1920s Medal Haul

Every now and again we hear from decendents of the club who have an old picture, a story behind a picture, or other artefact like a medal. Sometimes we are contacted by people who have no relationship with the club, but have discovered a medal or artefact. The most recent and random contact we had was from a Monaghan lady – in July 2023 – who found a hurling medal in an apartment in New York 20 years ago which turned out to be our first hurling title. You can check out our X (formally twitter) post here twitter for this story

In last couple of weeks we were contacted by a member of staff in Blackrock College who had identified a number of Kevins medals from the 1920s in their archives including our first ever Minor Football Championship won in 1922. Coincidentally we beat Dolphins in the final that year. As the newspaper report indicates, this particular championship was won under controversial circumstances. We have another interesting connection with the opposition that day. Dolphins home ground was Dolphin Park where we now play. This club disbanded in the late 1930s / early 1940s.

The Kevins club was very successful in the early 1920s where foclore tells us that we had to hire the Abbey Theatre one year in order to host the medal presentation. A number of boys who played during this period went on to play in National League and All-Ireland Hurling Finals in the late 1920s and mid 1930s. Ned Muldowney played in the 1928 All-Ireland hurling final and Tom Lawless won a National Hurling League in 1929. Ned’s brother Sylvester (Vesty) played in the 1934 National League and Senior All-Ireland Hurling finals, loosing both to the great Limerick side of its time.

We’ve added some newspaper reports from 1922 year to put some context around the medals. For more on our club history click here.

We are unsure as to why the medals for a club based in Dublin’s south inner-city were in the care of Blackrock College, but we are aware that Ned Muldowney (from the South Circular Road in Kilmainham) was a past pupil in the 1920s. If you have a story get in contact. You can email pro.kevins.dublin@gaa.ie.