St James Gaels An Caisleán GAA Club -
A History
It was after the 1958 All Ireland Final which saw Dublin comfortably beat Derry on the 28th of September that a group of local church stewards in the very new parish of Walkinstown formed a GAA Club known as CLG Naomh Gearóid (St Gerard’s, Walkinstown Hurling and Football Club). The church itself had only officially opened 2 years prior and the area itself was expanding rapidly with continuation of corporation scheme housing growing further out of the city past Drimnagh and Crumlin, as well as new social and private builds in the musical roads of Walkinstown from the early 1950s.
A Parish Team
With all these new families from the city as well as country people settling into the new parish, it didn’t take long for the club to gather momentum. The club entered its first teams for the new season with the Under 13s footballers playing the clubs first competitive match in South City League in September 1959. The team wore a set of jerseys supplied and presented by the Walkinstown Residence Association. The development of the club’s street leagues we’re a huge success at this time with the club having a huge presence in the community.
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Momentum grew quickly and success followed with the Men’s footballers winning the Junior league in 1963 and reaching the Junior Championship Final in Croke Park the following year narrowly beaten on the day by Craobh Ciaran. Despite the loss, this proved to be a momentous day for both the club and parish which would drive the continuous growth of the club. The captain of the club on the Final day in Croke Park was Dermot O’Carroll who would fill many roles in the club including Chairman and was very important figure for the development of the club in later years.
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The club was ambitious and made brave decisions to ensure the future of the club would be secure in a fast growing developing area, this included the ambitious purchase of 8 acres of land on Robinhood Road (Where Heaton Buckley is now, just off the Long Mile Road) to try and secure it’s own ground close to the parish, however 4 years after the purchase of the land, the club were forced to sell due to lack of financial support. This did however turn a small profit for the club after paying of some debts which helped secure the clubs future.
Same Club - New Name
To secure stable playing facilities, the club agreed to form an alliance with the Christian Brothers in Drimnagh Castle. As part of this alliance, the club we’re given access to the school pitches and dressing rooms and agreed to change their name from “Naomh Gearóid” to An Caisleán.
The club colours changed to the blue and yellow the school used and same we see the club wear today.
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The access to the school pitches and dressing rooms within the parish boundaries helped with the club’s development of juvenile’s players with the club fielding at all age groups. The majority of the clubs’ members would have gone to either Drimnagh Castle or The Assumption schools and through the 70’s both schools had a lot of success in all sports. The demand for non-sporting activities was increasing with the club increasing the number of social activities for its members in this time.
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The club we’re given access to Castle’s coach house and transformed this into dressing rooms with showers as well as a meeting room. Hurls & a sliother are cut in the stone above the entrance door to this day.
The additional number of young members joining the club put huge pressure on the number of coaches needed with many managers having to double up on coaching duties. One of the main drivers for helping with juvenile development amongst others was Eamonn Lane who coached teams from the early 60’s right up until the mid-90’s.
Golden Period
20 years of continuous development in growth of both the club as well as increase in population the area meant a perfect combination for a golden period for the club. This started to materialise from 1978 and the decade that followed.
The club had a return to Croke Park in 1979 in the form of a Junior Hurling Championship Final beaten by 3 points by a very strong Erin’s Isle team who ended up winning the Senior Championship 4 years later. Mick Reidy who was centre back that day who also got a number of appearances for Dublin. JJ Mcgreal played in the middle of the park. By the early 80’s the club was competing in both hurling and football at intermediate level. Larry Byrne was on the Dublin hurling team in the 1980s. From a juvenile perspective, the club we’re having much success in all codes. The highlights included a very strong Camogie section under club stallworth Kathleen Short, the under 14’s camogie managed to win the All Ireland Feile in 1984. The clubs juvenile strength could also be measured with plenty of representatives on county teams.
In 1988, 30 years after the club’s formation, the men’s footballers finally got over the line and managed to get to Senior Football status with a win over Clann Colaiste Muire in the Intermediate Football League final 1.9 to 1.5 in Silver Park. Losing by a point at half time, a goal by Ned Mchugh turned out to crucial for a memorial victory, another crucial point on the day came from Mick Reidy who played in the hurling final 9 years previous. The same year also saw the men’s hurling side need a win in their last league game to secure senior status, unfortunately they drew and with the demands and focus being on senior football, the hurling died out at adult level. The club cemented their position as a senior football outfit including promotion to Division 1.
