Investment pays off for Croke Park-bound Kilmurry

THE distance between Quilty and Croke Park is 173 miles. On March 17, Kilmurry-Ibrickane supporters should make it there in about three and a half hours.
If the journey time glides by as enjoyably as the hour it took Kilmurry to dismantle Portlaoise in the Gaelic Grounds last Sunday, the Kilmurry cavalcade could walk backwards to Dublin and probably still make Croke Park for the 3.45pm throw-in on St Patrick’s Day.
Never in the history of Clare GAA has a football team from the county nailed down their place in an All–Ireland final, 17 minutes before the semi–final has finished.
When Noel Downes stroked home Kilmurry’s goal 13 minutes into the second half, Kilmurry knew they had made it. Nine points ahead and with two men more than Portlaoise, they had secured a Clare place in an All–Ireland football final for the first time since the county’s minors were beaten in the 1953 decider.
Ten years ago, the then Kilmurry U-14 team beat Baltinglass in the Division 3 Féile football final.
Noel Downes, Stephen Moloney, Martin McMahon, Shane Hickey, Darren Hickey and Mark McCarthy played in Croke Park on the first year of the old decade. All of them lined out in Limerick last Sunday and will form at least one third of the club’s senior starting team on March 17.
While the commute to Croke Park will eat into less than a handful of hours, tens of thousands of man and women hours have been invested into this team and the Kilmurry club.
Without the selfless input of those who first taught the Clare and Munster champions how to control a ball, the Kilmurry players, managers and supporters would be doing what all but four of the country’s 2,500 club members will be doing on St Patrick’s Day 2010; either paying their way into the club finals or watching on television. The donation of a myriad of voluntary hours has paid spectacular dividend for Quilty, Mullagh and Coore. Kilmurry will play St Galls (Antrim) or Corofin (Galway) on Wednesday fortnight. Their rearranged semi–final on Saturday throws in at 7.30pm.

For more on Kilmurry ’s historic achievement, see Sport