Good bye pitch-Open space

Naomh Barróg GAA Club

1978 was a challenging year for

the new Club. The effort looking

for an alternative pitch was

thwarted from all sides. Every

available green space in the

community was used every Sat-

urday morning where Dick

Fields like the Piped Piper and

his helpers walked around the

parish being followed by hun-

dreds of budding footballers to

be allocated their patch of green

to play their little games. At time

unfortunately we were met by

some neighbours, who were

definitely in the minority, who

objected to some children from

other parts of the parish playing

sport on their patch. In spite of

this opposition and nonsense we

carried on. For an hour every

Saturday morning hundreds of

young boys enjoyed their Mini

Leagues and learning the skills

of Gaelic Games.

The boys on our u15, u16 and

u17 team helped with the Mini

Leagues, managing teams, ref-

ereeing games and all loved

being involved. Their involve-

ment at that time was very im-

portant because they had learnt

the skills of Gaelic football and

were able to pass the skills on to

the younger children who looked

are to be seen. The bulldozers

and J.C.B.’s have arrived. The

children are attracted to these.

Instead of running free and

playing with a ball they now

dodge and climb the J.C.B’s.

The security man is having a

busy time at night chasing the

children from these machines.

This is only the beginning.

Parents keep your children

from this site before one of

them is injured. Can you imag-

ine the scene in a few months

from now when the lorries, cars

and the traffic begins. Anyway

this is called progress, so they

say”.

The following report was writ-

ten in our Club Newsletter in

July 1978. “ Even before we

had finished our Season and

games, the bulldozers, lorries,

J.C.B.’s etc had moved on to

our pitch ploughing it up, drag-

ging the soil this way and that,

spoiling all in front of it. They

are making way for the building

of the Gubay Shopping Centre.

Nobody had the courtesy to let

us know that they were coming

and taking over the pitch and

that the children will now have

to go elsewhere and play...They just

moved in and…..

Naomh Barróg campaigned for the

site to be left as open space. We

were never against shops for the

area. We supported that idea but

not at the expense of losing all the

open space. The children enjoyed

the few years we had to play on this

area-many very enjoyable hours

were spent there. Now that those

days are over, the loss of the pitch is

very disappointing.

Already the hazards for our children

Issue 14 History of the Club (1974-2014)

17th December 2014

was also beginning to develop and grow. In 1978 along with our football

teams we were now fielding teams at u10, u11, u12 and u13. Our Adult

Hurling team which had just been formed played its first match on Sunday

the 6th February. On the 19th February they achieved their first success

when they beat Na Fianna. At that games Gerry “Kamakaze” Bannerman

received six stitches. The Club in 1978 realised that if we were to survive

as a Club we needed to look elsewhere for an alternative pitch. Our back

was to the wall. Up until then the Club thought that the site known as the

Prison Site on the Kilbarrack Road was a ‘fait accompli’ and not a possibil-

ity. On many occasions on their way home from Scoil Lorcáin Dick Fields

and Liam Sansome would pass comments like “that would be an ideal

place for our club” or “if we only had access to that site even as a tempo-

rary measure it would be great”. The Club agreed with the idea and chal-

lenge. On the 9th of February 1978 the Club met Michael Woods TD to set

up a meeting with the Minister for Justice, Gerry Collins to discuss the

Prison Site. The seed had been sown, the challenge & dream had begun.

Snippets from the Past

Minor Panel –1978-1979

David Brady, Conor Mc Cabe, Da-

vid Flynn, David Flood, Jimmy

Keogh, Pat O’Neill, Anthony Stew-

art, John Flynn, Gary O’Connor,

David Ormonde, Derek Long, Paul

Joyce, Larry Mc Carthy, Ronnie

Ryan, Maurice Cassidy, Séamas

Brady, Stephen Wickham, Paul

Brogan, Paul Sambrooks, Philip

Redmond, Mick Lynch, Tony Mc

Donnell, Joey Bannon, Martin

Horan, John Clarke

Junior Hurling Panel -1978-1979

Jimmy Lodge, Fintan Dowling,

Michael Corcoran,Seán Curreen,

Fintan Hayden, Phil Furlong, Christy

O’Brien, Cathal Mc Linn, Gerry Mc

Linn, Morgan Cranley, Timmy Mur-

phy, Davy Murphy, Seán Ó’Cin-

néide, Eddie Walsh, George Tyn-

dall, Tom Glynn, John Shiels, Barry

Nugent, Gerry Bannerman.

