Kilmore Rec FCEst. 1967 · Crossgar

Kilmore Rec has been playing football since 1967 — from friendlies at Hamilton's Field to a Christmas-morning cup final at Seaview. This is the club's history, written down properly for the first time.

It is deliberately unfinished. A club's history doesn't live in newspaper archives — it lives in shoeboxes of photographs, in framed team pictures on landing walls, and in the stories told at the bar after training. Each chapter below ends with what we don't know yet — 27 open questions and counting. If you can answer one, correct us on something, or hand us a photo we've never seen, you become part of the telling.

How to contributeOr just tell us something now →

The journey

  1. 1967Two young local men, Bobby McClure and Dennis Lennon, call a meeting in April and form a club. Most of the players come from Kilmore, so the name is Kilmore United.
  2. 1968Into the Newcastle & District League, playing at Hamilton's Field, halfway between Kilmore and Annacloy.
  3. 1972A new name — Kilmore Recreation — and a new home on the monastery ground at Crossgar, granted by the Passionists of Tobar Mhuire. The club joins the Amateur League in Division 2B.
  4. 1978The Cochrane & Corry Cup, beaten Queen's II 1–0 — the first trophy engraved Kilmore Rec FC. The first of three consecutive finals; won again 3–2 in 1980.
  5. 1979The Co. Antrim FA Junior Shield, won 2–1 against 40th Old Boys at Castlereagh Park, Newtownards.
  6. 1981Division 2A champions; 1B champions at the first attempt a year later, and into the top flight for the rest of the eighties.
  7. 1991Founder members of the Amateur League's new Premier Section — the reward for rebuilding the ground to the new criteria.
  8. 1992Cliftonville at Robert Adams Park in the Irish Cup, 18 January — the first senior visitors. Lost 1–0; Paul Moore's header off the crossbar enters folklore.
  9. 1996The Northern Ireland Youth Cup, won 2–0 against Portadown Boys at Ballyclare — the last Amateur League club ever to win it.
  10. 1998Robert Adams — "Mr Kilmore" — dies suddenly at 47. The ground is renamed Robert Adams Park in his memory.
  11. 2004Ten points at Christmas, then a winning spree: the Clarence Cup, 5–1 against Downpatrick Hospitals after extra time, Stevie Rogan with a hat-trick — retained the following year. That autumn, Irish League scalps: Ballymena United and Distillery beaten in the County Antrim Shield before Linfield end it at Seaview in the semi-final.
  12. 2009Christmas morning at Seaview: the Steel & Sons Cup, 2–0 against Downpatrick — Niall McCarthy and Liam Graham. The 1A title follows and the club returns to the Premier.
  13. 2013An Irish Cup quarter-final — the only club outside the top two divisions left standing, beaten only by Cliftonville, that season's champions, at Solitude. Third in the Premier that year and the next: the best league finishes on record.
  14. 2017Fifty years, marked at Downpatrick Racecourse — and an anniversary that turns into a plan for the ground.
  15. 2024A £400,000 grassroots award helps deliver the £1m vision: the last match on grass in February, and by October a full-size floodlit 3G open to the whole community.
  16. 2026Three senior sides, an academy from U8s, a growing girls' section, the Swifts promoted again — and this history project.

The chapters

1967–1972Kilmore UnitedTwo young men, a meeting in April 1967, and a team playing out of a field halfway between Kilmore and Annacloy.5 open questions1972–1991The monastery groundA new name, a home granted by the Passionists, three finals in three years — and the climb to the Amateur League's top flight.7 open questions1991–2002The Premier yearsFounder members of the Premier Section, Cliftonville twice in the Irish Cup, the last Amateur League club to win the Youth Cup — and the loss of Mr Kilmore.5 open questions2002–2010Cups, upsets and Christmas at SeaviewThe great 2003–04 turnaround, Irish League scalps in the Antrim Shield, four lost Border Cup finals — and the morning that made up for all of them.5 open questions2010–todayThe modern clubAn Irish Cup quarter-final, internationals coming home to coach, and a £1m plan that put a floodlit 3G at the heart of Crossgar.5 open questions

The honours board

Steel & Sons Cup2009
Clarence Cup2004 · 2005
NI Youth Cup (Harry Cavan)1996
Co. Antrim FA Junior Shield1979
Cochrane & Corry Cup1978 · 1980
Amateur League Division 1A2009–10
Amateur League Division 1B1981–82 · 1990–91
Amateur League Division 2A1980–81
Templeton Cup (Swifts)2025
Division 3E (Swifts)2024–25

Incomplete, we suspect. Know of a trophy that's missing — or a year we've got wrong? Put us right →