Eight Decades on - Famous Cross-Country Victory Finally Honoured - Article by John Walshe

Eight Decades on, A Famous Cross-Country Victory is Finally Honoured

Article by John Walshe

gerard murphy author kildinan ac history photo john walshe

Gerard Murphy, author of the history of Kildinan AC, speaking at the commemoration

A long-forgotten Cork cross-country team from a small rural area have finally been honoured with the unveiling of a monument adjacent to the field where they did their training all those years ago

kildinan crowd photo john walshe Some of the Large Attendance at the Unveiling

Kildinan is basically a townland situated between Rathcormac and Glenville, and on last Sunday evening a large crowd gathered to pay homage to these men who won the All-Ireland Junior title back in 1943. That winning team consisted of George Gubbins (captain), Danny Murphy, Dinny O’Driscoll, Pat Keohane, Pat Porter, Jimmy Buckley, Dick Barry, J. Purcell, Dan Murphy, Willie Rea, Pat Hourihan and Johnny Dorgan

maurice gubbins son 1943 kildinan ac captain photo john walshe Maurice Gubbins, son of the 1943 captain, who unveiled the monument

Back in December, a group of local people got together and their endeavours over such a short period has resulted in a beautiful monument which consists of two locally-sourced red sandstone columns erected at the ‘The Pound’ – across the road from the Pond Field where those dreams of glory were first nurtured

“It’s eight decades since the All-Ireland win and we felt that the story of the club and those who ran for it and saw after the running of it should not be forgotten,” said local historian John Arnold, speaking on behalf of the commemorative committee

John also added that the history of athletics in the area goes all the way back to the 1880s when the Phibbs brothers – Bill and Con – won titles at sports all over Munster in the years between 1885 and 1897. Bill also represented Ireland in the GAA Invasion Tour of the United States in October 1898 where he won a race over 880 yards in a time of two minutes and six seconds

kildinan ac poster

Flyer promoting the Unveiling

Also on the night a 36-page booklet titled ‘Remembering Kildinan Athletics’ was launched. This was compiled by former Grange athlete Gerard Murphy who grew up at Bridestown, just across from the farm where the Phibbs lived. Recalling those athletes who won All-Ireland glory in 1943, he said they were the most modest of men. “I grew up here, you would have seen me running the roads every night and in all those years during the ‘70s and most of the ‘80s we were unaware that a previous generation had been doing it in the ‘30s and 40s.”

After 1952 – with seven Cork County senior cross-country titles to their credit - the Kildinan club went into decline. But it was revived briefly in 1964 when it was responsible for the discovery of one Ireland’s greatest runners, John Hartnett from nearby Ballyhooly. “John Hartnett found his way into athletics by accident,” relates Gerard. “One Sunday morning after Mass, when he was 15, Ballyhooly GAA ran a time trial for its members and anyone else who decided to come along. The course was one lap of the sports field by the Blackwater River where the annual sports were held. Running that day was his friend Peadar Dorgan, a member of Kildinan AC and son of Johnny who had won the county novice title in 1939 and was on that All-Ireland winning team of 1943

“John surprised himself by finishing second behind an established runner from Grange, even though most of the competitors were considerably older than he was. After the race Peadar suggested to his friend that he should accompany him that afternoon to Kildinan where the athletic club had been re-established and where they were holding trials for juvenile cross-country

kildinan ac commemoration

John Arnold, fourth from left, and the organising committee to recall Kildinan AC

“And so, that afternoon John Hartnett and Peadar Dorgan travelled across the hill, in Johnny Dorgan’s lorry, to the Pound Cross where the Kildinan club was holding its races. The races were held in the Pond Field on Walter Lindsay’s land. As it turned out, John was too old for the under-14 so an additional under-16 race was hastily convened for the half-a-dozen or so lads who were over-age. This John duly won – his first-ever victory.”

With the decline of Kildinan, Hartnett went on to join the Grange club in Fermoy where he would go on to win the International Junior Cross-Country title (the forerunner to the World Championships) in 1970 before embarking on an athletics scholarship to Villanova University. Amongst a host of other major achievements, in 1973 he broke Ronnie Delany’s Irish mile record with a time of 3:54.7 and the following year, on a magical night at the Cork City Sports, ran a 3:56.3 mile, one of the fastest ever achieved on grass

Gerard Murphy covers Hartnett’s career from his earliest days and there is a touching anecdote of how the former Kildinan athlete never forgot his roots. “His debt of gratitude to Kildinan can be gauged by something he did during his years at the top. It was standard practice then, and still is, for the winners of races at the Penn Relays, held every April in Philadelphia, to be awarded a specially engraved gold watch with the twelve points of the hour spelt with the letters PENNSYLVANIA

“John won six of those over a three year period. He gave four to his siblings, the fifth to Tom Burke, who ran Grange AC all through the 1960s, 70s and 80s. The sixth he gave to Peadar Dorgan, the man who brought him – by lorry – to athletics in the first place. It was a tacit acknowledgement of his debt to Kildinan.”

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