Why Kildare County?

Another, and for now the last, in my occasional series of posts about why I follow the teams I do. I've done previous posts about the Colorado Rapids, Queen of the South, Blackburn Rovers, Ebbsfleet United, and CD Tenerife. This time around we'll look at Kildare County FC of the Irish First Division.

So a random team from the second-tier of Irish football located in south-central Ireland is probably an odd choice for an American living in Denver. In this case though its the closest thing I have to rooting for a "local" European team.

My family tree, through the Maxwell name, stretches back from Seattle (where I was born) to the Dakotas, Midwestern Canada, and finally back to Port Laoise, Ireland. My great, great, great, great grandfather, Col. John Maxwell, was born there to Dr. John and Penelope Maxwell in 1775 or 1776. He joined the British Marines and served in the Caribbean before emigrating to Canada after leaving the service. Our genealogy research on the Maxwell line stops with Dr. John Maxwell.

Once I determined where in Europe I came from I naturally started looking for the closest professional football team and I found Kildare County. Station Road is about 45 kilometers from Port Laoise and is the closest club in either the Irish Premier or First Divisions. Thus they became another one of the teams I follow.

Honestly in my list of teams they are the squad I'm least passionate about. That's mainly because the Irish First Division is barely a full-time league and the coverage reflects that. That makes it hard to really get excited about the team. I'm still rooting for them to avoid relegation, not only because I root for them to do well, but also because if they drop down into the lower levels of Irish football following them from here will be pretty much impossible.