Kilbrittain grieved together and celebrated together

Kilbrittain had not had a hotel since The Horse Rock Inn burned down in 1973.

On Saturday night, though, with upwards of 500 people present in black-and-amber bedecked ballroom, the Crowne Plaza Dublin Airport was, for one night, claimed as part of a celebrating parish. After all, what makes a place or a community or a club other than the people? The official address might have been north Dublin but this was Kilbrittain.

Obviously, nobody who helped to establish Kilbrittain Hurling Club, as it then was, in 1904 is still around, but each generation gave way to the next – as is the way of most GAA clubs, the surnames have stayed the same.

There are people who gave their lives to Kilbrittain who would never have dreamed that a team wearing the black and amber stripes would one day take to the Croke Park pitch. Anyone involved in a club would know that such reverie is rarely entertained – things are far too hands-on, with quotidian mundanity taking precedence – but all of those people who helped to nurture players or cut pitches or sold lotto tickets played a part in laying the foundations.

In 2024, Kilbrittain exited the Co-op SuperStores Premier JHC at the group stages, having drawn twice and lost once. Leaving Macroom that Friday night after being pegged back at the death by Nemo Rangers, optimism was not flowing freely but it just goes to show what happens when fine margins fall the other way.

In winning nine championship matches a row since that September evening, Kilbrittain came out on top in the county semi-final against Ballygarvan by two points and the final against Glen Rovers by one; they found a new gear in seeing off Knockaderry and Kilrossanty in Munster but then the All-Ireland series required them to dig deep.

In Clonmel on the Saturday before Christmas against Davidstown-Courtnacuddy, the conditions and the opposition demanded character if the ticket to Croke Park was to be secured – good fortune was a welcome extra.

With Kilbrittain leading by three late on but struggling to hold on, a goal chance presented itself for the Wexford side: in our mind’s eye, we saw the net dancing and then had to reprocess as the ball came back off the post and a point at the other end gave breathing space and meant that the concession of a goal at the death could be absorbed.

Perhaps because of the tough semi-final against the Leinster champions and the fact Easkey of Sligo had overcome Donegal’s Burt after extra time, the bookmakers rushed to anoint Kilbrittain before Saturday’s final. Odds of 1/7 were completely off the wall and surely served to give motivation to the Connacht standard-bearers.

They led Kilbrittain by five points at one stage in the first half – and will feel aggrieved for some time about red card early in the second half, while a disallowed goal for over-carrying in the first half also frustrated them. Tough to take, certainly, but Kilbrittain could only deal with what they could control and they ultimately did that, winning by 0-19 to 0-18.

As with every game, Oisín Gillain’s number 8 jersey was present in the dressing room – the special version with commemorative All-Ireland texted signed by his team-mates, management and backroom members. You wouldn’t need to be religious to think that he helped them get over the line, again. 

The picture at the top of this piece is of Kilbrittain great Denis O'Neill, a county SHC winner with Carbery in 1994, holding up his number 8 jersey from the 1995 IHC victory during captain Philip Wall's speech. A link between generations, with the black and amber the constant.

Late, in his speech at the banquet in the Crowne Plaza, Wall said that, because of how the year had ended, both Oisín and another teenager who had tragically passed, Anne Enright, would be immortalised because their memories were forever intertwined with the Croke Park win.

Tight-knit communities experience the full range of emotions. They grieve together and they celebrate together.

On Saturday night – and at Sunday’s homecoming – Kilbrittain certainly celebrated together.