James Dillon on the early days of Suncroft and family ties

James Dillon has been a Suncroft man his whole life and, while American audiences were settling in for their first screening of Victor Fleming’s The Wizard of Oz, he was brought into the world. 

Suncroft in its current form was yet to exist when James started out as he began his footballing career with Carna with another side in Ballysax splitting the population.

“We only had about 16 or 17 of us at that stage. I started out corner-forward and I was only 14 at the time. We played Kilcullen and there was a lad by the name of Larry Conway, a big man, he told me ‘Jim, I’ll break the ball down and you’ll get it’. He won the next ball and when I went to grab it he nearly killed me,” Jim laughed.

“I didn’t even have football boots that day, I was playing in a pair of shoes. They were different times alright.”

Jim’s playing career would largely be coloured by Suncroft's presence at Junior level and the rough and tumble nature of Gaelic football at that time. After starting to play more regularly at aged 16, Jim got his first taste of silverware in 1962 with a Junior Championship win with a resounding victory over Ardclough.

“We beat them in Naas and they were very poor. We had 4-8 or so before half-time,” Jim recalled.

Indeed the 1962 Kildare Junior Championship final does not have a scoreline next to it on its listing, whether that is due to lack of record (unlikely) or to protect the losing finalists. 

A much stiffer test was soon to follow when The Croft met Ballyteague in the Jack Higgins Cup final. Their first encounter ended in a draw (1-6 to 1-6) and indeed a mass brawl.

“We won it (the replay) and both teams had been warned pre-match that there was to be no trouble. They said if anyone started something they would be put off and suspended for a year. The game wasn’t on five minutes when Sca Nolan from Ballysax was down in the corner beating a lad on the ground. The referee put the two of them off, but for the whole hour there were battles going on,” James explained.

“It never stopped, it was crazy. Lads were more inclined to do that than play football. A first cousin of mine, Patsy McDonagh, played full-back and if anything stirred in that area he dropped in. Ballyteague’s Padraic Dunne came up to him after the game and said ‘we didn’t get you today McDonagh, but we’ll get you next day’ and Patsy said back ‘by God there is no time like the present’. That was football at that time and people went to watch matches because there would be a row in it.”

After surviving the Ballyteague war, Suncroft now had cause to celebrate after winning two trophies and their first since 1950. The quenching of that particular thirst took place in Moores Well or Morrins as it was in those days.

Despite the potentially dangerous conditions, James played well into his 50s and togged out beside his three brothers against Monasterevan when they were short. Perhaps least impressed with the request was Tom Dillon, who had to play in rubber boots after simply coming to watch the match.

James was heavily involved off the field for Suncroft too and stood alongside friend and colleague in Irish Ropes Ollie Crinnigan as a selector for their 1984 campaign.

Suncroft lost to Naas in that year’s Intermediate final 2-6 to 1-7. The headlines on the papers the following week were all centred around Suncroft kicking 21 wides and losing by a point.

“You kicked about 20 of them was it? James asked, gesturing towards his nephew Seamus, who had kindly set up the interview you are reading now.

“I think it was only 16 of them,” Seamus smirked back.

It was largely heartbreak for Suncroft in the 1980s as they came up short in four Intermediate Championship finals before finally climbing the mountain. The Croft suffered defeats to Castledermot (‘85), Ballymore Eustace (‘86)  and Round Towers (‘88) before beating Clogherinkoe in the ‘89 final.

“The teams that beat us were good Intermediate teams. We should have beaten Naas that first year. That was a really good Suncroft team that was capable of maybe going on and competing at Senior level because Naas went on to win the Senior Championship in 1990. We were as good if not better than them,” James explained.

“A few lads from ‘84 to ‘86 retired. Cathal Malone and Phillip Hayden had gone, a couple of really good footballers who had finished up with us. There were younger lads coming through though and then eventually we got the right mixture of things. Rainbow came through between ‘88 and the following season, so he was a help too.”

Suncroft beat Clogherinkoe 2-9 to 0-9 in the 1989 Intermediate Championship decider and finally progressed to Senior after years of near misses.

“We got a goal early on. Padraig Kenneally and Christy Lawlor got our two goals, but it was always a game we were in control of. We had beaten them in the semi-final in ‘88 and we felt we had their measure. It was more of a relief than anything. For some of the ones that were playing, they were worried they had missed their chance. Even for me, after getting beaten in a final, I wouldn’t sleep for a week after it,” James said.

“Tony Keogh was the manager and he was a law unto himself, a very committed man. He was very good friends with Larry Tompkins. He spent time going to Cork to get feedback and discuss how to come up with gameplans with him. He would come back to us then and we’d be bombarded with information.”

Suncroft were not short of managers with plentiful football knowledge having been coached by Carbury legend Ollie Crinnigan and Meath’s Matty Kerrigan in that decade, but it was Tony Keogh and his all encompassing management of his team that pushed them over the line.

“He was unbelievable. We were training one night and the women in Churchview came out objecting to the language he was using, but he was so good to players. He helped with employment because he was in the Council and he was much more than a football manager. If you had a problem, he was the man to go to,” James explained.

“The lads would probably die on the pitch for him then?” I asked.

“Well they didn’t have a choice in that,” James laughed. 

Suncroft produced a couple of notable wins in the Senior ranks and reached a top-level Championship semi-final in 1995, losing to Athy. The winning side would then go on top to be thumped by the now legendary Clane side of the 90s, but as James said “it would have been nice to get into the parade.”

Family connections run right through with the Dillons and Suncroft. His sons James Jr. and David played for the club and one of his proudest moments came from the ladies side with his daughter Elaine. She had a starring role as Kildare won the 2004 All-Ireland Junior Ladies' Football Championship with a 2-13 to 3-5 win over Sligo in Croke Park.

“She scored a goal in the first half. I was sick (with nerves). The goal wasn’t too bad at least, but near the end Sligo were coming back at them and I nearly died. My son James was trying to get me to cool down, but I told him I’d cool down once it was over. I was always a bad spectator,” James said.

Between a working life in Irish Ropes alongside other top GAA men and near innumerable family sporting connections, there was never going to be a life without football for James Dillon.