Kilmainham are often titled Meath smallest club and amazingly the Kells parish outfit once went 5 years without winning a game. But 2001 proved to be a year amongst years for the men wearing the Down colours. The Junior B Championship trophy at last found itself in Sam Blacks. We drank beer and we drank tea the day we won the Junior B.' Championship - victories usually bring out the best (or the worst) in local rhymers and the above immortal line appeared in a Meath newspaper following a success a few years ago. The Junior B Football Championship in the Royal County is not as competitive as it once was. In 2001 just 13 teams 'faced the starter' in comparison to 44 in the junior C grade. Three of the sides in the junior B were first teams of clubs and two of them made up the final pairing with Kilmainham defeating Longwood to take the title for the first time. It was a case of the men in red and black going one better than in the previous year when an experienced Dunderry outfit denied them at the last hurdle. Back in 1988 Kilmainham was described as 'the big wee club' in the Meath GAA Yearbook. According to an interesting booklet, published in 1993 to mark the club's 25th anniversary, there is no village in Kilmainham, no crossroads, no church, no school or no public house. No establishment or institution to define its identity, just a two mile stretch of the main Dublin-Cavan road south of Kells. Kilmainham stretches from the southern boundary of Headfort Golf Club almost to Bloomsbury Cross. There are no side roads or no housing estates, but the community is particularly close-knit and its identity is most clearly marked by the existence of Kilmainham GFC. Also the club remains one of the few in the county without developed grounds. For a number of years they have been meeting for training sessions in a local farmer's field. Home league matches are sometimes played at the venues of neighbouring clubs and other times they concede home advantage. Meetings are held in the town of Kells. However, there is talk of the club having plenty of money and a piece of land has been bought for development. So Kilmainham can look forward to shedding its cuckoo image. Clubs which are only visited by outright glory on rare occasions usually celebrate more than those who are regularly in the 'champions enclosure' and, before this year, Kilmainham partied following a Division 3 FC triumph in 1980 and a Special Under 21 C success in '98. Although teams represented the area in decades before that, the present Kilmainham GFC was founded in 1967 with a chat between Peter Curran and Tommy Morgan leading to the reviving of the club. Meath's All-Ireland triumph of that year obviously inspired the move. Although the new Colmcille Gaels club was making its mark with the county SFC title coming to Kells for the first time in 1966, there were a number of lads in the south end of the parish not getting football. The first meeting was held in Paddy Hoey's shop (no longer there) and Tommy Morgan became the first chairman with Tommy McGillick secretary and Peter Curran treasurer. After the County Board accepted their application for affiliation, Kilmainham 'warmed up' with challenge outings against Dulane and Garryowen - remember them? Their first championship encounter since the early '50s was against near namesakes Kilmainhamwood and the team with the longer title won by 0-9 to 0-6 at Gibbstown. After that there were plenty of defeats and disappointments - according to the club's silver jubilee booklet they went nearly five years without winning a game. But Kilmainham continued to fly the flag and were rewarded with the occasional outright success. Like in 1976 when they won their first ever football competition, a Division 4 League title with 0-9 to 0-3 final victory over Trim in Athboy. Centre forward Donal Morgan had the honour of being the captain and one of the club's real stalwarts down the years, Denis Newman, was top scorer with three points. The 1980 Division 3 (the equivalent of junior C with entry confined to clubs with just one adult team) decider was also goalless with Kilmainham out pointing Boardsmill on a 0-7 to 0-5 scoreline at Pairc Tailteann. Once again Denis Newman was the top scorer, the midfielder sending over three points from frees. Full back Tom Nelson was the winning captain and Eugene McDonnell from Nobber the trainer/coach. In 1970 Denis Newman became the first Kilmainham footballer to gain a county 