Kilmessan celebrate after winning the 2023 Meath U21A Championship. Many of the same players will be in action for the club's senior team in Sunday's County SHC semi-final against Ratoath.
By John Harrington
It’s going to be a very busy weekend for the hurlers of Kilmessan.
Their senior team play Ratoath in the Meath Senior Hurling Championship semi-final and both their Junior A and Junior B teams contest county finals.
It’s a serious achievement for a small rural club, which Vice-Chairperson Paddy Horan puts down to the fact that every hurler in the parish has been committed to the cause this year like never before.
“We're motoring well alright this year compared to last year when we found it hard to even field a second team,” he told GAA.ie
“We got new senior management in this year, Nicky Horan came in as manager, and that I think was the biggest turning point. We have everybody buying in to the plan at the minute and everyone is mad for road, mad for hurling.
“Nicky is my nephew so I'm obviously biased, but he has put a great structure in place. He has a good backroom team and everything is done very professionally.
“The first junior team are working along with the senior team, he's watching all of their games too, and training has been brilliant. There's a great turn-out for training every night.”
There has been a great tradition of hurling in Kilmessan going all the way back to 1902 when the club was founded.
They top the roll of honour in Meath club hurling with 29 titles, but by their own high standards have endured a fallow period in recent times.
Kilmessan captain, Harry Cahill, lifts the cup after his team's victory over Trim in the 2023 Meath U21A Hurling Final.
It looks like they’re on the way back up now though, with the run to Sunday’s County senior semi-final coming on the back of last year’s U21A Championship success.
“That gave us a massive, massive boost,” says Horan. “The last day we played nine of those U21 lads played for the senior team and another two lads came on so we've gotten a great follow-through from winning that U21 title.
“It really lifted the whole parish because it was a great win. We beat Trim in the final so it was a great boost to the club and it set us up nicely for this year.”
There’s a very positive vibe around the club in general at the moment. Recent development work significantly upgraded the club's facilities and a booming juvenile section should ensure another generation of talented young hurlers will follow quickly on the heels of the current crop.
“In 2016 we purchased an extra bit of land for a new training pitch and we have that floodlit now and have also put in a whole new walking track around the main pitch which was also redeveloped with fencing around it,” says Horan.
“We have state of the art facilities now and it's really working well, the community has really bought into it. People are coming in and walking around the track and they're seeing what's going on around the place and they can see progress.
“We had an excellent committee behind the development and as the old saying goes, build it and they will come.
“That's really what we've seen because we have a serious underage set-up there as well. Our juvenile chairperson, Conor Martin, has huge enthusiasm and he's really driving it on.”
Kilmessan Vice-Chairperson, Paddy Horan, left, with club treasuer, Thomas Duignan, at the recently constructed running track around the club's pitch.
The last piece of the jigsaw would be a successful senior team. They haven’t even reached a senior final since the last time they won it in 2013, which in Kilmessan counts as a famine.
“It is a famine, absolutely it is,” says Horan. “I think previous to this the longest we went without a title was 10 years and now it's 11. As we say ourselves, it's time we won one again.
“We reached the quarter-final last year and were pipped at the post. The talk afterwards was that we need to learn how to win these games.
“Now we feel like we do because we beat Trim in the group phase. We probably should have beaten Kildalkey earlier on in the year as well.
“A bit of luck is always good to have and hopefully we can get some this weekend because Ratoath are a very good team, they're very big, strong, physical team.
“We've no doubt it's going to be a huge challenge, we have nothing but respect for them. They've been beaten in a lot of finals over the last few years so they're going to be a massive hurdle on Sunday.”
Kilmessan's vibrant juvenile section is producing a lot of talented young hurlers.
Whatever happens on Sunday, Kilmessan are tracking in a very positive direction and the club’s future looks very bright.
“Absolutely,” says Horan. “Even getting to the semi-final this year is a massive step forward for us, it's massive progress. It's great to see it and there's a great buzz around the place.
“There's bunting and flags going up which we haven't seen around for the hurling end of the club for a very long time.
“The Camogie was keeping the flag flying but it's great that we can now get behind the hurlers as well.
“Our camogie team are in a county semi-final as well and it would be just massive if both teams could get to a county final. There's talk that the camogie final would be on before the senior hurling final this year.
“Wouldn't that be a great double for the club if we could contest both of them.”
