After a long period with no GAA team, the small parish of Killallon in County Meath revived itself this season. Although rural clubs in the GAA lose the services of members due to work and college commitments, the majority of parish clubs survive. In areas with little employment possibilities, where players are forced to leave because of work-related or educational factors, the GAA club continues. Granted, from time to time, a junior league fixture may have the words "wo/scr" written beside two teams indicating that one team has conceded the points but it is not that usual for a club to cease existing. Players will be able to draw on its younger members to fill the places of those who leave. Underage structures can help ensure the longevity of a club. Hard-working committees make sure that teams, regardless of their ability, are able to survive. Occasionally, however, a club may have to disband. For Killallon, a small parish with a closed-down pub and a church on the border with Clonmellon, Co. Westmeath, this happened in the early 1980s. The Co. Meath club produced a number of county players during the 1960s but in more modern times was unable to sustain itself and was forced to depart the scene. Re-establishing the club represented a huge challenge. Some players had, understandably, gone to neighbours Ballinlough to play football and Killallon hadn't played any competitive matches in over two decades. Emigration and migration from the area were the primary reasons why the team was unable to continue fulfilling fixtures. This year Killallon managed to return, playing their first games since the disbandment. Using Kilskyre's pitch, they played 11 matches in League Division 5 of the county league against teams such as Bective, Clann na nGael and Boardsmill. Donie Geraghty, whose father played for the team in the early 60s up to the 70s, was one of the players who instigated the resurgence of the team Killallon people are scattered around the globe. Many go on to greater things and make a bigger name for themselves in the competitive world of industry and commerce. After his Leaving Cert Killallon native Jimmy Beggan studied engineering in Bolton Street before working in the construction business. In the early 1980s he joined IDA Ireland, the State organisation responsible for inward investment. In 1997 he was appointed manager of their property department and worked on high profile projects such as Hewlett Packard, Johnson and Johnson and 3 COM in the procurement of their sites and building requirement. He also purchased and developed the IDA Business Park at Athlumney, Navan. Having worked for almost 20 years with IDA he left in 2000 to join property development group Woodford Developments Limited as their Project Manager for the development of their 250-acre flagship project - Northwood Park, Santry. Northwood Park is Dublin's latest premier development consisting of an extensive international business campus, a high quality residential village, Crowned Plaza International Hotel, Creche, Restaurants, Health and Leisure facility and an 85 acre fully developed public park. Northwood is adjacent to Santry Stadium, Dublin Airport and the M50 motorway. When fully developed in 2010, it will be home to 3,000 people with a further 5,000 employed in the business campus. Beggan played football in Kells CBS school where he completed his Leaving Certificate and also played underage football and hurling with Ballinlough and Kilskyre respectively as Killallon had no underage teams. He played with Killallon from 1974 to the early 1980s. He explains the insurmountable problems which the club faced at the time of its disbandment. "Killallon is a relatively small area wedged between two adjoining clubs - Moylough and Ballinlough/Killskyre on one side and the Westmeath border and therefore had a limited geographical area to pick from," he says. "We were depending on four or five families to make up the bulk of the team. Five subs were a bit of a luxury," he says. High unemployment, emigration and migration at that time together with poor economic outlook did not help matters. Every club in the country faced similar problems. Killallon was unique. It just did not have the pool of players to pick from and depended on a few players from outside the parish. Times are changing in Killallon. The population is increasing with new houses being built in the countryside. Perhaps Killallon with Killallon House pub as the epicentre could be developed into a small sustainable country village producing great county players again. They have had such players in the past. Jack Fagan was a regular on the Meath team which reached the 1966 All-Ireland final and was introduced as a sub in the final. Interestingly, Jack hadn't even played club football when he first played with Meath. He was spotted playing college football for Salesian College in Laois and then broke onto the royals' team. In the 1966 club championship, Killallon reached the final. Summerhill won on a 0-10 to 0-2 scoreline, in a match played in O'Growney Park, Athboy. Fagan's son Terry played for Ballinlough before Killallon's reform this year and was outstanding for the team in 2005. Because he is based in Dublin, he is not active anymore but he remains in touch with what is happening in the club. Killallon played 11 matches this year in their Division. as well as competing n the Junior 'D' championship. Beggan, like other Killallon stalwarts, will be hoping that the team can build on that over the next few years. Tweet

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