'cap', being a member of the Meath minor squad that lost to Dublin in that year's Leinster final. Since then other wearers of the red and black like Jimmy Bellew, Peter Curran (junior) and Barry Lynch have also donned the green and gold. Bellew, a Meath under 21 and junior, was at midfield when Drumree and Bective proved too good for their opponents in the 1988 and '89 Division 3 FC finals. Curran and Lynch have been the best of the 'new team', which emerged in the last few years. The former, a son of the founder member of the same name, was on the Meath junior team which lost out to Waterford in the 1999 All-Ireland junior final and Lynch was on both the county junior and under 21 sides for 2000 and 2001. Kilmainham were knocking at the junior B door before finding the key last September. In 1999 they lost narrowly to ultimate winners and local rivals Drumbaragh at the penultimate hurdle before taking one step further the following year. The 2001 junior B campaign was not all about winning. There was a setback in the fifth round when Longwood defeated the Kells parish side by 2-12 to 1-11 at Dunderry. However, they recovered from that reversal to advance to the last four again with a 2-6 to 0-9 victory over Navan O'Mahonys. Earlier in the campaign Kilmainham enjoyed wins over Castletown (by the minimum margin), Syddan and Cortown before getting a walk over from Slane, who did not field against Longwood either. Both eventual finalists finished level at the top of Division A on 10 points and Longwood won the toss to decide the winners. Kilmainham won their way through to a second successive Junior B final when defeating Summerhill by 1-8 to 0-6 at Dunderry. David Farnan scored 1-2 with the goal coming in the first half. A strong last quarter during which they outscored Longwood by 2-5 to 0-1 powered Kilmainham to an emphatic 3-12 to 0-9 victory in the decider at Pairc Tailteann on the Sunday before Meath were supposed to claim their eighth All-Ireland senior crown. Paddy O'Rourke's charges were flattered by the wide winning margin but they took their scoring chances better than the south county side. Especially in the first half during which the men in red and black scored 1-6 to 0-5 and did not have a wide while seven were recorded at the pavilion end. Left corner forward Graham Walsh netted the first goal after 11 minutes when David Farnan provided the pass. Walsh also kicked his side's only point from play before the break. Barry Lynch converted three frees and a '45' with Farnan also popping over a free in the opening period. When Longwood resumed with three converted frees, a close contest looked likely. But then Lynch sent a second '45' soaring between the uprights and the second goal arrived on 47 minutes. This time Walsh set it up and Farnan's effort shook the back of the net. It left the board reading 2-7 to 0-8 and from then to the finish it was nearly all Kilmainham. Wing forward Daniel Butler cut loose to fire over three well-taken scores and one of the winners' five substitutes, Robert Newman, booted in the third goal. It was a well-deserved triumph for 'Meath's smallest club.' Local Garda Paddy O'Rourke, a past Kilmainham player, obviously got the best out of his players and Denis Newman, Gerard Morgan and Declan Black were the other selectors. The team which defeated Longwood to take the Junior B FC was: Declan Nelson; John Curran, Trevor Lynch, Spencer Hughes; Anthony Farrelly, Peter Curran, Liam Quail; Barry Lynch, Patsy Walsh; Daniel Butler, Mark Lynch, Joe Gillespie; Bobby O'Rourke, David Farnan, Graham Walsh. Subs - Fergal Black for Mark Lynch, Robert Newman for Trevor Lynch, Harry Newman for Farnan, James Quail for Gillespie, Padraic Black for O'Rourke, subs not used in final - Tom Monaghan, Declan Murphy, Stephen Woods,and David Tiernan. While Kilmainham will be looking forward to competing in the junior A grade, they will be looking to improve a bit in order to challenge for further honours. As well as experiencing the high of a championship triumph, the men in red and black suffered the disappointment of being relegated from Division 4 of the All County League, finishing at the bottom of the table with just one victory from 11 outings. However, Kilmainham obviously put more emphasis on their championship bid and they will be keen to let their JFC opponents know that they are not there to make up the numbers in 2002. Tweet

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