In September 1978 the following

informattion was in our Club News-

letter.

DID YOU KNOW– That Naomh

Barróg was founded on the 25th

September 1974. We are now

beginning our 4th year. Our Club

this year has

1. 12 Football Teams

2. 6 Hurling Teams

3. A Camogie Section

4. An Irish Night in Scoil Lorcáin

5. Monthly Sing Along for parents

6. An Annual Dinner Dance

7. A Summer Festival

8. A Weekly Draw

9. A regular Newsletter

10. Involved in Scór

11. Inter Club Games in Cork

12. Sponsored Walk

Two important factors in spite of this

are obvious.

1. We have no pitch in Kilbarrack.

2. Support from parents at times is

very disappointing”. (Club Newslet-

ter September 1978 )

1982-Naomh Barróg Camogie Intermediate League and Championship Winners

This article was written in the Irish Inde-

pendent in January 1978.

“Parents in a Dublin suburb are opposing

plans to build the city’s new £4 million wom-

en’s prison in their area so their children can

have somewhere to play. They have ap-

pealed to the Department of Justice to give

back the six and half acre Kilbarrack site

because they claim there is not enough

open space in the area.

“We are not fighting against the prison, we

are fighting for more open space for our

children to play on”, Mrs Maria Lynch, com-

mittee member of the Kilbarrack Community

Association said yesterday. The area’s 3000

children have only one full size football pitch

to play on because of the chronic lack of

open space”, Mrs Lynch pointed out.

“ In a survey which we conducted in the

area we found that there are 73 youth and 9

adult teams here: most to these have to

travel outside of the area tp play “, she said.

The three schools in the area, two national

schools for boys and girls and the local com-

munity school have less than one acre of

playing area between them.

“ There is not a blade of grass attached to

the Community School despite the Govern-

ment norm that these schools should be

built on a 15 acre site”, said Mrs Lynch.

The Association are at present awaiting a

meeting with Minister for Justice to discuss

the future of the site.

THE PLEA continued

Mr Richard Fields, who is a teacher in

the boys National School, Scoil Lorcáin

and a committed member of the local

Naomh Barróg GAA Club pointed out

some of the problems facing youth

organisations in the area.

“There is great youth involvement in the

area but we have nowhere to play. I

have often walked around the area look-

ing for a space for the children to play

on”, Mr Fields said.

Mr Fields who has organized a number

of Summer Projects for the children in

the area approached the former Minister

for Justice, Mr Cooney to get permission

for

for the local children to play on the prison site.

“ I was told we would have to pay a nominal

fee for the use of the site”. Mr Fields said. “ If

we were able to transport ten acres of grass

from St Anne’s in Raheny so that the children

from Kilbarrack could play on it, I would carry

up the sods myself”, he added.

The local Cumann of Sinn Féin the Workers

Party have also written to the Minister for

Justice opposing the building of the prison…...

Séamas Phelan Cumann PRO pointed out,

that at any one time there are only between

ten and twelve women in Mountjoy Prison. It

proposed that the new prison would be capa-

ble of holding 112 women.

The campaign to acquire the site earmarked for a Women’s Prison begins.

‘Make Prison Site Play Area’-Plea

During the 1970’s Naomg Barróg was very

active in organizing events to fundraise for

our Club. We were motivated during those

early days with the wish to provide the best

facilities and opportunities for our young

people and members. Nothing was to big

for us. A strong parish spirit prevailed and

everyone supported and appreciated the

Club.

Page 2 Naomh Barróg GAA Club

!978 was the year the campaign started to

have the 6.5 acre site to build the Women’s

Prison rezoned for recreational purposes. It

was never an negative or anti prison cam-

paign. Naomh Barróg having met with Mi-

chael Woods TD then met two strong vision-

ary women who were involved with and com-

mittee and Members of Kilbarrack and Dis-

trict Community Association (KADCA), Maria

Lynch was Chairperson of the Environment

Committee and Irene Molloy was Secretary.

