LAST UPDATE | 8 Sep 2022
FOUNDING MEMBERS OF Na Gaeil GAA Club still remember a time they dreamed of having a representative on the Kerry minor panel. Last month, they welcomed home three senior All-Ireland winners.
Jack Barry, Diarmuid O’Connor and Stefan Okunbor all hail from the Tralee outfit. Chairman Tim Lynch was a child when the idea to form Na Gaeil emerged out of a Community Games team in 1978. It was noticeable what that side did for the community spirit. Imagine the lift a local club could provide?
No longer just imagining. That passion gave their project a purpose. It was about building something they could be proud of. To see two of their own in the engine room that powered the Kingdom to the peak was just the latest reminder of what they have accomplished.
On Friday night, the club play their first-ever senior county championship game against town rivals Austin Stacks under lights at Austin Stack Park.
“You’ve made it as a club when you’ve All-Ireland winners,” Lynch explains.
“That was the one thing we were missing. We’d minor players, lads on the panel, but never an All-Ireland medal. The Sam Maguire was carried into our club by one of our own. The emotion that created was incredible. Especially for people who founded the club.
“It was just a wonderful celebration. A lifelong dream come to fruition. It takes 100 years for something like that to happen in some clubs.”
It has been a remarkable rise. Starting in 2016, they moved from division 4 to division 1 of the County League in successive years. After losses in the 2016 and 2018 decider, a ten-point win over St Senans in 2019 saw them become county premier junior champions.
Last December Na Gaeil defeated Beaufort to join the senior ranks.
“To drive it from a place where we had nothing, to now be a senior club in Kerry. It is phenomenal. It shows how a minnow club can develop footballers and become senior if the work is put in.
“For younger members to see the lads succeed, they realise that they have the potential to do that. It creates a sense of euphoria and expectation. Our club can do anything. Our lads can go to school proudly wearing their Na Gaeil gear the same way any other senior club can.”
And yet, this is far from a recent phenomenon. They were strategic from the start. The local residents’ association made their sports field available in the early days. In 1983, the club purchased a field at Killeen, giving them a base. In 1988, they purchased another few acres next door. Three years later they’d erected a clubhouse.
On the field, they built brick by brick too. In 1986, the senior team tasted novice success for the first time. Another was to follow in 1994.
Lynch was there as they planted the seeds and knew what they could reap.
“You could see down the line this was a possibility if we stopped worrying about what others did and just concentrated on the club. That is what we did. We are standing on the shoulders of giants. A lot of people put an awful amount of work into it and we are trying to continue that.
“Because we were a junior club and around us, they were all senior, we were wondering what they were doing and what we weren’t doing. Even when we won a novice, the dream of getting to senior was way out of our imagination.
“Then it started to come right, members went off to do their courses and bring knowledge to the club. We focused on ourselves internally. What we were doing right rather than what others were at.”
Changes on and off the field saw attitudes change too. Two-time All Ireland winner William Kirby was on that ’94 novice title-winning team. He later moved to Austin Stacks. That was what many deemed necessary to kick on.
Four clubs operate in a town that has a population of 23,000. To stay at the top table, Na Gaeil knows it takes more than one talented crop. Thankfully, success is stretching across every level.
The 2021 intermediate final victory was secured without inter-county star Jack Barry or captain Eoin Doody. Doody and Dan O’Connor are two players who have now played in every single club championship in Kerry: novice, junior premier, intermediate and now senior.
Last month they won their first senior club championship game without Okunbor. Devon Burns started for the Kerry U20s this year. Mary O’Connell came on for the Kerry ladies in the All-Ireland final. And they are determined to keep driving on.
“It is always about looking forward. We need another field, we will hopefully do a new development there. That is the next step. We are in a well-populated area but there are four clubs competing. We have one main field and a few training pitches.
“We also have a huge LGFA side to our club. The girls have their own dressing rooms.”
What’s next? It is all about the local derby. Na Gaeil’s senior status has already been safeguarded thanks to their club championship results. This is an opportunity on the biggest stage against the defending champions. An occasion to saviour.
“In Kerry, this is the standout game of the weekend,” says Lynch. “Friday night, under lights, a huge crowd, a party atmosphere. And it will go down to the wire.”