1994 St James Gaels/An Caislean
In 1994, the club began talks to merge with Guinness GAA Club. Guinness GAA Club who we’re a club based in the Iveagh Grounds was a team for Brewery Workers and their families, a lot of which lived in the Dublin 12 area. They only had adult teams with a history in many forms having many successes, this went back as far as the 1891 won All Ireland Final win, at the time each county was represented by the winning club team which was won in Dublin by a team known as Young Irelands. Young Irelands team and officials were all labourers in Guinness's Brewery and in the 1890s they won several All Ireland titles at a time when club champions represented their counties in All Ireland championships. Other successes included the 1955 Dublin Junior Hurling Championship as well as the 1965 Intermediate Football Championship.
By 1994 though the employee numbers had reduced significantly. The club had top class facilities but to survive knew they would need to merge with another club. The merger with An Caisleán proved to be a success with An Caisleán providing a juvenile pathway as well as senior football team and Guinness having top class facilities close to the clubs’ base helped the club to continue to grow. Out of this St James Gaels An Caisleán had formed. The School pitches continued to be base of the juvenile set up with the academy and teams set up there, however having a place to train mid-week under floodlights on grass was not a common
practice across the country at the time and proved to be a great asset for all teams in the club.
One of the highlights for the club at this period was the formation of the Floodlit Cup which became a very popular fixture of the Dublin senior calendar with huge crowds flocking to the Iveagh Grounds over wintery Wednesday nights to watch competitive matches with unique rules including two points for a free and two referees, one in each half. Another important date in the club’s calendar was the annual John Humphrey Christmas Cup held in memory of John Humphrey who tragically lost his life shortly before Christmas in a road accident. His memory was celebrated over two days of football for Under 10s in popular tournament that ran for over twenty years.
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By the early 2000’s, the club was beginning to struggle for playing numbers, the club lost it’s senior status in 2002. The Walkinstown and greater Dublin 12 area which was bursting at the seams with children in 50s’ 60s and 70’s was beginning to become an older area. A lot of members who grew up as part of the club moved into new areas such as Tallaght, Ballyboden and further afield as Dublin grew and cost of housing made it difficult for those brought up in the area to build a family.
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Despite these challenges the club continued to develop its offering. A new ladies team was created in 2005 and had success straight away winning a number of Junior Championships. The clubs’ juveniles have had some success over the recent years some of which we’re merger teams with other local teams and the men’s football team had a memorable Junior Championship win Parnell Park over 2012. In recent years both Hurling and Camogie teams have re-emerged. Our first juvenile team back playing Hurling have fielded to minor and now making pathways into our new Adult hurling team which started in 2021 after a number of years playing in the Adult Social Leagues.
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The rebuilding of ladies football can be measured by our Adult ladies team. It is fielded mainly from members who joined the academy and have played all the way through the grades with the club, winning a cup in 2021.
Different Era, Same Goals
It's 64 years since goals by Owen Gribben and Paddy Farnan turned out to be the difference for a Kevin Heffernan captained Dublin side against Derry before a crowd of 73,371 in Croke Park inspired a new parish in Walkinstown of setting up their own GAA Club. A lot has happened since then to the area and the club. Above our dressing rooms in Mooney’s Field, there is a sign with our club name “St James Gaels An Caisleán providing Gaelic Games to Dublin 12 since 1958”, this was the aim when the club was formed and it is still to the aim to this day.
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Farmer Mooney still farmed the field when the club played competitively for the first time in 1959, next door to our dressing rooms on Bunting Road is the home of the Walkinstown Residence Association who presented the club with its first set of jerseys. The Club continues to grow and evolve and in 2021, with the help and co-operation of Dublin City Council, the club completed the installation of a full-sized GAA pitch in, Mooney’s field or Bunting road. The club uses the WSAF Building on Moeran Road also for a lot of its juvenile parties and has a great relationship with the federation who has provided an outlet for local residence since the beginning of those household schemes in the 50’s. The school pitches are still home and are used continuously since the alliance with the Christian brothers in 1966. The adult men’s team secured it’s the first league promotion in June 2022 since 1988 beating Ballyboden, playing in the castle. We still form a lot of playing teams based on pupils from both Drimnagh Castle and the Assumption as well as schools new to the area.
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The Iveagh Grounds although no longer owned by Guinness or Diageo still are used for many matches and training and without those who came from Guinness GAA club, particularly Pat Darcy and his son Eoin, the club would not be as strong as it is today.
The club’s adult sponsor the Halfway House has been a great support over the years and it would be safe to say, that many in the famous local pub have had a conversation about the clubs formation and direction over generations.
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The club’s health in terms of numbers has greatly mirrored the Walkinstown and broader Dublin 12 area in terms of number. It is clear to see that there is regeneration of young families in the locality and with juvenile teams currently growing in numbers and playing in all four codes, the clubs future is looking bright.