Naomh Barróg met them to convey their

proposition to them. It would have been

impossible for Naomh Barróg to go it alone to

achieve their ambition. This was going to be

a challenging project that needed the support

of the local Community Organisation with

their expertise and with the local politicians.

KADCA was such a group and had been

campaigning for many years to improve the

conditions and to safeguard the environment

for the people of Kilbarrack-Foxfield. It was

also to the benefit of the campaign and Na-

omh Barróg’s vision that Michael Woods be-

came a TD in 1977 and Government Chief

Whip in 1979. It was agreed immediately to

campaign for recreational space involving the

schools and all Sport Clubs in the area.

Those involved in drawing up the plan of cam-

paign were Naomh Barróg, Maria Lynch and

Irene Molloy from the Environment Committee

of KADCA. Michael Woods was our guide

and constant support. We also received great

encouragement and support from Michael Joe

Cosgrave the local Fine Gael TD and Dublin

County Council Councillor.

Antóin Carroll became the first Principal in

Greendale Community School in 1975. He

was married to the then Minister of Justice,

Gerry Collins’s sister who was a teacher in

Pobal Scoil Neasáín, Baldoyle. We met him

to seek his support. He was influential along

with Michael Woods in arranging a meeting

with the Minister for Justice.

ued to encourage more people to help. Soon

she was joined by Clare Prendergast from

Foxfield Grove and Catherine Doyle from

Briarfield Grove.

The Intermediate Camogie Team were-

Photo on page1

Back Row: Deirdre Prendergast, Catherine

Doyle, Claire Long, Deirdre Duggan RIP,

June Knowles, Valerie Shanaghan, Jacquel-

ine Reid

Front Row: Gay Mc Evoy Joanne Keelan,

Terry Townley, Brenda Harrington, Amanda

Dunne, Teresa Clinton.

Missing from Photo: Cathy Gibons, Linda

Martin

From the day the Club was formed its aim

was to involve boys and girls and giving them

the opportunity to play Gaelic Games. Setting

up a new Club is always a challenge. By 1978

the Club was making progress with the boys

being well catered for. The Club felt it was

time to cater now for the girls. It was time to

form a Camogie team. Two women who

played Camogie, knew about the game,

played it and came forward to get involved.

They were Siobhán Aylworth who was a

teacher in the newly opened Community

School. She played for Na Fianna and intro-

duced Camogie into Greendale. Betty Har-

rington who lived on the Kilbarrack Rd was

approached to help form the fledgling Camo-

gie Section. She had played for Naomh Aoife

in Dublin. She jumped at the idea and was

active in promoting the game. In the Girls

Primary School, Scoil Íosagáin John Kelly a

young enthusiastic teacher had arrived on the

staff and showed a keen interest in promoting

Camogie in the school.

With Siobhán Aylworth in Greendale and John

Kelly in Scoil Iosagáin the future for Camogie

was in good hands. Betty Harrington contin-

A Trip Down Memory Lane.

Forming Camogie Section-1978

When Naomh Barróg was founded in 1974 it initially

catered for boys only. Scoil Lorcáin was a boys

school with the girls school, Scoil Íosagáin situated in

another part of the parish. We were both independ-

ent of one another and had no contact. As the Club

grew and developed it realized we were not involving

the girls who had the same needs to be involved in

sport as the boys had. By 1978 we had football

teams from u10 to u17 and four hurling teams from

u10 to u13 also with an Adult Football and Hurling

team. The Club had to do something to rectify this

and get girls involved in the Club

In 1974 Ladies Gaelic Football had not yet been

established in Dublin. Camogie was popular in

Dublin and played mainly in Secondary Schools and

in Universities. The Camogie Association or Cu-

mann Camógaíochta was founded in 8 North Freder-

ick St ,Dublin in February 1905 with the first game

being played in 1926. In 1932 twenty eight years

following the foundatation of the Camogie Associa-

tion the first All Ireland Championship were held in

the Sportsfield in Galway when Dublin’s superior

attack beat Cork by 3 02 to 0 02 to claim the first All

Ireland title. Dublin were to go and win 25 more All

Irelands with the last one in 1986 . A Mayo man

Betty Harrington recalled her memories of

those enjoyable and memorable days. She

wrote, “In the late 1970’s Dick Fields

asked me to start a Camogie Section in

Naomh Barróg. I went around Kilbarrack

and got as many girls as I could and even-

tually we had a team in the u12/u13 age

group.

