Chairman Stephen McCormack gave the following address at the recent AGM of Kiltale HC

Introduction Thank you all for attending our Annual General Meeting.

2024 was an exciting and eventful year for the club, particularly throughout the hurling season at both underage, Senior and Junior levels. We look forward to an even better 2025.

First and foremost, I want to extend my gratitude to all the mentors involved in our underage teams for yet another successful season. Special thanks to Johnny Donoghue and the Senior management team for securing the Senior League title, and to Ollie Ragan, Junior Manager, for winning the Division 4 League Championship. Both our Senior and Junior teams had strong seasons, reaching the quarterfinals and semi-finals respectively. Unfortunately, things didn’t go our way, but like any great team, we’ll pick ourselves up in 2025 and push forward, with the ultimate aim of reclaiming the Jubilee Cup, a title we are well familiar with winning in the past.

Underage Success

The Under-21 team had an incredible run in Division 1, with 20 players togging out for every game and training session when possible. Unfortunately, injuries impacted our semi-final, resulting in a loss to Trim, but the team truly enjoyed their time on the pitch and proved that Division 1 is where they belong.

The Minor team had an outstanding year, competing in three Division 2 finals, winning one, and narrowly losing the other two.

The Under-15 squad played in a highly competitive Division 1 League and Championship, beating Kilmessan in the Division 1 Shield Final. There’s certainly plenty of young talent to look forward to in the coming years.

U13s had great 2024 year,

With us being able to field 2 teams playing in Divisions 1,3 and 4 and getting good challenge matches outside the county. In a very strong Div 1 we were competitive having good wins against the likes of Ratoath and Navan o Mahony’s also then winning out the Div 3 and 4 league and championship.

Our most positive results were us growing our numbers in this age group.

A huge thank you to all mentors for their dedication to these teams. This is the age where GAA often sees a decline in numbers, but thanks to your efforts, we have kept our players engaged and thriving. To the parents, your commitment is also deeply appreciated.

All other underage groups continue to grow, enjoying Go Games and various activities throughout the hurling season.

Gormanstown Indoor Hurling Tournament 2025

Kiltale Hurling Club proudly participated in the Gormanstown Indoor Hurling Tournament, with over 90 young players (ages 7–11) showcasing their skills. The boys displayed exceptional ground striking, blocking, and teamwork. A standout achievement came from our U10 team, who were awarded the prestigious ‘Team of the Tournament’ title.

For the first time, Kiltale entered two U7 teams, demonstrating the club’s growing strength and the bright future ahead for our youngest players.

Special thanks to our dedicated mentors for their hard work in preparing the teams each week, as well as to the parents for their support in transporting the players to and from the tournament.

Looking Ahead to 2025

Best of luck to all players and management teams, from underage to Senior/Junior, for the upcoming season.

Club news, we are delighted to announce that McCormack Family Farms will be the new full-time sponsors of our Senior and Junior teams from 2025 onwards. We extend our deepest gratitude to Phil Rehill of Angle Edge Protection for their incredible 15 years of sponsorship. Your support has been invaluable, and we hope we have provided Angle Edge with the visibility it deserves. Thank you to the Rehill family for everything.

Club Developments & Community Involvement

· A warm welcome to Elaine Reilly, the new Chairperson of Kiltale Camogie Club. Elaine is one of our own, having played camogie for both Kiltale and Meath. I look forward to working closely with her to strengthen collaboration between our Hurling and Camogie teams, creating a bright future for all involved.

· Thank you to all sponsors—too many to mention individually—but we are incredibly fortunate for your continued support.

· A special thanks to our ground’s maintenance team—Seamus, Joe, Ger, Tom, and Aidan—for their dedication to keeping our pitches in top condition, along with our FÁS workers, Willie and David.

· Kiltale hosted numerous county games, All-Ireland finals, and various championship matches in 2024. A huge thank to Jake Dom Paddy Frank Martin and committee who assisted with gate collections, parking, and facility supervision. However, we need more

volunteers! If you can lend a hand a few times a year, please let me know, and I will add you to our WhatsApp group.

· PRO Damian, thank you for spreading the good word and keeping the club informed about games, activities, and news.

· Thanks to Tara Quinn for running the club shop and to all who assisted. We hope to open the shop more frequently, and any extra help would be greatly appreciated.

In Memoriam We extend our sincere condolences to the families of those who passed in 2024.

