The local game - how it started

Organised soccer in Kilkenny dates back to 1893 when Kilkenny AFC entered the Leinster Football Association Cup competition, this was just the year after the LFA was founded itself. This was almost certainly a team composed of men attached to the Kilkenny Military Barracks at Ballybought Street.

Many local teams popped up in Kilkenny City over the next two decades until, finally, a Kilkenny Association Football League was formed in October 1912. A Mr DW Lloyd of Ormonde Road was the League’s first honorary secretary. A set of 19 rules, many still in vogue, was published in the Kilkenny People. The Kilkenny Celtic Club, founded in 1910, dominated the local landscape from their base at Asylum Lane, Larchfield, Kilkenny City.

The first Irish Free State League was established in March 1926 when it was founded at the home of Nicholas ‘Navvy’ Walsh at 19 Parnell Street. The first committee consisted of many families whose names still live on in the history of the game such as Walsh, Cullen, Dunlop, Manning, Cuddihy, Flood, Scully and Ryan.

The World War II years, 1939-1945 were difficult for sport in general in Ireland due to fuel and food rationing and the game struggled as a consequence during this period. However, the Green Celtic club was founded in 1942. Taking over from Kilkenny Celtic, they played their games at the Fair Green, thus the change of the name.

A bright new era dawned for the game in 1948 with Kilkenny AFC being reformed and a local league established. A brand new band of legislators came together to form a new committee. Prominent amongst them were J McAllister, J Bourke, Con Downey, Billy Walsh, P Hennessy, Paul Fennelly, Paddy Henderson, Marty Buckley and P Breen.

Among the first teams to partake were Evergreen 1946, Green Celtic, CYMS and Talbot’s Inch. The new league gathered further momentum when the Freebooters club was founded in 1950.

Freebooters have had many successes in soccer circles, not least their three Leinster Junior Cup wins

In the early to mid-1950s another new band of legislators arrived on the scene such as Paddy Henderson, Mick Owens, Terry Cullen, Michael Mock Lawlor, Joe Doyle, Johnny Walsh, Milo Grogan, Tom Hogan and Noel Dowling. They had a vibrant league running for almost two decades and built a modern dressing room pavilion at the ’Comer Road grounds at Lover’s Lane, Newpark. The first such pavilion in Kilkenny at the time, providing hot showers for the players.

Sadly the game came very close to extinction in 1968 when all the league officials retired and thus there was no league for a period. Evergreen and Kilkenny AFC played in the Waterford & Carlow League for a season. The new South Eastern League was established in 1970 and it was the father of the modern Kilkenny & District League. The major breakthrough for the game of soccer locally was the founding of the Kilkenny Schoolboys’ Soccer League in 1969 principally by Con Downey, Mike Kelly, Eric Wilcox and Brendan Lonergan.

Kilkenny people played a key pivotal role in establishing women’s soccer, not only in Kilkenny, but throughout Ireland. Anne Griffin, Kay Ramsbottom, Ursula Grace were among Ireland’s first international players in 1973. Connie Jordan and Geraldine Downey were very much to the fore in the local women’s game too. Michael Walshe became President of the Women’s Football Association of Ireland.

The League expanded at a rapid rate during the 1970s and 1980s with teams from Kilkenny, Laois, Carlow, Tipperary and Wexford all making up five divisions of junior soccer. Schoolboys’ teams grew to include 65 teams across all age levels of the game. This growth was reflected in the success of the Kilkenny & District League representative teams achieving national success and partaking in four national finals over eight years, winning two in 1976 and 1984.

People like Tom Weadick, Jim Maher, Ber Scott, Joe Butler, Michael Saunders all played a pivotal role in reforming soccer in Kilkenny in the early 1970s. They were followed by the likes of Matt Dooley, Donie Butler, Mick Lawlor, Paddy Kelly, Brendan Lonergan, Pat O’Neill, Peter Maher, Seamus Fahy, Pierce Scott and a whole slew of other soccer enthusiastic legislators. People such as John Corrigan, Tom Mullins, Jack Daly, John Joe Campion and Jerry Dunne come to mind.

Rural clubs like Callan United, Highview Athletic, The Lions, Durrow, Spa United, Johnstown, East End United, Bennettsbridge, Thomastown United and Deen Celtic began to feature at the top table of domestic soccer winning the major competitions while their players regularly featured alongside the principal city-based clubs in the League’s Oscar Traynor squads.

The good old days - Kilkenny City players Brendan Rea, Pascal Keane and Richie Hall celebrate promotion in 1997

The confidence of Kilkenny soccer was demonstrated when EMFA and the Kilkenny & District League purchased and developed their ground. Clubs like Clover United, Lions, Deen Celtic, Thomastown United, Tullaroan, Bridge United, Spa United and Southend United were to follow. Many have subsequently installed dressing rooms, Astro turf playing surfaces and floodlights. Some clubs have negotiated long term leases from the Local Authority with fine developments at Freshford Town, Highview Athletic, Freebooters and Callan United.

The club sides Evergreen and Freebooters also began to make their mark with Evergreen partaking in the blue riband of Irish junior soccer when they made the final of the FAI Junior Cup in 1984. Freebooters made their mark in the Leinster Junior Cup, winning the competition three times in an eight year period. They were the trailblazers for all other local teams to follow their example.

Senior soccer reached Kilkenny when city club Emfa went into the League Of Ireland in 1985. They went through a rebrand as Kilkenny City in 1989. Sadly the voyage came to an end in 2007, but some success was attained and some great occasions were enjoyed at the fine Buckley Park stadium over two decades. The names of Jimmy Rhatigan, Tom Cantwell and Alfie Hale will long be associated with the voyage into senior soccer.

Success followed for Kilkenny clubs with youth and schoolboys’ teams reaching national and provincial finals. Interleague titles were to follow too. International caps were attained in abundance at junior level. A major beacon of light has been the growth of the women’s game in Kilkenny over the last two decades. With Vera Pauw’s senior team qualifying for the Women’s World Cup Finals in Australia and New Zealand next year in 2023, the women’s game is expected to grow substantially in the years ahead.

Very recently a new League Management Committee was elected at a special general meeting of the Kilkenny & District League. Elected were chairman Rob Higton, honorary secretary Michael Coughlan, honorary treasurer Paschal Bergin, honorary registrar Paul Butler and child welfare officer: Berni Egan with committee members Gary Maher and Keth Renwick. Other members are expected to be added by co-option in the coming days.