We trained every Sunday on the Green in

Foxfield Park. Some of the girls couldn’t

even hold the hurl to begin with but after a

couple of years of hard training we started

to play some wonderful Camogie. After a

few years this team reached Adult grade

and played at Intermediate level. In the

beginning we lost our games 8 to nil and 10

to nil etc which must have been very dis-

heartening for the team but they put their

heads down and trained even harder

and then went on to win the ‘Double’-League

and Championship. The highlight of this be-

ing the semi-final of the Championship when

we played and won against the brilliant Porto-

bello team who were unbeaten at that time by

any other team.

When the Intermediate team won the ‘Double’

our local vegetable man John ‘Mousy’ Farrell

cleaned his open van and brought the winning

team around Kilbarrack with their two tro-

phies. What wonderful memories?

Claire Prendergast and Catherine Doyle

joined the Camogie Section to help train the

team too. A minor team was started by a

teacher from Scoil Íosagáin, Mr John Kelly.

So it was fantastic to see so many local girls

playing our game”.

Naomh Barróg was founded to involve boys and girls.

Page 3 17th December 2014

donated a silver cup now known as the O’Duffy

Cup for the Championship. There are 47 Camogie

Clubs in Dublin.

Ladies Gaelic Football took a different root before it

was formally established. The 60’s seem to provide

the first real evidence of the ‘new craze’ as it was

called at that time. During this period Carnivals and

Festivals were at their peak and organisations were

on the look out for novel ideas to raise finances.

Ladies Football fell into this category. It was more

a rural thing than a city thing. For example a game

was arranged between Clonmel Post Office and the

County Council Office in Tipperary to raise funds

with the proceeds going to the Biafra Relief Fund.

After man years a meeting was called with a view

to setting up a National Association and to regular-

ize Ladies Football. The meeting took place in

Hayes Hotel in Thurles ninety years earlier the GAA

was founded in the famous Hotel. In July 1974 four

counties attended the meeting. As 1974 came to

an end Ladies Gaelic Football was firmly estab-

lished in Tipperary, Galway Kerry, Offaly, Laois,

Cork, Roscommon and Waterford. Ladies Gaelic

Football in Dublin was affiliated to the National

Association after a meeting in Park Lodge Hotel,

NCR May 1985

1983– Diggers and JCB’s preparing and lay-

ing down the new pitches.

Teresa Clinton—Captain of Inter Team

accepting the Cup from Mrs Kathleen

Duffy in the Pheonix Park in 1982. The

All Ireland Camogie Cup is called after

Mrs Duffy’s husband.

The Annual General Meeting was held in

Scoil Lorcáin on the 20th September 1978.

This was our most successful AGM to date

and heralded the development and advance-

ment of Naomh Barróg. Over 90 people at-

tended this meeting.

The new Committee elected for the 1978-

1979 Season are:

President-Paddy Rankin, Chairman-Dick

Fields,Vice Chairman-Barry Nugent, Secre-

tary-Denis Dunne, Treasurer-Maurice Cassi-

dy, Registrar-Seán Murphy, PRO– Betty Mur-

phy, Executive-Liam Caroll,Gary O’Connor,

Larry Mc Carthy, Luke Brodigan

Delegates to the Boards:

Junior Football Board: Con Farrelly

Junior Hurling Board: Seán Ó Cinnéide, Gerry

Bannerman

Minor Board: Lar Mc Carthy and David Flynn

North City: Ronnie Ryan

North East: Maurice Cassidy

1977-1978 Season was very successful

U10B North East Final-Runners up to Parnells

U12 North East Semi Final beaten by Kilmore

U13’s North East Semi Final-beaten by Par-

nells

U15’s-North City Final– Beaten by Lusk

U12 hurlers won their League

Adult Div 4 Winners V Churchtown. First time

in League. Great victory.

Scoil Lorcáin won Div 1 Fingal League Final

v Bonnybrook NS in Croke Park. All the

members of the team played for the Club.

