Kilkenny City AFC (Rep of Ireland)
When you hear the name Kilkenny you automatically think of hurling. It’s like hearing the word wet and thinking water. But what about the other sports that play second fiddle down in the Marble County? A county that once played host to a League of Ireland club for years, unfortunately does not anymore. With a mixed history of highs and lows, here is the story of Kilkenny City AFC.
Originally known as EMFA and created and founded by a group of leaving students who were idle with their free time, a football club was born in Kilkenny City. EMFA which stands for Emmet Street Fatima Place.
Only starting off in the youth leagues and the district the club played their football at Freshford Road Grounds, St James Park and endured early struggles, at one point they could not even afford jerseys, which lead them wearing all white as their strip as every player owned a white t-shirt of some kind. The soon changed colour to claret and blue, before changing again to claret and amber when being renamed Kilkenny City AFC in 1989. The club EMFA joined the League of Ireland in 1985 after having an unbeaten season before hand, winning both the Junior league and cup in 1984. In their maiden season the club finished 10th and under the name EMFA they recorded only one honour, winning the League of Ireland First Division shield, defeating Finn Harps 4-2 at Oriel park in 1987.
It was in 1990 when the name was changed from EMFA to Kilkenny City AFC and so it stayed for the remainder of the club’s history. Kilkenny City AFC, under the guidance of their new name had few successes. In fact, they only picked up one piece of silverware as Kilkenny City AFC which came in the form of the first Division title in the 1996-97 season. They triumphed by eleven points over their nearest rivals Drogheda United.
Their stay in the Premier Division was short lived, however, as they finished 11th place and were relegated straight back down. It wasn’t all doom and gloom for the club though as they made a few good memories for their faithful fans throughout their history with the most notable of these being when they reached the 1991 FAI cup semi-final, playing host to Shamrock Rovers, losing 1-0 at a record high attendance of 6,500 at Buckley Park.
Kilkenny City AFC did manage to gain promotion to the Premier League after beating Waterford United in a promotion/relegation play-off at the end of the 1999-00 season, but once again they found themselves way out of their depth and were relegated the following season, making their fans endure a nightmare season, only picking one victory in the whole campaign. It wasn’t until the 2005 season when Pat Scully took over that Kilkenny fans had something to cheer about again, although they had to wait for it for at least half a season.
Somehow the club went from bottom of the table only recording one victory in the first part of the season to resurrecting themselves and finishing 4th in the table by the close of the campaign. The arrivals of players like David Cassidy and Tadgh Purcell helped mid-season but their stay, along with Pat Scully was short as bigger clubs took attention to what was happening. Shamrock Rovers came in for Scully and the Kilkenny manager could not turn down an offer from a bigger club. The players followed suit and it left Kilkenny looking bare the following season.
A host of managers took over from then on as the club jumped from one caretaker manager to another, never really bringing stability to the club. It was on November 10th, 2017 when Kilkenny City AFC played their last League of Ireland game, a match they lost at home, 3-1 to Finn Harps. In the January that followed, 2008, Kilkenny City AFC officially resigned from the League of Ireland. Poor, attendances, a lack of interest and lack of investment were the reasons for this clubs’ demise.
The club that, even though they weren’t successful, will remain in the history of the League of Ireland. I should throw in that after doing this story, reading about the club and hearing some of the memories fromeland) the fans, I do hope we see a club in Kilkenny again. I wonder if the next club can give such memories.
(Will CK United be that club? Will they create menories like Kilkenny City did before them? Buckley Park is definitely a stadium that is worthy of hosting League of Ireland football, and I personally hope it does in the near future.
Hopefully, any new club that comes from Kilkenny will learn from past mistakes, making sure that the playing staff are majority local lads who the fans can relate to, that they can be proud of. That the new club walk before they can run and are patient in their pursuit of longevity and success. The League of Ireland doesn’t need another Forgotten Football Club, and it certainly doesn’t need another one from Kilkenny.
If things are done right, and the right people, who are passionate about football progressing in this county then a League of Ireland club in Kilkenny should prosper.