The GAA

The history of Killimer GAA dates back almost to the early days of the national foundation of the GAA, in 1884. Our parish is fortunate in having that history compiled by Paddy Culligan, Donail, which was published in 1999 and we have tried or best to continue his work up to the present time. The following is a short synopsis of that history.

The GAA had only been in its infancy when Killimer won its, one and only, Senior Football Championship in 1896. Killimer first played senior football in 1888 wearing a red and green strip. The team went on to wear white jerseys and were known as the ‘Lily Whites’, before they finally adopted the green and gold that we still use today. After this Killimer had to wait until 1938 to win their next championship, a Junior B Championship, which they won again in 1943. They were beaten in the Junior A final in 1969 by Clondegad and in 1970 by Lissycasey. In both of these years they were successful in the Junior Leagues. Defeat was also their lot in Minor and U-21 finals in the late 1970’s. In 1976 they won the U-16B, defeating Michael Cusack’s.

In the early 1990’s emphasis was put on coaching at underage level, which reaped successes all through the 1990’s and early 2000’s. Teams coached by Michael Madigan played in nearly 30 county finals winning most often in U-12 to U-21 divisions. This successful group was the mainstay of the Junior B wins in 1999. The championship victory came with a win over Ennistymon, in Quilty, on an evening that will never be forgotten by anyone who attended. That same year, in a very unique final, Killimer A defeated Killimer B in our own field to win the Junior League in that golden era of the club.

The following year saw the junior team qualify for the Geraldine League final, only to be defeated, after a replay and extra time, by Kilmihil. The U-21’s made up for this defeat, however by beating a Liscannor team, filled with Clare senior players, in the Championship final.

In 2001 the junior team again qualified for the League final, this time at Banner Cup level, only to be defeated by Clarecastle who also narrowly beat the U-21 team in the Championship final.  Success eluded Killimer in the following years with only a League final defeat to Coolmeen in 2006 to show for all the effort.  In this period, however, the team were operating at a relatively high level, playing Senior League (Cusack Cup) for a season and all championship defeats during these years were by the eventual winners of the Championship and were by two points or less.

Killimer also supplied players to numerous senior amalgamations over this period. These amalgamations were with O’Currys and Naomh Eoin, but he most notable one was the Kilballyowen amalgamation of Ballyvaughan, Kilfenora, Killimer and Naomh Eoin.

During these years the club supplied numerous players to county squads, at every age group, from U-14 to Senior.

In 2007 the club’s fortunes took a turn for the worse with the junior team failing to have sufficient numbers for a team.  The County Board allowed the club’s players to transfer ‘as isolated players’ to the Shannon Gaels Club. Other players, who lived in other areas of the country, transferred to clubs in their own area.

Over the next five years the lack of an adult team was sorely missed in our small rural community.  It is part of the social fabric of the community and with this in mind a group of people, led by Patrick (Ben) Browne, came together to get a Killimer men’s team up and running again.  This was achieved in 2012 under the management of Patrick Browne, Patrick O’Sullivan, Declan Bonfield, Eoin Murray, Vincent Moran and Michael Gilligan, to the joy of so many people both at home and away.  In this new era, in their first year back, the team gained promotion from Division 7 .This was a fine achievement, but it was nearly of more importance to have a team to play with, support and discuss in our community.  The successes that followed could not have happened without those first steps.

In 2013 the team qualified, under the management of Joe Meaney, Michael Gilligan and Gary Bond, for the club’s first Championship final since 1999, but unfortunately were squeezed out by a more experienced Moy team.  The following year saw Killimer gain promotion to Division 5, but they lost the final to neighbours Kilrush, while also getting beaten by Cratloe in the Championship semi-final.

2015 however was to be a memorable year as the team marched to a League and Championship double.  The League win against Kilmurry Ibrickane set the team up for the Championship season, as they cruised through the latter stages of the competition defeating St Breckan’s.  This also brought a first for the club, as the Junior Championship win allowed Killimer to play in the Munster Championship.  Most of the parish made the journey across the ferry to Knockaderry in Limerick, where unfortunately the team was defeated by Kilmeen from Cork. The success of 2015 has carried over into 2016 with Killimer again achieving League honours. A tremendous extra-time win over Naomh Eoin ended with a score line of 3 – 10 to 1 – 15. Killimer were now back up to Division 3, fourteen years after our last time playing at this level and all this achieved in five great years.

