The Sixties

The beginning of the ‘60s was dominated by the first visit of the Sam Maguire Cup to Down so the club programme was severely hit. Kilcoo were in the “B” League following the disasters of 1959 but, with only a few games completed, the League was suspended with a view to starting anew in 1961. In the Championship Kilcoo were defeated in the first round by Kilclief.

In 1961 Kilcoo started the League with five straight wins to put them on top and in the Feis Sevens the club proceeded to the finals in Newcastle by beating Castlewellan, but they were beaten by a strong Burren team in the semi-finals on Feis Sunday. Again, because of Down’s success in the All-Ireland campaign, the club competitions took a back seat In fact, the first round of the Championship did not take place until November when Clonduff easily beat Kilcoo in an uninteresting match in miserable weather conditions. The ’61 League campaign was again inconclusive but ’62 proved more controversial when Kilcoo were given a twelve month suspension as the result of an abandoned game against Castlewellan. In the Championship they were beaten by Warrenpoint and, consequently, club activity was limited to a few tournament games.

In 1964 Kilcoo were back in the “B” League with Ballela, Greencastle, Dunsford, Shamrocks II, Annaclone, Kilclief, Rostrevor and Mitchels. The season started off slowly with Kilcoo attached to the bottom of the League after the first six games but things did look up and they finished the season third in the table. However, they had been beaten by Downpatrick in the first round of the Senior Championship. Good performances by Brian Kane throughout the year meant that he was included in Down Minor panel for the Ulster Championship.

In 1965 Kilcoo reached another milestone in their history when, for the first time, ever they fielded a Minor team of their own. Prior to this, younger boys who wished to play Gaelic football, could only get involved in competitive sport by joining the teams of neighbouring clubs as many of them did. This issue was addressed, when, on Sunday 14 March 1965, under the guidance of Hugh John Fitzpatrick, the first Kilcoo Minor team took to the field in a challenge game against Rathfriland which resulted in a draw.

Encouraged by this, the team was entered in the South Down and Mourne Minor League Section “B” with teams from Rathfriland, Clonduff, Annaclone and Aghaderg. In their first ever League game against Rathfriland Kilcoo came out winners by 3-2 to 1-4 and went on to the top of the section and so were included in the knock-out stages. Unfortunately they lost out to Lower Mourne in the semi- final. These boys wore, again, the black and amber stripes of the old Upper Road team, whose nickname was “The Wasps”.

In the meantime the performances of the Senior team were somewhat overshadowed by those of the Minor team but they did have a satisfactory ‘B’ League campaign, eventually finishing fifth. Clonduff did, however, put an end to their Championship ambitions by beating them in the first round.

In 1966 James Morgan was chosen to play for Down Minors, winning the Ulster title and, narrowly, failing to take the All Ireland and because of the County Minors success the Club Minor League was abandoned. Brian Kane, also, joined Seamus Murray on the Down Junior panel.

Although the Kilcoo Seniors won the first round of the Championship against Glenn they lost out in the next round against Ballykinlar.

In 1966 a schoolboy team was introduced and early in 1967 they were successful in the Casey Cup Schoolboy Competition where they beat Burren in the final.

The Schoolboys also won the Longstone U-15 Schoolboy Sevens. As a result of the success of the schoolboys a Presentation Ceili was held in St Malachy’s Hall on Friday 10 March 1967.

The victorious team also went on to qualify for the South Down League Final but were defeated by Banbridge by 4-3 to 1-5. Kilcoo Minors reached the semi-final stage of the South Down League but were, then, defeated by Clonduff. With some good performances in goals throughout the season Seamus McCrickard was selected for the Down Minor Team. By comparison the Seniors, had a disappointing League campaign, finishing third from bottom of the “B” League and so they were demoted to the “C” League. They did manage to win the first round of the Championship against Ballymartin but were beaten in the second round by Kilwarlin. Towards the end of the season the Juniors beat Upper Mourne “B” to win the Cassidy Cup and a set of medals.

In 1968 Kilcoo joined Mayobridge, Downpatrick, Ballymartin, Bryansford and Ballyholland in the “C” League and, although, they did have some good victories two defeats by Bryansford helped to ensure a further year in this League and they were beaten by Rostrevor in the first round of the Championship.

1969 was an uninspiring year for Kilcoo Seniors both in the League and Championship, where Bryansford beat them in the first round again. The encouraging aspect of this year for the club was the involvement of teams from schoolboy right through to Senior in the competitions and Kilcoo Minors, including many of the successful Casey Cup team of 1967, battled through to the final of the South Down League, before being beaten there by Saval. On the County scene James Morgan set up quite a record in this year by being included in the Down Junior, U-21 and Senior panels in the same season. Down Seniors, after their All Ireland success of 1968 lost out in the Ulster Final of ’69 to Cavan.