THIS week we present one of Glenealy’s camogie stars of the golden fifties—a girl who won honours at county and provincial level, and one of a family who gave much to Gaelic games in the Garden County.
Kathleen Douglas was one of the greats in the camogie game, and won a record ten championships with her native Glenealy. She wore the Wicklow jersey for more than a dozen years, and topped off a long spell in the game by gaining provincial honours with Leinster.
She was only one of four of the Douglas clan who made G.A.A. history. Her sister, Sadie was a camogie star with Glenealy and Wicklow. Her brother Bob had a long spell with the Wicklow County hurling team and helped them to win the Leinster J.H.C. in 1954, and was a leading light on the Glenealy team that made hurling history with a great senior championship treble in 1957/58/59.
Another brother, Kevin, also shared in Glenealy’s hat-trick and had a few outings at county level. Suffice to say that Mr. and Mrs. Douglas, with four star performers on the Gaelic scene had hurling and camogie for breakfast, dinner and tea.
Great Glenealy Team
Kathleen talked about the great Glenealy team that swept all before them for a decade. She named the late Mrs. C. M. Byrne as the founder in chief, and she went back to the Tailteann games in 1920 for the tradition that inspired the Glenealy revival in 1940.
In 1920 a Co. Wicklow camogie team won big honours at the games and among the side were a few girls from the Glenealy area. In the fifties, Glenealy was the backbone of the Wicklow county team—at one time there were nine girls from Glenealy on the team.
She mentioned the great club spirit that existed among the Glenealy team in those years. When she listed the names the reason was apparent—there were a remarkable number of sisters —Martha and Ada Ryan, Mary and Ita Cooney from Kilcandra, the three Kavanaghs from Rathnew, Peg and Jean Neill, and Ann and Eileen Porter.
How did Glenealy make such progress in the game? Kathleen put down to hard training by the girls, and expert coaching by Rathnew footballer-hurler, Joe Byrne. She mentioned that the experience gained by playing matches with the then Glenealy minors—they were mostly the boys who went on to gain the three senior titles in 1957-59— on the local pitch was invaluable.
Hard Luck Story
Like many another camogie star, Kathleen’s hard luck story was her failure to win a Leinster medal. “Dublin pipped us time after time,” she said, “and there were at least two or three occasions when we could have won, and no other county would have stopped us from an A1I-Ireland.”
She named Kathleen McDonald, Barndarrig, as the outstanding Wicklow player, but she also paid tribute to Ada Ryan, Glenealy, Jean Hannon and Eileen Windsor, Bray, and all her Glenealy colleagues.
Apart from her Wicklow championship trophies, Kathleen also collected a few at inter-county level. She remembers in particular a Wicklow win over Cork, and she also had medals for Leinster championship runner-up awards. She has many memories of a long and successful career on camogie fields all over the country. She was an outstanding player and a dedicated fan, and Glenealy folk will ever remember her contribution and that of her sister and brothers.
Yes indeed, few families on the Gaelic scene could match the Douglas family of Kilnamanagh.
