Grennell clan still cornerstones of Killester's unique double drive
Killester's Paul Dick and Michelle Clarke at the National Basketball Arena Pic ©INPHO/Dan Sheridan
Back when they were kids, Paul Dick would come down from Belfast and go to basketball camps with his cousin Michelle Clarke in her hometown of Dublin, the pair of them as thick as thieves.
How tight and mischievous were they? “We’d give our names as Michelle Grennell and Paul Grennell,” grins Michelle. “That’s what we’d go by for the week. We’d ditch our own surnames.”
There was an honour and honesty amongst those thieves. They were Grennells. It was the name their mothers went by until Breda married a national league basketball player from Belfast called Francis Dick and her sister Philly tied the knot with Killester clubman Kenneth Clarke.
The National Cup trophy that Michelle is hoping to get her hands on this weekend? The first person to lift it was Breda Grennell in 1984 when she captained and inspired Naoimh Mhuire to a final win over league champions Meteors. Philly Grennell was also on that team, as was another sister and former Irish international, Clare. The coach was their brother, Martin Grennell.
“The history just runs so deep,” says Michelle. “We have a family WhatsApp group which must have up to 30 people and all the time you’ll have someone putting in some cool [basketball] fact or pic. We were just born into it. We’ve known nothing different.”
Their uncle Martin does. Back in the mid-sixties he was an altar boy in the local Killester church, doing a bit of track and field, but not much other sport. Then a young curate from Rathmore in county Kerry, Fr Mick Casey, was stationed in the parish and soon identified that the kids, girls and boys, could do with another sport. The carpark across the road was an ideal spot to play it.
“At first he had to drag us over the road to try it out,” says Martin. “The likes of myself and Éamonn Molloy. Yeah, Éamonn was an altar boy too – and a very religious one, I might add! But the amazing thing was we kept at it. And it was a game both the girls and boys could play so it soon became a big attraction. Some of the local parishioners hated Mick for it, messing up their lovely carpark, but we grew to love it.”
Such were Fr Casey’s powers of persuasion he convinced Grennell at 16 to go up to Orangefield in Belfast just before the outbreak of the Troubles to take a coaching course so he could coach some of the girls in the parish. Amongst his first guinea pigs were sisters Breda, Philly, Clare and Imelda. Within a few years they were all Irish underage internationals. When the first national league was established in 1978-79, those Killester Kittens were inaugural champions.
By then Grennell and Molloy had been national league champions themselves, winning three men’s titles in a row from ’75 to ’77. Such was their dominance a few of that side – Jim O’Kelly, Pete Ferrari and Martin himself – went over to join Corinthians, just for the challenge.
A few years later Martin returned; the league with the advent of the Americans now a much bigger deal and the competition had left Killester behind. It took until 1985-86 and the signature of Kelvin Troy to re-establish themselves as a top-three team. The addition of future NBA star Mario Elie the year after saw them capture their first bit of silverware in a decade with the National Cup.
In 1980, after winning their second league in succession, the Kittens and the Grennell sisters made the bold move to join bottom-of-the-table Naomh Mhuire.
“It was one of those things that happens in every club now and again,” recalls Martin. “The girls section would have been weak with the exception of the national league team when there was a decision taken that each section of the club would have to look after themselves and find their own gyms and all that. Fr Joseph Horan let it be known that he and the Oblate Hall would be more than happy to have them play for Naomh Mhuire.”
There was “no real animosity” about it, which is why he had no qualms coaching those early Naomh Mhuire teams while playing with Killester himself. “It was as much the men’s section moved away from the girls as anything else,” he says.
That exodus of the Kittens informed future generations of Killester administrations and Grennells. “People ask how can we get both sections of the club in Superleague Cup finals and I’d say it’s because we don’t think of there being two sections of the club,” says Michelle Clarke. “There’s no ‘other section of the club’. There’s just one club. The men’s and women’s are treated equally because the club learned that from when my mum [Philly] and her sisters and friends left. I mean, those Naomh Mhuire titles [the 1982 league and Top Four, the 1984 Cup] were really Killester titles but they weren’t because the girls weren’t treated properly.”
Now whatever venues and hall-times the men’s have for training one week, the women’s have the following week. And each of their Superleague teams are coached by a son of Martin Grennell.
Johnny takes the men’s. Not to mention the club’s U18 women’s, U13 girls and the U11 and U10 boys. “Whenever I say to myself I don’t have enough time for something, I look at Johnny and think if he has enough hours in the day then so do I,” says Michelle.
“People might think he took a step back within the club [between guiding it to the 2014 Superleague title and resuming the reins again last season] but he never did. While he’s not officially on the committee he remains the backbone of the club. The go-to person for everything.”
His brother Mark is the actual chairman. And coach of the women’s team which won last season’s Superleague, captained by his cousin Michelle.
It had been 44 years since a Killester captain received that trophy. The captain that day? Michelle Clarke. The person who handed it to her? The previous captain in 1980. Her aunt, Breda Dick née Grennell.
This season could mean even more. Only four months ago Michelle lost her dad, Kenny. At the start of every season Michelle helps design the team kit, mindful that when the Kittens and Martin started out in the church carpark, Fr Casey chose orange and black, like the team he played with in Rathmore. This year the word ‘Killester’ has never been printed bigger across their chests.
“I wanted everyone to see who we are. I wanted the real retro look as a big nod to the likes of my dad and those who have come before us. Because without those coaches and volunteers there is no team or club. At the start of the season it was definitely quite turbulent and I struggled.
“But Mark in particular has been great and in the last couple of months I’ve come back into my own. He would have recognised that my father through the years was the one to hold me accountable and kick me in the ass. And Mark has done a really good job of filling that void and reminding me of my role as captain. It’s never about me. Even in the semi-final last week [against Killarney], I didn’t score the ball well but that wasn’t reason to stop putting my body on the line and communicating with the rest of the team.
“It’s a pity my dad is not here with him having managed both the men’s team and the women’s team for years. But it’s amazing that of all years this is the one in which we have got to both finals, something no club has ever done before.”
For her cousin Paul this weekend also has extra significance. His mother Breda will be entering the Basketball Ireland Hall of Fame this May. The first Killester team to win the Cup back in 1987 featured not just his uncle Martin but his father-in-law, one Kelvin Troy, father of his wife Marianna AKA Mimi, a fine player herself.
He has played with Star of the Sea and won a Superleague with Tralee but all the time, he admits “it felt a bit weird playing against Killester.” Now he has the chance to join those family members as Cup winners with the club.
“It just feels homely,” he says. “When I made my confirmation Johnny was my sponsor. Now he’s my coach. To me he’s the total package: tactically, man-management, the lot. Having a good run of health is a big reason for me enjoying my basketball so much but Johnny is as well.”
The men are up first on Saturday night. Michelle will be in the stands, and if they win, will even briefly pop into the pub. “I’ll still be taking care of my hydration and sleep and all the one-percenters,” she says. “But I’m mindful these occasions don’t come around often and are to be savoured.”
On Sunday her cousin Paul will trade places. “I’m looking forward to that,” he says. “Normally when we’ve a double-header in the Wheelchair [Centre], I’m not able to sit down and watch the last quarter of the women’s game with my bad back. But on Sunday I will.”
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