In 1998 the Kilbride club celebrated its Golden Jubilee and memories of their five Keegan Cup wins in the sixties and early seventies came flooding back. Royal County talked to Martin Quinn about the good aul' days and the current state of play in the Dublin border club. Wherever there is talk of Kilbride GFC, the Quinn family name will inevitably feature prominently. Martin, Jack, Gerry and Jimmy formed the backbone of the all conquering Kilbride team of the sixties and early seventies, and laid the foundations for the club's five Meath senior championship successes during that period. "In the late 50s we had a middling junior team, but there was a lot of players who had been around for a while," recalls Martin, the eldest of the family. "A decison was then made to introduce some of the younger players, and that, basically, was the start of the great Kilbride team. We won the junior in 1960 with the likes of Jack, Jimmy, Val White, Sean Hickey and Pat Rooney just starting out." The Intermediate crown winged its way to the border parish in '62 when Walterstown fell by the wayside in the decider. Their first year in the top flight resulted in a semi-final outing but St. Vincents of Ardcath, ensured there wasn't going to be a fairytale debut. That came twelve months later when the championship/Feis Cup double was achieved. The Keegan Cup arrived again in '67 while Meath football's blue riband prize took up permanent residence there from '69-'71. When quizzed on the secret ingredients of that Kilbride team's winning formula, Martin replied: "We all grew up together and knew each other very well. We also had a tremendous will to win, we were totally dedicated to winning. We pulled many matches out of the fire in the final fifteen to ten minutes as a result. We were lucky to have so many good players around at the one time and there were very shrewd men in charge of us, men like Kevin Sutton, Johnny Marmion and Packie Lynch." Silverware wasn't that Kilbride side's sole reward. "We travelled quite a lot, every August Bank Holiday we went down to west Cork to play Castletown-Beara in challenge games. They were very competitive games and drew huge crowds. They then came up to us on the eve of the All-Ireland finals. "We also went up to Down on a few occasions while in 1971 we became the first and only Meath club team to go to America where we played a Carlow selection in New York and a Philadelphia selection in Philadelphia. That was a marvellous tour." Incidentally, Martin was heading back to the States a couple of days after my chat with him to participate in a Charity Walk for the Childrens Hospital in Crumlin. This was his third year in a row to undertake the 100km walk and he has raised over £3,500 each year for the worthy cause. Opportunities to see the world also presented themselves while involved with the Meath team, most notably the pioneering trip to Australia in 1968. "Looking back now, the organisation of that tour was a major undertaking but it was brilliantly done. Each and every day was memorable and to win as well was the icing on the cake. We had been hammered a year earlier by them so that made it extra special. We were lucky men." 'Big Martin' as he was affectionately known by Royal County supporters first donned the green and gold jersey as a minor in 1955. He was there again a year later when eventual All-Ireland champions Dublin knocked them out in the Leinster final. Two years followed with the juniors, '57 and '58, with Galway depriving them of All-Ireland glory the latter year. Promotion to the senior side that same year yielded a competitive debut against Kerry in the League at Tralee. "That game was played a week before Kerry played in the All-Ireland semi-final, they beat us by a point. I started off marking Niall Sheehy and finished up on John Dowling. That was a big introduction for a young fella." Provincial honours were garnered in 1964 at Dublin's expense when Martin lined out at fullback. He was a sub two years later when the Leinster title was captured again - he came on as a sub in the All-Ireland final loss to Galway - and was a sub for the All-Ireland success of '67. "There has been a lot of highlights thank God, but the one that sticks out in my memory is the '64 Leinster win. I was there in '60 and '63 when we lost so it was a relief to finally get my hands on a medal. Also, the fact that we beat Dublin was an added bonus. Naturally enough there's a lot of rivalry up here on the border with the Dubs so there was plenty of slagging!" A twelve month suspension, incurred as a result of an incident from the '65 Keegan Cup final against, curtailed his participation in the '66 All-Ireland campaign. He didn't feature at all until the final when the suspension had expired on the eve of the big day. He was joined on the All-Ireland winning panel of '67 by brothers Jack and Gerry, and clubmates Pat Rooney, Pat Bruton and Murty Sullivan. The former full back, who by the way rates Tom Long (Kerry), Con Sullivan (Cork), Packie McGearty (Leitrim), Des 'Snitchy' Ferguson (Dublin) , Charlie Gallagher (Cavan) and Dermot O'Brien (Louth) as his toughest opponents, made regular journeys across the Atlantic to assist Carlow in the New York championship. Along with the likes of Pat Reynolds, Noel Curran, Dan McCartan and George Glynn he helped them win two championships. "There were huge crowds in Gaelic Park for those games. John Kerry O'Donnell was in his hay day over there at the time and there was mighty interest in the games. Some were as intense as Leinster finals!" Meath fans from the sixties will remember Martin having some great duals with Dublin legend Lar Foley while Jack used to have some ding dong tussles with Lar's brother Des. The Quinn's versus the Foley's, GAA afficionados gladly payed money for that. A knee injury brought the curtain down on Martin's career in '73. Meanwhile, unfortunately Kilbride failed to make an impression in this year's Junior championship. Their current position sadly doesn't reflect the tradition that exists in the south Meath parish but Martin insists that another climb up the Meath GAA ladder is not beyond the realms of possibility. "The club has gone through a few lean years all right but there's a couple of young players who could make a difference in the coming years. There's a lot of effort being put in by management - Vinny Donnelly is carrying on the good work which Patsy Farrell did in managing the team - and players alike so I'd expect them to improve over the next year or so." Martin's son Kevin is a vital member of the Kilbride first team, he was club captain in '98. He has also carved a niche for himself in the rugby world and was a prominent member of the Ashbourne side which lost out to Navan in this year's Towns Cup Final. He toured France with the Leinster schools rugby team a couple of years ago. Martin has four daughters, Deirdre, Sinead, Orla and Muire and is married to Tipperary native Joan. Tweet

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