- Kilmacud Crokes GAA
Infobox GAA club
club gaa = Kilmacud Crokes GAA
irish = Cill Mochuda Na Crócaigh
crest =Kilmacud crokes logo.png
founded = 1959
province=Leinster
county = Dublin
nickname = Crokes
colours = Purple and Gold
grounds =Páirc de Burca, Stillorgan
Silverpark, Leopardstown
f1=1|f2=2|f3=5
pattern_la=|pattern_b=_thinyellowsides|pattern_ra=
leftarm=4B0082|body=4B0082 |rightarm=4B0082 |shorts=EEEEEE |socks=4B0082 |
|Kilmacud Crokes are a large
Gaelic Athletic Association club located inStillorgan ,Dublin , Ireland.Background
Kilmacud Crokes football club was formed in 1959 following an historic public meeting in Saint Laurence's Hall, where Stillorgan shopping centre now stands. The first meeting of the club took place on
March 12 1959 . Sixty people attended the meeting and donated a shilling each, meaning the club made IR£3.30 on the night. The club decided to use green and white jerseys, but they later decided to use the gold and purple colours, some say because of the local school Scoil Lorcain Naofa who also use gold and purple, others say it was because gold and purple are the colours of thecrocus .In 1963 the club purchased a six and a half acre site behind the
Ormonde Cinema as a permanent home pitch for themselves, Páirc dé Burca, and in 1965 the adjoining Glenalbyn House was bought. In April 1966, Crokes hurling club joined up with Kilmacud football club. The name of the joint football/hurling teams was changed from Kilmacud G.A.A. club to Kilmacud Crokes G.A.A. club in 1971. In 1972, St. Benburbs Football Club ofClonskeagh joined with Kilmacud Crokes. St. Benburbs FC was famous because the first ever All-Ireland Final was played on their ground in Clonskeagh in 1887. In 1973, acamogie section of the club was set-up and in February 1996 aLadies' Gaelic football Section was set up.The club has installed a fully sized astro-turf GAA pitch at "the paddock", an area formerly used as a carpark/training ground, a venture which was finished in September 2006, and constructed indoor and outdoor hurling walls during 2007.
The Sevens
Crokes are also famous as the hosts of the "Sevens" football and hurling competition each year. The competition is held on the Saturday before the
All-Ireland final at various locations in and aroundStillorgan including "Glenalbyn", "Deer Park", "St. Benildus College ", "Clonkeen College " and "Silverpark". The games are played with teams of seven players with two halves of ten minutes each. Erin's Own of Cork and Castlewellan of Down were crowned Hurling and Football Sevens Champions for 2006 respectively. Longstone of Down won the 2007 football competition.Record
1990s
Kilmacud Crokes won the
All-Ireland Senior Club Football Championship final onSt.Patrick's Day , 1995 under the management ofTommy Lyons . Kilmacud Crokes, captained by Mick Dillon, beat Bellaghy of Derry with a scoreline of 0-8 to 0-5 in front of 18,544 fans atCroke Park . Mick Pender famously savedDamian Cassidy 's (Bellaghy) penalty and won the title for Kilmacud. The game will be remembered as one of the coldest days club football final history.Another county title followed in 1998. Crokes beat
Na Fianna in the final. Wins overJames Stephens ,Kilkenny andStradbally ,Laois set up one of the most memorableLeinster club finals in recent years. Crokes played three games againstÉire Óg ,Carlow ; they eventually lost however.2000s
Crokes won the Dublin championship in 2004. Crokes were nearly disqualified from the 2005 championship during to confusion over the eligibility of player
Mark Vaughan . Crokes had defeated 2003 champions,St. Brigids , it was claimed thatMark Vaughan was ineligible for the tie. Crokes claimed that they had received prior approval that Vaughan could play from the Dublin county board, who said the "Dublin Championships" and "The Leinster Championships" were different competitions. The Leinster council overuled the Dublin county board. St. Brigids offered Crokes a replay under one condition, that Vaughan could not play. He scored six points in Crokes original one point victory over Brigids. He had received the red card that caused the ban in the previous years defeat toPortlaoise . The DRA eventually awarded Crokes the match after agreeing that the two competitions were different. By this time Crokes' side of the draw was three games behind the other side of the draw. Kilmacud went on to win the 2005 Dublin Championship following a comprehensive 1-14 to 0-09 victory over Na Fianna and added to their success by winning the Leinster Championship following a 0-10 to 0-09 victory over Newbridge at Navan. Crokes were defeated in the All-Ireland semi-final by Salthill-Knocknacarra on a scoreline of 1-09 to 1-07. Mark Vaughan was shown a straight red card, having already been on a yellow, for striking a Salthill player. In 2006 and 2007, Crokes narrowly lost out in the semi-final stage of theDublin championship. They lost toUCD andSt Vincents , respectively.Youth
Crokes has won the All-Ireland Football Féile final twice in the last three years, the first of these coming in 2003 when a Crokes B team won the B Féile. This was later followed by A success in Galway. The hurlers added to the club's success with an All-Ireland Hurling Féile of their own in 2005. This hurling victory was the first time in the club's history that they had won the Dublin Hurling Féile and only the second time a Dublin Club had won the All-Ireland Féile.
Crokes won the
Dublin Minor Hurling Championship final in 2007. They won the title for the third time in the club's history when they beatNa Fianna in the replay. The manager of the team is formerTipperary player,Richard Stakelum .This success was repeated in 2008 when the U-14A hurling team reached the All-Ireland Féile group stages, but after a tough match in the pouring rain they lost to James Stephens from Kilkenny. The U-14A footballers enjoyed more success and emerged victorious as All-Ireland Winners in Cavan in July. The ladies U-14 team also made it to their final also in Cavan, only to be beaten in the end by Naomh Michael.
A full table of results is available here: [http://www.sportsmanager.ie/t10.php?countyid=117&sportid=1&club_id=&defaultpage=1&userid=7157 Football Feile 2008 Results]
Famous players
*
Johnny Magee
*Darren Magee
*Ray Cosgrove
*Mick Bermingham
*Aodán De Paor
*Mark Vaughan
*Paul Griffin
*Tommy Lyons
*Ross O'Carroll External links
* [http://www.kilmacudcrokes-hurling.com/ Official Kilmacud Crokes Hurling Website]
Wikimedia Foundation. 2010.