In 2017 a change of management came to the Killimer Junior team. Joey Meaney and Gary Bond stood down after a successful two years and were replaced by Dinny McMahon from Carrigaholt. Dinny was to remain as head coach for the next three years. There was also a transition for the team as some of our more experienced players such as Derek Flavin, Bryan Cunningham, Frances Cleary and David Kelly retired and a new wave of players such as James Browne, Stephen Grogan, Aidan Reynolds and Luke Callinan, to name but a few, stepped up. During this three year period the team managed to remain in a very competitive Division 3.

In 2020, Joey Meaney returned with his backroom team of Michael Gilligan, Senan Callagan and Gary Bond. This was a very unusual year as we struggled to follow Covid lockdowns and regulations and with such a late start to the sporting year. In 2021 Brendan Crowley and David Kelly joined Joeys backroom team as Gary took a step back. Numbers at times were difficult to hold but we managed to stay at Division 3 and Junior A with a new young cohort of players such as Michael Kelleher, Liam Culligan and Eoin Browne coming through.

2022 saw another change in management with Brendan Crowley taking on the manager position along with David Kelly and Michelle Madigan. 2022 was a very eventful year which brought great excitement to the parish even if it brought some heart break in the end too. In the league Killimer lost out narrowly to Cratloe in a playoff after extra time. A win would have brought us to a place in the final and promotion to Division 2. We continued our positive streak into the Junior A championship with wins over Ballyvaughan (our bogey team for the three years previous), Liscannor and Doora Barefield in the group stages. The quarter final saw us defeat Clonegad 4-14 to 1-11, while the semi final saw us beat Kilmurry Ibrickane in a very intense affair in Cooraclare 3-8 to 0-8. With the everything that stood still for long enough in the parish being painted green and gold the Junior A final took us to Miltown Malbay versus Liscannor. In stormy conditions both teams fought the elements as well as each other to stay in the lead. Killimer lead for much of the game but Liscannor were never more than a kick of the ball away and unfortunately in the dying minutes managed to pull back and go on to win by one point. (The winning point actually went viral that weekend being shown across twitter as it was such a good shot and taken so far from goal.)

2023 was a year of great expectations. The management Brendan, David and Michelle stayed on after getting so close the previous year. Expectations were high in the parish after the highs and lows of 2022, but as any footballer knows finals are not easy to come by. The league was never going to be easy with Shannon Gaels, The Banner, Kilkee, Kilrush, Ennistymon, Ballyvaughan and Kilfenora to overcome. The scores were close with the lads unfortunate to lose be the slimmest of margins on more than one occasion but they still managed to overcome those losses and get those important wins to stay in Division 3. With a rocky start to the league the years luck continued to be fickle with a spate of long term injuries hitting the team mid summer just in time for championship. However, facing the first round against over fierce rivals Ballyvaughan with a very depleted bench, the lads stood up and showed what the were made of and defeated Ballyvaughan. This determined and fighting attitude stayed with the team throughout the rest of the season, and though some of the wins were ugly, clawed back in the final few minutes, wins they were and before we knew it we were top of the table and through to the quarter final against Doora Barefield. With each game the team grew in confidence and Doora and Parteen/ Meelick were taken care of and it was back to the county final we were in Kilmihil v Éire Óg. A nail biting game from start to finish it was definitely not a game to watch with a bad heart. Level going into injury time we thought we had it won with a brilliant conversion of a mark by Fiachra McKeown. It wasn’t to be though, 6.5 minutes of injury time was played, which was enough for Éire Óg to get a levelling point right at the end. To extra time it went, and even though we were down a player due to black card we stayed level again at half time of extra time. In the final 10 minutes our lads fought like they had never fought before leading to 2 points being scored by Aidan Reynolds finishing the game at Killimer 0-13 Éire Óg 0-11. To say the stands erupted is an understatement as the entire parish streamed onto the pitch. It was a highly emotion moment for all Killimer footballers, past and present, as history was made as Colm Pyne lifted the Toner cup for the very first time, promoting us to intermediate for the first time in club history. A few weeks later history was made again as we beat Affane/Cappaquin in Quilty to progress to the Munster Semi Final. Unfortunately we met our match there in Listowel Emmetts, who went on to reach the All Ireland final. It was a fantastic year though and there were many celebrations to be had.

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