Nicola Quinn

Pat Husband

Micheal Garvey

Joe Clark

Willie & Damian Bennett

Jim Mc Nally

Eileen Travers and her Husband,

Matty Farrell

Ann Marion

May they all Rest in peace,

Fundraising & Astro Pitch Completion

After a year of planning, our new Astro pitch was completed in June—except for the lighting, which required additional funds. To avoid borrowing, the Hurling and Camogie clubs came together to organize a major fundraiser, aiming to raise €100,000. Thanks to a brilliant idea from mentor Paul Dunne—a draw to win of €500 week for 52 weeks in 2025—we exceeded expectations, selling €121,000 worth of tickets!

Congratulations to our lucky winner, Robbie Wall of Blanchardstown.

I must thank every family, player, mentor and local community involved in our great club for getting behind the ticket sales, also a big Thanks to Ann, Elaine, Denise, Orla, Damian and Jonathan for sitting two evenings week in a cold dressing room to collect all sold tickets for numerous weeks.

The Astro pitch will be a huge asset for all age groups year-round, and we plan to rent it out to other clubs to generate revenue. If you know of any clubs interested, please spread the word.

Upcoming Projects for 2025

1. Astro lighting – Project commenced last week and should be completed within 2–3 weeks.

2. Pitch 1 lighting upgrade – New LED lights will replace the old ones, expected to begin in May.

3. Pitch 2 maintenance – Sanding, aeration, and fertilization in April (Pitch 1 if funds allow). Kiltale Camogie is contributing €3,500—thank you!

4. New men’s toilets – Construction starting soon.

5. Club walkway refresh – Volunteers needed for a new layer of black dust.

6. Clubhouse window replacement – Thanks to a sponsorship deal with Doyle’s Windows, we’ll be upgrading all windows in Club house. Volunteers with building or widow experience will be needed for installation—please contact me or Paddy if you can help in away.

7. Green Club Initiative – Led by Regina (Rooney) Purcell, this project focuses on sustainability and biodiversity. Proposed ideas include:

o Leaving certain grass areas uncut until after flowering.

o Installing a water refill station for training and games.

o Providing a bike rack to encourage cycling to the club.

o Supporting Meath Camogie’s bottle recycling program.

o Implementing energy-saving measures.

o These are just a few ideas we will start with nut lots more to come,

Anyone interested in joining this initiative is encouraged to get involved.

Club Bar

The club bar is an essential part of our community, hosting events such as parties, quiz nights, and celebrations. Please consider booking it for any upcoming events. Thanks to Carmel and the team for their hard work.

For bookings

Contact Carmel 0863770763

Contact Stephen 0868303097

Acknowledgments & Final Words

A huge thanks to our Hurling Committee—Secretary Jonathon and Treasurer Orla—for their hard work. To the entire committee, your dedication is the backbone of this club, and we couldn’t function without you.

With over 40 meetings a year, we invest a great deal of personal time to ensure Kiltale Hurling & Camogie Clubs continue to grow and run as smoothly as possible. We always welcome new committee members—even if you can only help for major events or fundraisers, your ideas and support would be invaluable.

Thank you all for your continued support.

Stephen McCormack Club Chairman

The Kiltale GAA 2025 Live for Free Monster Draw took place in their clubhouse on New Years Day.

Robbie Wall claimed the 1st Prize, €500 a week for every week in 2025.

Breda Kelly won the 2nd Prize – a €500 Cassidy Travel Voucher.

Amy Douglas, Don Griffin, Gerry O’Connor, Coinor Curley and Justin Ennis were winners of the 5 x €100 Cash Prizes.

Kiltale Hurling and Camogie extends a massive thanks to the ticket sellers, buyers, team mentors, committee members from both hurling and camogie, online promoters and everyone who made the draw such a huge success.

The proceeds from the draw will go towards funding the development of the club’s facilities, including the completion of the new Astro Turf pitch and the improvement of the existing infrastructure. 

This will ensure that Kitale GAA can continue to provide top-quality training and playing grounds for players of all ages and abilities and especially the club’s rapidly growing juvenile sections in both hurling and camogie.

Our Juniors made it a double trophy haul with an impressive 1-16 to 1-09 win over Killyon in Dunganny on Wednesday evening in the Div 4 Hurling League Final, following up on our Div 1 success just 24 hours earlier.

A blend of youth and ‘veterns’ proved to be the key to success with Stephen Donoghue realing back the years at centre back and the speedy youth of Luke O’Halloran (who started both finals) proving too much for the Killyon defence to handle.

