In this week’s ‘My Club’ feature, Mayo senior footballer Kevin McLoughlin tells us all about Knockmore GAA club.

Established in 1958 Knockmore was subsequently registered in 1960.  Swift progress was made by Knockmore, who captured the North Mayo junior championship in 1968 and within five years intermediate, senior, and provincial titles had also been won.

Since 1972 Knockmore have gleaned eight Mayo senior championships, while claiming Connacht glory on three occasions in 1973, 1992, and 1996.

Knockmore advanced to the All Ireland Club final in 1997, but were defeated by Crossmaglen Rangers on a 2-13 to 0-11 scoreline.

That was a quality Knockmore team sprinkled with class players such as Kevin O’Neill and Padraig Brogan, but Crossmaglen earned the first of their six All Ireland crowns.

Kevin McLoughlin is Knockmore’s current inter-county Mayo star, but throughout the years the club have been well represented in the famous green and red shirt.

Renowned for having a good underage system Knockmore remain hopeful about making an impact in the highly competitive environs of the Mayo Senior Football Championship in 2016.

The club’s main training and playing facility is at St Joseph’s Park in Knockmore where a variety of teams from under 6 to senior are catered for.

For more information on Knockmore, log onto the club’s official website http://knockmoregaa.ie/

Q: Tell us a bit about Knockmore and how you became involved?

A: We are a country club located between Foxford and Ballina.  I suppose we are quite a big parish.  Once you leave Foxford pretty much until you arrive in Ballina it is all Knockmore.  How did I get started?  I lived in Knockmore, my Dad used to bring me as a young lad on a Sunday morning.  We’d go to mass on a Sunday morning, training would always be after that.

Q: How would Knockmore compare to the clubs from the big Mayo towns such as Castlebar Mitchels and Ballina Stephenites?

A: Numbers wise we wouldn’t be very big compared to those from the towns.  But as a country club we are fairly big especially at the underage grades.  There has been a lot of really good work done.  Things like the Cul camps would be big for the club.  In a given year you could have the guts of a hundred people doing it which is good for a club like ours.

Q: The main rivals?

A: When I was growing up ourselves, Ballina, and Crossmolina were three teams right beside each other.  There was a big rivalry there back in the 1990s and early 2000s too.  All three clubs were very strong.  Both of them won All Irelands in that time and Knockmore lost an All Ireland in 1997.  All three of the clubs got to All Ireland finals in the space of six or seven years.  The rivalry was huge, all the clubs are within a 20 mile radius, even smaller.  Ballina would probably be our biggest rival at this stage now.

Q: You mentioned your Dad, do you have any other strong links in the club?

A: I’ve two sisters who unfortunately were never really into football.  All of my uncles, only one or two who still live in Knockmore, all would have played.  It is nearly more on my mother's side where the interest is in a way.  My mother is from Newport, Burrishoole is the club.  I’ve uncles there that would have been heavily involved in the club, they would have managed them a couple of times.

Q: Would you have gone to see them too?

A: Yes a few times we would go to see them play because I would have had a few cousins playing with them too.

Q: Do you do any coaching in the club?

A: No, not at the moment, but I hope to do so some day.  Definitely I would like to do something in the future.

Q: The team in 1997 had a good few famous Mayo names?

A: It did, the likes of Ray Dempsey, Kevin O’Neill, Padraig Brogan, Peter Butler, Kevin Staunton, Declan Sweeney.  A lot of guys that were in and out of Mayo teams really.

Q: Were they guys that you would have aspired to being like playing for Knockmore and Mayo?

A: It is hard to remember in a way because as a young guy all I loved was playing football.  Going to matches whether it be Knockmore or Mayo was always great.  Probably when I was very young then it was all about Knockmore, but when I got slightly older into my teens I used to love the Mayo games.  Then getting into Ted Webb and development squads helped.  It opened my eyes to county football.  Even let’s say the All Irelands in 2004 and 2006, those years drew me into Mayo football in a huge way at that stage.

Q: People such as Ray Dempsey and Kevin O’Neill were they in Knockmore team's you were involved with?

A: I played with Declan Sweeney for a good few years and with Kevin O’Neill.  They were two very long serving players with the club.  Kevin O’Neill’s last year with Knockmore was my first year getting on to the Mayo panel I think.  I played football with the club for him.

Q: Would you see yourself as an active clubman?

A: County football at the minute takes up a lot of your time.  It is very hard because sometimes you cannot even see your club mates train.  When that all dies down in a couple of years I would really hope to get heavily involved in the club.

Q: Winning a county title with Knockmore must be a serious ambition?

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A: At the minute we feel that we have a decent team.  We have a relatively good Championship record recently.  We have reached the latter stages, but we just haven’t pushed on to win a final.  The teams at the minute across Mayo are Ballintubber and Castlebar Mitchels, then you have Breaffy as an up and coming team too.  We would see ourselves in there too somewhere.