Cuala
While originally founded in the 1920’s the club only really got going in the late 50’s and it was in 1974 with the amalgamation of Cuala Casements and Dalkey Mitchells that they became Cuala. They carry the torch for Gaelic games in the Dalkey / Dun Laoghaire area of South County Dublin. Over the past couple of years they have been very successful at underage – winning championships and Leagues at various levels. They have teams at all levels from Academy to Senior. One of the local feeder schools Johnstown National School won a senior Cumann na mBunscol title with 14 of the 15 players from Cuala on the team – I wonder where the poor loner was from! – was it Kilmacud perhaps! They provide local schools with hurleys and helmets for indoor hurling competitions.
They consistently bring underage teams to Dublin Hurling matches whether home or away. At present they field 2 minor teams and 3 adult teams. They are presently developing a hurling Developing Strategy that ensures continued development and to be able to compete to the very best of it’s abilities at all levels.
Lucan Sarsfields
Founded in 1886 it is again one of the oldest clubs in the Capital. They won their 1st hurling title as far back as 1904. Now they start them very young at 5 years of age in the Nursery. Like all good clubs they cater for all ages from Nursery to Senior. They are lucky to possess one of Dublin best hurlers John McCaffrey as their GPO and have the inside track in the local schools where club members are also teachers. At present they have on average 30 players in each age group from u12 down and each juvenile team has a senior team member as a coach. Their contribution the County teams is impressive from Senior to Colleges level. The club has 3 senior referees at present and actively encourages younger players to get involved with the whistle. They attained senior status in 2005 and since then they have contested 2 senior semi-finals.
With a good number of non-nationals living in the Lucan area the club is capitalizing on this and have produced a multi-lingual leaflet in such languages as Russian, Polish, Urdu and Cantonese for distribution through the schools. It will be interesting to see the names on the Lucan Sarsfields team sheets in a few years time!
Na Fianna
Compared to some of the clubs featured above, Na Fianna is a young club founded in 1955. While the footballers have been very successful in the new millennium the hurling have made a dramatic comeback in recent times Their senior team have jumped 4 divisions in 5 years and this year were narrowly beaten by county finalists Kilmacud Crokes in the quarter –final stage. They cater for all ages from Nursery upwards with 2 teams at minor grade and 2 teams at junior grade. This year they had 700 children between 5 and 10 participating in the summer camps. From ages 8 to 12 they participate in the Go Games competitions and have regular matches with teams from Cork and Tipperary. At present the club is putting a skills and physical conditioning programme in place at underage level with the focus clearly on development of the core skills as opposed to a sole focus on gaining success only.
Their ambition is to have 2 teams at every level for under-13 to minor and they way things are going at present it won’t be long before they achieve that. They are regularly producing players for the county at all levels from development squads to the senior team.