An early goal after just three minutes from Sean Hughes helped the marooon and greens race to an early 1-03 to 00-01 lead however Killyon settled and responded with a goal of their own after 20 minutes. The side in red and green then rallied and lead by two points at the break.

Kiltale needed a fast start to the second half, and got it through early points frm Daragh O’Doherty, Benny Dixon and O’Halloran to regain the lead. This settled the eventual winners and tight marking at the back resulted in their opponents getting just two points in the second period while Kiltale continued to notch up the points, adding another eleven points to secure the win. 

Catain David Schilders raised the Div 4 trophy afterwards.  

Kiltale team:

T Ryan; M Flaherty, D Schilders, M Burke; A Donnelly, S Donoghue, C Benson; A Rooney, J Bannon, B Dixon, S Cummins, S Hughes; L O’Halloran, S White, D O’Doherty.

Subs: P Donoghue, J McCormack, W Mahady, D Donoghue, P Garvey, E Corrigan, P Durnin, C Ryan, C Brien, C Quinn. 

Kiltale scorers:

L O’Halloran 0-06 (3f)

S Hughes 1-01

J Bannon 0-03

D O’Doherty 0-02

B Dixon 0-01

P Durnin 0-01

D Donoghue 0-01

A Rooney 0-01

Clann na nGael 1-17 Kiltale 2-18

Kiltale seniors made a winning start to the league with a good win over Clann na nGael.

The visitors took an early lead but were soon pegged back by the home side who scored four unanswered points to go 5 points to 2 up after ten minutes.

Kiltale then became dominant and with Jack Bannon raising the green flag they went in at half time leading by 4 points.

The visitors continued strong early in the first half with a goal from Mark O’Sullivan,  but the Athboy outfit were never far away and reduced the deficet to 3 points late on.

On a day when all the forward line scored, it was a point from midfielder Padraig Kelly with the last strike of the sliotar that sealed the points for the men in maroon and green. 

Kiltale:

S McGann, A Rooney, C McCormack, G McVann; E Corrigan, P Garvey, C McNally (0-01); I Hughes, P Kelly (0-07, 6f); D Donoghue (0-01), C Brien (0-01), C Ryan (0-01); D O’Doherty (0-02), M O’Sullivan (1-04), J Bannon (1-01).

Subs used: C McCabe, S Hughes, L O’Halloran

Some photos from our 2024 Tractor Run, it was great to see so many families out on a poor day weather-wise to see the various machinery on show!

Liam setteled in Kiltale after marrying local girl Eileen Callaghan in the early 70s.

A native of Tommevara in Tipperary he immediately got involved with Kiltale Hurling Club as a player and also served as secretary for many years.

Liam worked as a sales rep for various confectionary suppliers and all the Kiltale young hurlers used to love to travel in his car to underage away matches as there were many boxes of treats to be had before and after the games! If he didn’t happen to have any sweets in the car, Liam was guaranteed to stop in a shop on the way home and treat the lads.

As he travelled the country he was able to source great hurleys in Wexford and Tipp, much appreciated by the club at the time.

Many great club trips were organised down to Tommevara – a bus load would travel down and the team would play a match and a great social evening would be had by all afterwarsds.

Liam was also a major fundraiser for the club, organising many great ventures such as the talent contests in Warrenstown Arms. When it came to the senior final in 1982, Liam was the man organising the flags and hats.

Indeed he was on the Kiltale winning teams of 1982 and 1983 and a was very proud to witness the recent success of our teams over the last 15 years.

A great gael, he be remembered forever by everyone in the club and parish of Kiltale.

A New Year’s Message from club Chairman Stephen
Dear Kiltale hurling and Camogie members,

Another year has passed and like 2020 it has been a difficult time for all families in our community.

Covid certainly has played a big part in our lives and has not gone by without causing a lot of stress and concern on us all and I believe our younger people especially, lock downs, schools closed, constant fear and literally not being able to enjoy life as we know it should be,

But the one thing that kept us all out and about every week was the GAA, thankfully we all got to enjoy hurling and camogie getting us all away from the day to day concerns bringing ourselves and our kids out to training and games or even down to the club grounds for a walk, I certainly believe the GAA has brought us all closer as a community and give all our children some kind of normality for them and ourselves, this you could see in every Gaa club not just Kiltale.

As a club we had huge success in all ages both boys and girls, Men and woman (too many to mention) and a massive thanks to all mentors both hurling and camogie, all this could not be achieved with out your hard work and week in and week out commitment, thank you all again.

