Quinn recalls Kilbride’s glory days

This year marks the 50th anniversary since Kilbride completed their three-in-a-row of Meath SFC titles with victory over Skryne in the 1971 decider in Pairc Tailteann.

That remarkable victory brought the curtain down on a golden era for the tiny parish on the edge of the Meath border with Dublin and they haven't managed to scale those heights since.

However those days are recalled fondly by one of the greatest players ever to play for Meath and Kilbride Jack Quinn.

Only Navan Pierce Mahonys, Castletown, Bohermeen Geraldines, Rathkenny, Navan Gaels and Navan O'Mahonys had completed a Meath SFC hat-trick before the 1970s and the pick of players those teams enjoyed the luxury of made their wins less surprising.

However, Kilbride's historic three-in-a-row, which was completed when Pat Bruton lifted the Keegan Cup following a final victory over Skryne in October 1971 can, arguably, be described as the most unlikely off all the treble-time winners of the Meath senior championship.

Just 11 years earlier Kilbride were operating in the junior ranks of Meath football. Victory over Batterstown by 1-9 to 0-1 secured the junior title in 1960 and two years later the tiny Dublin border village secured the intermediate crown with a 3-8 to 1-3 victory over Walterstown.

Within three years Kilbride went from being one of the smallest clubs in the county, hailing from one of the tiniest parishes in the nation to being one of the big guns on the Meath senior football scene and they were armed to the teeth with some of the greatest names ever to play the game in the county.

The names of the Quinn brothers, the Reillys and the Sullivans dripped off the tongue of Meath football followers throughout the 1960s and early '70s. Their names became synonymous with success and one of the greatest of them all, Jack Quinn, recalls how that sense of family drove Kilbride to success beyond even their wildest dreams.

"For a small club like Kilbride it was a remarkable time because wins like that don't happen too often for small clubs like ours," Quinn told the Meath Chronicle.

"We had won the junior in 1960 and the intermediate in 1962 and we were a tightknit group,. There were the four of us Quinns and there were the Reilly who were first cousins of ours and then we had Murty and Wardy Sullivan who were cousins of the Reillys on the other side.

"Between brothers and cousins we had a hell of a team, it was a kind of family affair and we played really well together," said Quinn.

That historic three-in-a-row for Kilbride tells only half the story of the success those families and the people of Kilbride enjoyed throughout their golden era.

Not only were Jack, Gerry and Martin Quinn the mainstays on a Meath team that were very much on the rise following a first Leinster SFC success in 10 years in 1964, they were joined by fellow Kilbride men Pat Rooney, Pat Bruton, Murty Sullivan and Paddy Reilly on the All-Ireland winning panel in 1967.

Away from the county Kilbride were a force to be reckoned with. Within two years of joining the senior ranks they were crowned champions with a 0-8 to 0-6 victory over Gaeil Colmcille and the following year they reached the final again, where they were denied a second successive Keegan Cup in bizarre circumstances.

With less than 12 minutes remaining and with Kilbride 1-4 to 1-3 ahead referee Seamus Duff from Syddan abandoned the game when Martin Quinn refused to leave the field when he was sent-off. Duff maintained that Quinn took exception to a 14-yard free being awarded against him and that the Kilbride player had shouldered him.

When ordered to leave the field Quinn refused to go and famously sat on the ball. The referee subsequently abandoned the game and two weeks later Skryne were awarded the title at a Co Board meeting and the following month Quinn was suspended for 12 months, a decision his brother Jack believes cost Meath the chance of All-Ireland success in 1966.

"We managed to make it back to the county final again in 1965 as we tried to defend our title, but then the game against Skryne was abandoned following a strange incident and we were kickout out of the championship and Martin got suspended for 12 months," recalled Jack.

"It was an absolutely ridiculous decision. Martin caught a high ball in the square, practically on his own, there was no one within five yards of him when he caught the ball.

