Stalwart presence

in the dressing room that game.

“It was like a funeral, twenty years playing senior, we felt that we left an awful lot of the guys down, all these guys that had given years and years playing senior football, got to county finals, unlucky, county semi-finals and we felt that we left the club down.”

In hindsight that relegation was probably the best thing to ever happen the club. From the pits of despair to probably the most joyous twelve months the club have ever experienced. Swings and roundabouts. When God closes a door he opens a window.

“I suppose in many ways it probably resurrected the club a little bit,” he says.

“Thankfully we were able to get back a few lads, who had stopped after playing for one reason or another for a couple of years. We got a good squad together and it turned out to be a good old year now, thanks be to God.

“We were able to regroup over the winter, we put in a few right hard training sessions in January and February, it kind of rolled from one game to another. The Glenbeigh game – we were very lucky to come out of that game by a point, very easily could have gone another way, our season could have gone another way.”

Of course it went the right way and the club rode it all the way back to senior championship football. The quickest return to the senior grade for a relegated club in living memory. It speaks to the character of these Kilcummin lads.

“That [spirit / character] goes