New TV documentary to feature Kilmacud Crokes GAA club

ONE of the Southside’s biggest GAA clubs is set to star in a new TG4 documentary that was launched last week.

The well-known sports presenter, Evanne Ní Chuilinn, launched the new seven-part series in the Kilmacud Crokes Clubhouse in Dublin.

The documentary will offer a unique insight into the families and communities involved in four very different GAA clubs as they battle for honours and strive to survive the 2018 season.

The series, called 'Ár gClub' (Our Club), is produced by Aniar for TG4 and will be broadcast from February 7. As well asKilmacud Crokes, the other clubs to be featured include Na Piarsaigh (Co Galway), Na Dúnaibh (Co Donegal), and Cumann Caide na Gaeltachta (Co Kerry).

 With 2,500 clubs across Ireland, the GAA is the biggest, and perhaps the most important sports and cultural institutions in the country.

With a club in every parish the local club is the corner stone of the GAA and local communities.

“In this new series we tell the stories of four very different GAA clubs as they compete, battle for honours, and strive to survive the 2018 season,” the producers said.

“We join the communities and families of An Ghaeltacht in Kerry, Na Piarsaigh in Galway, Na Dúnaibh in Donegal as well as Kilmacud Crokes in Dublin for the joys and the heartbreaks involved in supporting their home club.”

In the first programme it is January 2018 and in Dublin a lack of playing pitches is proving to be a real problem for the Kilmacud Crokes GAA club. The series opener also follows the supporters of Cumann Caide na Gaeltachta to their All Ireland semi-final match against Moy Tír na nÓg from Tyrone, as both clubs battle for a place in the final and to play in Croke Park.

In programme two we see the how the Kilmacud Crokes GAA club are promoting camogie in the area, while the girls and parents of the U-12 camogie team must manage rush hour traffic to make training. In Connemara the manager of Na Piarsaigh ladies football team fears they may not be able to field a team.

In the third programme Kilmacud Crokes and Dublin intercounty hurler Fergal Whitely discuss the 'club versus county' debate as he does linesman for his club at a senior league match.

The Southside club features again in programme five as Fergal Whitely and the hurlers of Kilmacud Crokes face the mighty task of having to defeat All Ireland champions Cuala if they are to book their spot in the county final for a third year in a row.

For the third year in a row the hurlers of Kilmacud Crokes have reached the Dublin senior county final. Having lost the two previous finals, they are determined not to lose and in the final episode of the series we are with the clubs in the final weeks of the 2018 season.