"Next thing we knew Seamus Duff blew his whistle and he came in awarded Skryne a free in. Martin walked towards the referee with the ball in his hand asking what was the free for, but Duff just said 'it's a free in'.

"Martin put the ball down and sat on it and said 'you'll have to tell me what the free is for because it was no free'.

"The referee told Martin if he didn't get off the ball he would send him off, but Martin said he wouldn't leave the pitch unless he was told what the free was for and with that the referee abandoned the match, it was ridiculous.

"I have no doubt that we would have won that final in 1965 against Skryne if it hadn't been abandoned so it made it all the sweeter that two of our three-in-a-row wins were against Skryne.

"I still believe that Martin's suspension cost us the All-Ireland in 1966 because if he had been full-back and I was midfield it might have worked out very different against Galway in the All-Ireland final that year," said Quinn.

Kilbride recovered from that disappointment to reach the final again in 1966 where they lost out to Gaeil Colmcille after three Titanic games.

The following year Kilbride made it to their fourth final in succession and this time they made amends by claiming their second crown with a narrow win over Navan O'Mahonys.

"We also won the club championship again in 1967 against Navan O'Mahonys which was a great because we had lost in 1966 to Gaeil Colmcille after a couple of drawn matches," remembered Jack.

"Those matches against Gaeil Colmcille could have went either way, but they were a great team and deservedly won their first championship at that time. They were a great club and had Dessie Ferguson with them and even though he was past his best he was still a great footballer and a great trainer."

Tired after years of consistently excellent displays Kilbride bowed out of the '68 championship in the group stages, but they recovered quickly and embarked on a series of successes that saw them go down in history as one of the greatest teams ever to grace Meath football.

Five wins from five over Oldcastle, Slane, Navan O'Mahonys, St Vincent's and Trim in the group stages of the 1969 championship secured their place in the semi-final against champions Gaeil Colmcille, where they enjoyed a 1-6 to 0-4 win after a controversial spell where Gaeil Colmcille had been kicked out of the championship for refusing to play the initial semi-final fixture, but were then reinstated.

Kilbride then went on to gain revenge against Skryne in the final by 2-5 to 0-5 with Austin Reddan lifting the cup.

In 1970 Kilbride escaped from their group off the back of a play-off win over Ballinlough, but they made the most of that reprieve, beating Skryne in the semi-final before claiming the scalp of Navan O'Mahonys in the final as Owen Sullivan accepted the cup.

The bid for three-in-a-row was not without its bump in the road as Kilbride lost their second group game to newly promoted Dunderry, but they went unbeaten for the remainder of the campaign seeing off Walterstown, Duleek, St Patrick's, Gaeil Colmcille and O'Mahonys before beating Dunderry in a play-off to see who would top the group.

That win set-up a semi-final clash with Trim which Kilbride won 1-7 to 0-7 and with Dunderry losing to Skryne in the other semi-final it was a clash of the old foes once again in the decider.

Kilbride won the final by 1-8 to 0-9 to claim their historic three-in-a-row and their fifth title in eight years. The tiny village on the Dublin border had been in seven of the previous eight finals, a feat never achieved before or since in Meath football.

"Winning three-in-a-row was serious for such a small little area like Kilbride. It still is a small area, there is still only an odd house here and there because farmers were not interested in selling their land no matter what price land was making. Lads would rather have stayed farming than seeing housing estates popping up all over the place," said Jack Quinn.

"For lads like Austin Reddin and Tommy Mahon it was great too. There was also a chap called Sean Hickey, you could play him anywhere, we used to play him corner-forward or wing half-back. He could play against anyone, he was a great footballer.

"For Kilbride to win three senior championships-in-a-row was a serious achievement and no one could really believe it at the time. What helped us was that we were such a tight group of brothers, and cousins and relations, we were really like a family team and that really stood to us in a big way," concluded one of the greatest to ever wear the green and gold of Meath and the green and red of Kilbride.