James Burke reflects on the remarkable run of Naas GAA

James Burke has no fewer than eight Kildare Senior Championship medals stored away at home, five in hurling and three in football. It would be an impressive haul to pour over in a career retrospective, but the frightening reality is that the Naas man has only hit mid-20s.

Despite a seven year-old James not immediately taking to the small ball game, he also would go on to represent his county in Croke Park and win multiple Christy Ring titles at HQ. Before moving to Naas at a young age, one of the players now synonymous with Naas GAA actually played football for Sallins for a brief time.

As he reached his late teens, senior debuts would become a regular occurrence for James. He also made his club football debut off the bench against Cabrury, intercounty hurling debut and club hurling debut, in that order.

In the interim of all this excitement was an enormous scare for the Burke family. Just a couple of days after lifting a Freshers hurling title with DCU in March of 2018, James felt really ill and initially passed it off as nothing.

“I wasn’t feeling well and my sister was paying attention to it more so and said things like ‘he’s breathing funny or he’s definitely not right’ so she said it to Mam, who brought me to the doctor and they sent me to the hospital. I was in the hospital then for between 10 days to two weeks,” James explained.

What began as flu-like symptoms, developed into vomiting and a rash on his arms and feet. James was diagnosed with Type B Bacterial Meningitis, which allowed the hospital to treat him with an antibiotic that thankfully facilitated his recovery.

“It was quite serious, they put me into an induced coma. I don’t remember any of it really, I was just making sounds and couldn’t answer my name. It was touch and go. I probably still don’t to this day understand or appreciate the severity of it. Once I came out of the ICU and I had my phone back, my parents told me not to look into it too much because it is fairly serious. Still to this day, I haven’t dug into the ins and outs of it,” James said.

James’ focus as he returned home was getting back on the field and joining the Kildare hurlers on their quest for Christy Ring glory, although that was a ways off yet.

“I lost an awful lot of weight. I was weak coming out of it and had to take it very gradually. I began with one to two kilometre walks around my estate and started building up that way. Then going to the pitch by myself and doing a bit of pucking and jogging. A month to six weeks after I went to training with the Kildare lads. But to be fair to Joe Quaid, he managed me very well. I don’t think I did a full week of training the rest of the year, he was very conscious of minding me,” James recalled.

After being in an induced coma in March, incredibly, on June 2, the then 18 year-old made his return to the field in Kildare’s final Christy Ring Cup group game against Wicklow.

“The significance of it was probably lost on me, but I do remember when I came on the Kildare supporters gave me a big cheer. All the supporters and my parents probably appreciated it more than me,” James said.

The appearance was followed by a half-time introduction against Derry in the semi-final and a starting place for the Christy Ring final against London.

“I remember being in the dressing room before the game and Eanna O’Neill saying to me ‘this place is made for you’ and I remember how much those couple of words settled me down and how much more confident I was,” James said.

Though the towering Naas hurler doesn’t appear to be one for nerves at the worst of times. That became even more evident just a couple of minutes into the game as he slotted over a lovely score to open his account.

Kildare would run out 3-19 to 1-11 winners in Croke Park and the young man that was yet to appear for his club’s senior side now had an intercounty hurling medal.

James’ introduction to the Naas hurling senior team in 2018 meant that he missed their heartbreaking county final losses in the two years prior, when the fancied Naas team came up short against Celbridge (2016) and Ardclough (2017). After a semi-final exit in his first year, Naas would lift their first Kildare Senior Hurling Championship since 2002 the year after with a 0-15 to 0-12 win over Coill Dubh.

“It definitely was (nervy). We had plenty of wides and, as they creeped in, players, supporters and managers, everyone, got a bit more tense. Thankfully we dug it out, because I remember late on Coill Dubh were peppering our goals going route one. I would say the defence is what got us over the line that day,” James said.

“That win against Coill Dubh was huge, just a weight off the shoulders for a lot of lads. Teams around the county and the media probably had them as favourites going in 2017 and '18. Then when you lose two finals with that tag on you, the ‘bottler’ name starts being thrown around. It was a big relief to a lot of those lads to get over the line when we finally did. It was far from a perfect performance or a dominant win, but that is all you need just to get that first medal in the pocket. It was massive and thankfully we have pushed on since.”

The next milestone in the recent litany of Naas success was 2021, when the club found themselves in two county finals a week apart. With James (alongside Brian Byrne) in both. The excitement was palpable around the town.

“You are talking 30-odd years for the last Championship final win (1990) and naturally that was going to draw a lot of attention in a big town like Naas in a big footballing county like Kildare,” James said.

“I remember the difference driving through the town; there were a lot more flags and buntings out. You would be walking down getting a coffee and someone would stop you to say good luck. In hurling, it was a smaller community, but in football you noticed a difference in the build-up. It was brilliant to have the two of them to be worried about.”

“There were a few nerves, a bit shaky. We started like a house on fire from what I can remember and built up a seven-point lead (0-8 to 0-1 after 22 minutes). We were really comfortable, then Sarsfields, like all good teams, got on top of us. We got a black card (Sean Cullen) and it was backs against the wall. It was barely even ball to hand, we were just booting away from goal. It was just ‘don’t concede a goal here’,” James recalled.

“They had a goal disallowed too. The nerves in those closing minutes and the pressure we were under was something I hadn’t really faced before. Then the relief, excitement, and joy of winning I can still remember it to this day. Everyone going mad, people running in from the stands.”

A week on from the joy and ecstasy of a first football title since 1990, the hurling final would be no walk in the park either. Despite trailing by three at half-time, Naas ran out 1-16 to 1-13 winners to complete the club’s first ever county double.

Now in 2024, Naas remain on track to try and add to their current five-in-a-row streak in hurling and three-in-a-row in football (the first club in 70 years to do the latter) and challenge once again on the provincial stage.

As established earlier, it is too early for a career retrospective on James Burke, so for now, it is onto the next for Naas’ dual star.

James said, “It is so enjoyable to be part of. I don’t really look back on it and maybe it will only be when my playing days become numbered and I’m number 30 on the panel that I will look back and appreciate all these years.
“I haven’t looked back at the medals yet, it is just all about where the next one is.”