The Castleknock panel before their Dublin SFC Semi-Final victory against St Judes.
By Cian O'Connell
On a small, but important patch of grass dubbed Tír na nÓg young Castleknock footballers and hurlers have dreamed for 18 years.
This Saturday a budding and proud club will contest a Dublin SFC Final at Parnell Park against St Vincent's, the bluebloods of the capital game. Vincent's, with such a distinguished and admirable set-up, have claimed glory at this level on 26 occasions.
Castleknock's journey, though, has been remarkable; in under two decades they have progressed from the junior ranks in Dublin to become a respected outfit at the highest level in Dublin.
Underage development has been key, the All Ireland Hurling Feile success in 2007 was a victory that injected the whole project with confidence and momentum.
That an All Ireland Football Feile crown was added this summer merely highlighted the work that has been carried out - Castleknock, only formed in 1998, are anxious to develop further. "It is a fabulous time for the club and everyone connected with it at the moment," Chairman Charlie Spillane admits.
"It is a culmination of, even though it has been a short period of time when you look at it - 18 years, a lot of hard work, it is fantastic."
This has truly been a dramatic rise from Castleknock with Spillane recalling how it commenced. "To be honest I think I joined in 1999, the club had been running for about six months to a year," Spillane remembers.
"I've been there pretty much from the beginning. We started with nothing literally.
"I think we got our first set of footballs or hurleys as a gift from Erins Isle. They gave us some stuff to get started, we had no pitch, no clubhouse, no members. It has been a long road, but it has been brilliant."
Castleknock star Ciaran Kilkenny following the Dublin SFC Semi-Final win over St Judes.
The most satisfying and relevant part of the tale is how the local community have responded and connected - precisely what Castleknock GAA Club wanted to achieve.
"We have definitely touched something in the Castleknock and Dublin 15 area, there is no doubt about it because the membership is huge," Spillane says.
"Every kid in the area has one of the jerseys or the tops, you can see them going up and down the road with hurls in their hand.
"It really has got the imagination of the area and we have fabulous support from people in the Castleknock area. We are just very lucky. There was a great need for another GAA club in the area, that is something that came out of it very clearly. There is a huge interest in GAA games in the area, it is a hotbed, it really is.
"We were lucky enough that we got the use of a piece of ground, we call it Tir na nOg right beside Castleknock Community College.
"Park Developments gave us that on loan, that has been the site of our nursery from day one. It is very central, a great location right in the heart of the community."
That is where Castleknock's youngsters, including Ciaran Kilkenny, learned about Gaelic Games and what can be achieved on the playing fields around the country.
"It has served us so well over the last 18 years. Every kid that comes through the club has come through that nursery and that piece of ground. There was a huge buy in from the beginning, we worked very hard at getting kids into the club.
"As you can imagine not every family comes from a GAA background there are all sorts of backgrounds - we just try to integrate everyone to have a love of Gaelic Games, hurling, football, and camogie. It has been good."
Kenmare Shamrocks defeated Castleknock in the 2013 All Ireland Junior Club Championship Semi-Final.
Spillane is encouraged that so many of Castleknock's homegrown players are delivering silverware. Dublin Junior Champions in 2012, Intermediate victors two years later, Castleknock's nursery is producing solid footballers.
"Of the team that turned out last week I think 11 of the 15 came through the nursery and probably all of the subs would have come through the nursery too.
"That is a very important piece. You can see it on the pitch, the players are very, very used to playing with each other. If you take Ciaran Kilkenny, he has been playing with some of them fellas for 10 years, right through from all the underage through to minor, junior football.
"He has been playing with a similar group for an awful long time. They have all grown up together all of those lads. There is only a year or two between most of them."
The Hurling Feile in 2007 culminated with Castleknock success at Nowlan Park, it was a reminder about the possibilities that existed.
"To be honest nobody saw that coming," Spillane wistfully recalls.
"We didn't see it ourselves. You don't know you have a great crop of kids until something happens. We knew they were very good, but it was hard for us to gauge how good they were because we had no history.
"We just didn't know, we knew we were winning a lot of games with them, but that puts us on the map, well and truly, particularly because it was in hurling.
"We were only formed nine years when that came along. Then as luck would have it we managed to win the All Ireland Football Feile this year in 2016. So please God history will repeat itself so we can get another couple of great kids."
The scheming still goes on every Saturday morning at Tír na nÓg with the Castleknock success story preparing another exciting chapter.
