What a year, and what a way to end the decade, never mind a century or any old millennium. The cream finally came to the top, and with style too. Sure, we nearly ran out of space in the trophy cabinet, but it wasn’t always like that.

Back in June 1968, before a crowd of some 20,000 in Croke Park, Paddy Holden of Clanna Gael held aloft the Dublin senior football championship trophy. Few present would have thought that over thirty years would go by before a Clanna Gael captain would again have the honour of lifting a major Dublin County trophy.

On Sunday 21st February last, that proud honour fell to Star of the Sea and Ringsend Tech. past pupil, Keith Hawkins of Leukos Road, when, amidst highly emotional scenes, he raised the Dublin County Junior Football League trophy high in the air at O’Connor Park in Balbriggan.

At last the famine was over and the years of frustration seemed to melt away as a wave of new self-belief swept up Seán Moore Park, and it proved highly contagious as, shortly after Easter, we were cheering on Marian College as they collected their first ever Dublin Colleges football league silverware.

Our neighbours in Star of the Sea school also picked up the vibes, scoring a fantastic hat trick of two successful days in Croker, winning both football and hurling cups and then off to Ballina to bring home the Moclair.

Later on, we went even one better when the hurlers won Junior Championship, Junior ‘A’ league, Fagh a Ballagh Cup and Fletcher Shield. Both adult teams winning promotion to Intermediate in the one year and settling in very nicely into their new surroundings as well.

Indeed, the footballers only narrowly missed a serious bite at even bigger cherries when they finished only a point down on a three-way tie for the league and the hurlers have the hugely impressive record of being unbeaten for nearly eighteen months now.

Needless to say, this revival of our fortunes didn’t just happen by chance. Its foundation was laid in the mid ‘80s when a do or die effort to establish a base to build a clubhouse was embarked on. The opening just ten years ago of the club’s own clubhouse at Seán Moore Rd. really put us back on the rails. Very quickly we were back in serious business with juvenile teams for most age groups.

Both developments provided the base for the eventual breakthrough enjoyed by the club during the year.

The success of the adults has had a hugely positive effect on all aspects of the club’s activities and particularly so on the juvenile section. Now there is something serious to look up to and aspire to. Juveniles can see for themselves the degree of commitment and training required to compete with the big boys.

It has been a great confidence builder to some of the under 16s and minors to play with the intermediates in tournaments and realise their own skills level are well capable of being developed to hold their own in keenly fought contests.

The Juvenile football season that commenced in September is well advanced now and although there is no clear indications of winners, yet we are certainly well in contention for honours with several teams.

The progress with the under 9s over the last few months under the expert and enthusiastic eyes of Orna Delahunty and Michael Reilly really bodes well for days ahead.

Tom A. Ryan’s under 10s, although just barely beaten a few times by a point or two, are learning their craft well and will be a force to reckon with in the near future.

The under 11s with the superb trio of Eileen McCormack, Paddy Joyce and Dave Farnley in charge must be in with a serious shout of a bit of silverware.

A few silly serious lapses of concentration by the under 12s with John McKenna and Shay Connolly in charge in a couple of tight games may yet prove costly, but still are a crew with enormous potential and it will be very interesting to see how some of them fare in forthcoming trials for County team.

A much-improved team performance from Dave Reddy’s and Ken Cunningham’s under 13s could possibly yet earn them a spot in the eventual shake-up at the top of the league. They were unlucky to just barely lose to two of the stronger teams in their group Robert Emmet’s from Walkinstown and Brigid’s from Blanchardstown.

Peter Burnett and Niall Maher’s under 14s should finish up in the middle of their group, but they’ll really blossom when the hurls come out in the Spring.

After a very unsettling start to season, the under 15s are now getting on pretty alright under the watchful eyes of Brendan O’Brien, Patti Rogers and Shay Connolly.

Thankfully, the very damaging trick of trying to run two under-16 teams with the overlap of the academic and calendar year between September and December is now a thing of the past following recent changes in County Board structures.

John Egan’s hurling crew have a playoff with Naomh Mearnog for runners-up spot in the league, while Terry Hanlon and Jimmy Dent’s outfit will only get down to serious business in late January. However, they had a very good run in the 9-a-side hurling summer league and won their section final over the Halloween weekend.

The minors had a bit of an up and down season, but most definitely have shown a very steady improvement overall. Indeed, in a recent game against a strong Crumlin team containing two players off the County squad beaten by Down in the All Ireland semi final replay, our guys were in total control after five minutes and gave them a forceful demonstration on how to score goals.

On paper, next year’s minors look very promising for both football and hurling and, hopefully, with John Egan’s expert guidance will deliver on that potential.

As mentioned earlier Marian College under-16s took the school’s first-ever Dublin Colleges football trophy back to Lansdowne road from O’Toole park when they beat Michael O’Gradys James Street in an exciting final.

So far this season, things are going well under teacher Eddie Fanning’s expert coaching. The under-14s have already made to semi-final stage and things are looking well for under-16s and 18s to make the knockout stages as well. At time of writing, there are four pupils of the school on Dublin County team squads: Brian Rush minor hurling, Ciaran Connolly minor football, Kevin Farrell minor football and Graham Dent under 16 football and hurling.

This is an amazing achievement for any school. Brian Rush is also a member of the Dublin Colleges hurling squad that won their section against the cream of Kilkenny and Wexford and have their outing in the Leinster quarter final in February.


Camogie
Our camogie girls had a very fruitful year with only a point separating them and Kilmacud Crokes for a place in the Intermediate Championship Semi-Finals and their third place finishing in the league was very creditable indeed.

Under the management of that ‘Faithful’ country lass Therese Nicholson and the coaching tutelage of ‘Lilly White’ alias Niamh Leahy, the upcoming season augers well for them. Watch this space!

Our Saturday morning coaching for boys and girls ages 6 to 10 with Leinster Council coach Graham Cooke, assisted by David Lyons and Bernard Groves, is proving to be as popular as ever.

Set Dancing
Speaking of Margaret Handley (alias Ann Rooney), her set-dancing crew continue to hop it out each Monday night, 9.00pm at the Clubhouse. Their reward for having such craic each week is a guest appearance at the ‘Wren Day’ festival at Sandymount Green on St. Stephen’s Day. Jean Butler and Michael Flatley, eat your heart out.

Progress on preparation for construction of expanded facilities at the clubhouse is moving along nicely, with a few recent hiccups now resolved. The more eagle-eyed amongst you may have spotted strange-looking machinery about the place as ground conditions are fully investigated. You may have seen plenty of folk peering down manholes and the like, as final measurements are taken to gauge capacity of the drains etc.

As regards funding for this £600,000 project, applications to various granting agencies are well advanced and a clear indication on what we’ll be raising ourselves will soon be available. Suffice to say that some variation on the traditional and popular £100 draw is just around the corner, so keep that cheque book handy.

Discussion is also taking place as to plans to upgrade the pitches by completing the drainage work in Seán Moore Park so as to have three serviceable pitches.

Fletcher Shield Winners 1999.
Back, left to right: Robert Clarke, Garreth Cassidy, Alan O’Brien, Brian Nicholson, Niall Maher, Thomas Joyce, Oran Burke, Robin Booth and Derek Boyd.
Front, left to right: Ryan Boylan, Thomas Hall, David Nangle, Colm Reynolds, Shay White, David Early, Conor Dodd and team mascot Siobhán Joyce.