1965 to 1984

From 1965 to 1984 ( Paddy Cromwell )

From 1965 to the Present Time The end of the Skryne, O’Mahonys era signalled the start of another great rivalry on this occasion with the great Kilbride team of the sixties powered by the Quinn Brothers. The year 1965 was a great year for the club for having regained the Feis Cup. After sixteen years the club contested the Senior Championship final with Kilbnde. The match was to end in controversal fashion with Skryne being awarded the championship subsequently. This same team was to go to contest five successive Senior semi-finals and two Senior finals but victory eluded them on each occasion. I may be biased in this regard but I feel that this very good team deserved more reward for its efforts. My colleagues at that time Dinny Donnelly, David Carty, Paddy Mulvany, Sean Smyth, the Lynchs, Connors, Murphys and many more ensured that Skryne remahied a force to be reckoned with in Meath football. The early seventies were lean times for our Senior team but the results at under age level again gave reason for optimism The potential of this new team seemed about to be realised in 1977 when the Feis Cup again returned to Skryne for the first time in twelve years. However even though the Feis Cup was to be won four times over the next five years the elusive Keegan Cup has yet to return to the nest in Skryne. In this historic year of 1984 as I come to the conclusion of the story of Skryne football club to date there is every reason to believe that the long awaited championship victory may not be far away. As I write men like Coim O’Rourke, Padraig Finnerty and Liam Hayes are very much to the fore in the revival of Meath fortunes and with their colleagues will not spare themselves or rest until Skryne is restored to the greatness which it once enjoyed. It should not go unrecorded that the club has always been served by extremely dedicated officials.

Before my time men like Brian Smith N.T., Jack Callaghan, Stanley Carty, Jack Reilly, Christy Brown, Packie and Tommy Mooney and Tommy Halligan guided the fortunes of the club. Indeed two of these men, Christy Browne and Packie Mooney continue their long association with the club to this day. The club has also given many officers to the Co. Board down the years and is proud to record that the office of Chairman of the Co. Board was filled by a Skryne man Colm Cromwell from 1971-1975 (inclusive). In modern times the names of officers who have served club and county are too numerous to record but the Skryne club in its great tradition of service to the G.A.A. continues to provide players and officials of the highest calibre. I must conclude on a sad note because as I write, that legendary figure Fr. McManus, about whom you have read in Chapter One, has been laid to rest. Although there are records of football in Skryne before Fr. Mac’s time it is generally accepted that the success story of Skryne Football Club owes more to Fr. McManus than to anyone else. It is fitting that he will be forever remembered in Skryne by virtue of that memorial to his memory Fr. McManus Park.

Peter McDermott once wrote in reference to a Skryne victory “Fr. McManus sowed an acorn in Skryne football which has grown into a mighty oak” and long may it remain so. Paddy Cromwell.