to Paddy Durnan
for doing a wonderful job as umpire !!! Thanks to Tossie Byrne
and Marie-Clare Hickey for training the team”. The team was Jane
Walsh, Bebhinn Harnan, Alanna Madden, Rebecca Mulligan, Sheila
Courtney, Louise Donoghue, Ciara Cummins, Emily Brennan, Andrea
Pearle, Fiona Madden, Deborah Wigglesworth (Capt), Niamh Tucker,
Louise Fagan, Rachel O’Connor, Aoife Crone, Sarah Whelan, Aine
Courtney, Danielle Slattery, Cliona Martin & Katie Byrne.
The U-10s won the Donaghmore-Ashbourne blitz with a superb
performance. They didn’t concede any score throughout the
tournament. The team was captained by Ciara Donoghue. This same
team went on to win the double by winning the County U-10 blitz.
The U-10 winning team was captained by Lauren Lawlor.
Feile na nGael once again came to Meath and this time Kiltale
hosted Kiltegan from Wicklow. The Club still found the going
tough but got great experience playing better teams. Needless to
say a great weekend was had by all.
The Glenburnie Cup was won by Delvin beating Kiltale in the
final.
2005
The Club had another reasonably successful year in 2005. I say
reasonably because whilst we competed well in competitions, we
didn’t win any County Championship or League. We reached U-14
Championship semi-final, the U-16 Championship final and the
Senior Championship semi-final. Killyon beat us in U-14
Championship semi-final and Kilmessan beat us in the U-16 final.
The U-10 retained their Blitz title in Donaghmore-Ashbourne and
did so without conceding a score. If ever there is a team for
the future, this is it: Emma Mc Loughlin, Niamh Courtney (Capt),
Sarah Kelly, Ciara Donoghue, Fiona Crone, Cheyanne O’Brien, Kate
Lawless & Kerry Lyons.
The Kiltale U-14s did us proud in the Feile na nGael in Cork.
Our hosts Watergrasshill turned out to be our bogey team and it
is unfortunate that we had to play them as soon as we got off
the bus (perhaps we should have flown down!!). The team beat
Newtownshandrum and Na Piarsigh in the Group stages and were
very unlucky not to qualify to the semi-finals. The team was
captained by Rebecca Mulligan. Trainers were Grainne Harnan,
Donna Mc Gann and Tossie Byrne.
2005 saw the Senior team going through a period of transition
with very low numbers of players. Despite great effort by Pat
Kane we failed to field in the semi-final (incredible but it’s
true) due to a number of players being away on holidays and
others out injured. Needless to say there was a fairly hot and
heavy Club meeting after that fiasco!!
Delvin retained the Glenburnie Cup.
2006
The year started off brightly with the U-11 team winning the
Gormanston Indoor Camogie Tournament. The team put in some
excellent performances over the 6 weeks. With the following
bright stars on the horizon we can look forward to a good
future. The team was: Sarah O’Connor, Emma Mc Loughlin, Katie
Quinn, Fiona Crone, Ciara Malee, Kate Lawless, Ciara Donoghue,
Dara Mc Cormack, Niamh Courtney, Cheyanne O’Brien, Sarah Kelly,
Kerry Lyons, Cliodna O’Sullivan & Louise Lawless.
After the disappointing end to the 2005 season at Senior level,
the Club was re-graded to Intermediate. Still going through a
transition phase, the Club managed to consolidate its position
at this grade under the watchful eye of Paddy Walsh.
At underage level, we fielded in all Championships except the
U-14 grade due to a lack of numbers in this grade. Our U-16 team
fared best over the season and at the time of writing our girls
are training hard under Tossie Byrne & Grainne Harnan for a
semi-final encounter against Killyon (the final stages of the
2006 U-16 Championship was deferred until March 2007). The team
is captained by Sheila Courtney.
Louise Donoghue brought great honour to herself and her Club by
being nominated on the 1st Greenstar Camogie team. This is due
recognition for the endless time Louise has spent practising
camogie down through the years.
The Club was fortunate to get in some new trainers at underage
level this year, namely, Ann Gilsenan, Sinead Smith, Sinead Mc
Groader & Belynda Weldon.
Despite efforts to organise our friendly tournament, the
Glenburnie Cup was not played for in 2006.
Scór na nÓg
Kiltale welcomed Charlene Cooney, a Tipperary native into our
Club and not only did she bring her camán, she also brought a
wealth of enthusiasm for Scór. Charlene as the Clubs Scór
Officer guided young entertainers along the way. Our most
notable success was in 2004/05 when Sheila Courtney was crowned
County Champion in “Recitation”. Sheila was successful in the
Leinster semi-finals but unfortunately was beaten in the
Leinster Final.
Sponsorship
I would like to extend sincere thanks to the all those who gave
generously to the club down through the years. Our first ever
sponsor was Warrenstown Arms who backed us up in 1997 & 1998.
However since 1999, Gerry Reilly of Precision Mastics Ltd, has
been our main sponsor. The club is indebted to your support and
the support of many others.
Mini-7s
During the Clubs short history Kiltale National School have
benefited from the underage training structure in the Club. The
school won the Cumann na mBunscoile competition a number of
years. Representatives from Kiltale NS also were selected to
play in Croke Park as part of the Mini-7s series.
Jersey Washers
The Club is indebted to a number of people who have washed our
smelly jerseys & skirts down through the years. Special thanks
to Maureen Gilsenan and Emer Lynch.
The Lily Madden Cup
The Madden Family kindly presented a Cup to the Club in memory
of the late Lily Madden. The Cup is presented annually to a
person deemed worthy of the title “Club Person of the Year”. The
following are the recipients to date:
2000 Marie-Clare Hickey
2001 Louise Byrne
2002 Emer Lynch
2003 Tossie Byrne
2004 Louise Donoghue/Deborah Wigglesworth/Fiona Madden/Alanna
Madden
2005 Grainne Harnan
2006 Ann Gilsenan
|
