Another All-Ireland Final!

Kevin’s was established in the south inner city of Dublin in 1902. Initially established as a hurling club, we now field ~30 competitive teams in the club across hurling, camogie and rounders. We are celebrating 30 years of camogie this year and are in our fourth year of rounders! Our Ladies made the Junior final last year only to be beaten by St Clares of Cavan.

It’s the girls first year at intermediate level they have shown they aren’t out of place at this level. They finished third in the group stages and set up a semi-final clash against St Clares a repeat of last years Junior final. They started their campaign off with a good win against Skyrne of Meath who made previous years finals and this laid the foundations of of good season.  They then travelled to Laois to play Na Piarsaigh of Limerick and gave them a beating. The one sided affair wasn’t a great advertisement for game and gave the newer girls a false sense of what was to come. Next up were Michael Glaveys at home. The Roscommon side had come down from senior and although we were familiar with them from the Mixed event, we had never played them in Ladies. Another big win was racked up making it 3 from 3 and more or less guaranteeing a semi-final spot. It was at this stage that the girls started to find the games more difficult. Travelling to Fenagh of Carlow they were pushed all the way but brought home the points after an exciting finish on a scoreline of 25-24. Then came the dreaded St Clares at home. The Cavan outfit arrived in convoy and were raring to go after an earlier win in a mixed game. Kevins took an early lead with some fine batting an excellent fielding, but as time went on concentration levels dropped and St Clares pulled themselves back into the game with some crafty bowling and batting. The girls had lost their first game to the tournament favourites! They then travelled to Wexford on all-Ireland Football Final day and faced Glynn/Barntown where they suffered another defeat.

Despite the two losses they still qualified for a semi-final place… against their bogey team St Clares. This time the game took a different twist with a high scoring start of 11 to runs to 10 in the first innings. St Clares edged ahead in the 2nd innings by keeping Kevins to 5 runs and scoring 10 of their own. The 3rd innings looked like a more familiar Kevins V St Clares game with 2 runs a piece and then Kevins notched themselves up to the next level scoring 8 and holding the Cavan women to 2 runs. Bowler Serena Scott was beginning to find her form, whereas the St Clares fielders seemed to be struggling Kevins held the Cavan girls to no runs and now needed to 2 to win. After drawing the game Erica Meslin got herself onto 3rd base and up stepped Emma Young who was flat out throughout the game. A big hit from Emma was all that was needed to get Erica home and she didn’t let her life long club down! Kevins took the spoils in a high scoring game 27-26 and finally got the monkey off their backs by beating the passionate St Clares women.

Rounders was started as part of a Healthy Club initiative focussing on social games for parents, retired players, and members of the local community. Due to the lack of opposition in the Dublin area in 2019, we decided to promote the game across the county. A motion was submitted at the GAA Rounders AGM to formally acknowledge “Social Rounders” as a concept and working with other clubs in Dublin we established a Winter Social League making the game accessible to other start-ups.

While we initially established as a recreational team, registering as a GAA Rounders club put us on the map and it was not too long before we started receiving calls from former players. Some camogie players also tried out and another exciting link up was with Softball players. Many of our female players who will represent the club in this week-ends final would never have joined a GAA club like ours if it was not for Rounders. Our founding fathers from 121 years ago would be delighted to hear that Gaelic games has spread far and wide and that we have reached an All-Ireland final with players from seven different countries.

Underage rounders was also introduced to the club where we had a dream start in our inaugural year entering boys and girls team at Under 12, with our girls reaching the 2021 Under 12 All-Ireland Final. The following year the girls won the Under 13 Girls Féile na nGael Plate. This year we entered a new Under 12 boys team who gained valuable experience and we hope to see them continue playing.

GAA Rounders Roll of Honour:

2020 All-Ireland Adult Junior Mixed Blitz R-Up

2021 All-Ireland Under 12 Girls Championship R-Up

2022 Dublin Winter Mixed League R-Up,

2022 All-Ireland Under 13 Girls Féile na nGael Plate Winners

2022 All-Ireland Ladies Junior R-Up 

2022 All-Ireland Mixed Intermediate Winners

Oifigeach Caidreamh Poibli

Adult, Rounders