In Community Games the Club represented

the Parish of Kilbarrack-Foxfield.

In hurling beaten in final in Croke Park by

Templeogue and in Football beaten in Semi

Final by Ballyfermot.

Adult Div 4 Winning team

John O Connor, Tommy Ivory, Liam Heffer-

nan, Gary O Connor, Ronnie Coughlan, Pat O

Donavan, Brian Russell, Shay Kavanagh,

Raymond Dennis RIP, John Shiels, Eddie

Dunne, John Whelan, George Tyndall RIP,

Seán Murphy, Noel Lonergan RIP, Jim Fitz-

maurice(Capt) RIP, Paraic Heffernan, Peter O

Connor, Eddie Walsh, Barry Nugent.

John Anderson who played for West Bromich

Albion at the time always played for this team

while home on holidays and helped them on

many occasions. He loved to play GAA.

Visitors from Cork: September 23rd, 1978

a group of boys from Bishopstown were enter-

tained by Naomh Barróg u13 team and their

parents. The Cork boys were successful in

beating our u13 team in a friendly match. On

Sunday afternoon they were brought to Croke

Park and witnessed their County winning the

Hurling All Ireland v Kilkenny by 1 15 to 2 08.

Down Memory Lane

Even though Jim has spent most of his life in

Dublin he is still closely associated with his

native Kilkenny where is upbringing, his edu-

cation, his experience of rural life and the

countryside made him the person he is today.

From that background he brought his many

gifts and talents and we in Dublin and in Na-

omh Barróg have been the beneficiaries of all

these.

At the tender age of 18 years he was recruit-

ed by the ESB in 41 Merrion Square and from

that day until he retired he gave loyal and

committed service to a company that re-

sponded to loyalty and hard work and was a

genuine place to work which he enjoyed and

made many new friends. When he arrived in

Dublin in 1953 he lived in digs in Ladd Lane

just off Baggott St and stayed with a lovely

Galway woman, Mrs Kennedy who treated

him like her own son. When you arrived in

Dublin from the Country in those days the

chances of going home at the weekends was

not as easy as it is now. The chances for Jim

to play for his home Club in Kilkenny was not

Possible so for one year he played for Kil-

macud Crokes and got to training and match-

es on his bicycle .Around 1954 a Hurling

Club, called Móín Dearg was founded in Dub-

lin for Kilkenny men. They were a well known

Club that rallied the Kilkenny men around it.

Kilkenny born Gardaí Síochána, Christian

Brothers, Seminarians, Civil Servants anyone

with a drop of Kilkenny blood in them wore the

Móin Dearg jersey. Jim wore it for ten years

and played their games in the Pheonix Park.

Jim socialised especially on Friday nights in

Mooney’s of Baggott St Bridge where he often

came across Brendan Behan and Paddy Ka-

vanagh two of our well known poets and writ-

ers. He admits both despised one another.

When Jim married Ita, a staunch Cavan wom-

en, whom he met at the Metropole in Dublin

they bought a house in Foxfield Park and

moved their in 1964. Ten years later Jim

accepted the invitation to attend the meeting

that formed Naomh Barróg. His GAA experi-

ence and knowledge was to be of great bene-

fit to the Club. He has held many positions in

the Club notably that of Secretary.

Profile: Jim Butler-(Cont)

Evening Herald Wednesday Sept 20,

1978

“Naomh Barróg and Churchtown who met

in Div 4 final in Russell Park,

Blanchardstown finished all square at 0 07

each, a well contested hours play.”

Division 4 Final Replay -27th Sept 1978

“Naomh Barróg crowned a great season

by taking Div 4 League title at O’Toole

Park by defeating a dogged Churchtown

side on the score 4 05 to 0 07. The game

was played at a tremendous pace

throughout despite the score line and the

first half was very evenly contested with

the winners just about worth their 1 02 to 0

01 lead at the break.

Scores NB: P O’Donavan (2-0), E Walsh (1 0),

G O’Connor(1 0), J Whelan (0-2), E Dunne, P

O’Connor, N Coughlan (0-1 each).

Page 4 17th December 2014

Jim Butler former Secretary &

Treasurer of Naomh Barróg