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We have as always great support from our sponsors and like every year that funding does not go unnoticed – thank you all for your continued support.

Without funding no club could survive or be able to invest in there grounds in maintenance of pitches walk way and club house.

To all people involved in keeping the grounds in such brilliant shape thank you for your time and pride you but into your volunteer work.

We have been lucky to be able to hold a few small fundraisers and thanks to everyone who supported, as the saying goes every bit helps, we also got to support a couple of charities on the way this year and over 2600 euro was raised for them.

To all families who had a love one pass away this year our prayers and sadness for you all is very much felt in our community and our door is always open for any support needed at any time night or day.

Our very much-loved Frank Smith who is still recovering in hospital we all look forward to having you back home very soon, Get well Soon Frank!


To our sister club Moynavley, like ourselves in Kiltale a massive well done this year and continued success and our support like yours to us is greatly appreciated.

As today is the 1st of January and a new year begins I and the committee wish the best of luck and happiness to everyone for 2022,

Club chairman

Stephen McCormack.

Kiltale 6-14 Killyon/Longwood 0-14

Kiltale were in control of this semi final from start to finish and eased their way into a final they last competed in and won two years ago. Indeed eight of that 2019 panel provided the backbone of this side.

A strong start saw an early goal from Noah Lacey-O’Dea after points from Sean Lynch and Daragh McVann, this was followed by an excellent Lynch strike to the net on 12 minutes.

A free from Conor Quinn gave the maroon and greens a 2-03 to 0-05 lead at the first sos uisce.

Another goal followed in the second qtr, this time from an opportunist strike from David Regan following good work by Vinny Walsh. A Lynch free added to a brace of points from Luke Gallagher and one from Walsh.

Killyon/Longwood were hanging in though and at half time had accumulated nine points, seven from frees to Kiltale’s total of 3-07.

Kiltale started the second half well through another Lacey-O’Dea goal after an excellent pass from Lynch and three Quinn points (2f). Another McVann point and a superb long-range effort from Craig Gilsenan left Kiltale in the driving seat and they led 4-12 to 0-12 after 45 minutes.

As the game reached it’s inevitable conclusion in the final quarter Malik Assani Ryan and Ryan Daly added goals with Walsh and Lynch points seeing out the game.

Kiltale:

1. Tom Ryan

2. Senan Maher

3. Charlie McCormack

4. Harry Dwyer

5. Mark Flaherty

6. Craig Gilsenan 0-01

7. Malik Assani Ryan 1-00

8. Daragh McVann 0-02

9. Vinny Walsh 0-02

10. Ryan Daly 1-00

11. Luke Gallagher 0-02

12. David Regan 1-00

13. Sean Lynch 1-03 (1f)

14. Noah Lacey O’Dea 2-00

15. Conor Quinn (c) 0-04 (3f)

Subs:

16. Liam Byrne

17. Luke O Halloran for Regan

18. Liam Deegan for Dwyer

19. Cormac Dunne for Daly

20. Michael O Shea

Kiltale had an impressive Junior Championship win over St Peter’s Dunboyne in Athboy on Saturday afternoon. Early points from all three of the full forward line of Stephen White, Andrew Jackson and Sean Hughes settled Kiltale early on.

An 11th minute goal from Hughes left the maroon and greens with a 4 point cushion at the first water break as they led 1-03 to 0-02.Dunboyne responded with a goal of their own in the second quarter to keep in touch but Kiltale had added 4 further points from White and three frees – two from Cathal Breen and one from Andrew Jackson.

Kiltale introduced Peter Durnin in the second half and his comtribution of 6 points (3 frees) would prove to be vital as St Peter’s failed to capitalise on the strong breeze at their backs for the 30 minutes. The move of the match though was to bring the vital score, Gavan McVann broke through from midfield and played an excellent pass to Lenehan who hammered home for Kiltale’s second goal of the day.

Two excellent points from Gavan McVann and a late Lenehan point saw Kiltale run out the 11 point victors.

Kiltale: O Regan; C Breen (0.02, 2f), A Donnelly, J Bannon; D Schilders, S Donoghue, S McKenna; G McVann (0.02), S Lenehan (1.01); B Dixon, S Cummins, W Mahady; S Hughes (1.01), A Jackson (0.02, 1f), S White (0.02).Subs used: P Durnin (0.06, 3f), TJ Lynch, D. Brennan, L Moran. M Burke.