Memories that will last forever
FOR the second year in a row and for only the second time in our clubs history we qualified to represent our county in Féile na nGael.
Having been there last year we knew what a great experience it was to take part in this event. We were honoured to be appointed joint captains of our team.
Friday: Everything packed weather looking good, don’t think we will need the rain jackets this year!
The bus collected us at three locations, Hollywood, Donard and Dunlavin.
All our kit was loaded on board the excitement was building we decorated the bus with our banners and bunting we were on the way.
Spirits were high. We have worked hard to get this far and we were looking forward to a great weekend of camogie and also the fun of being away and making new friends.
We had a break for lunch and then on to our first stop at Hugginstown GAA Club in Kilkenny.
Our first match was against the local club Carrrickshock. It was a good game and we luckily came out on top.
We had a break and watched Geraldine O’Hanrahans of New Ross,the team that were to be our hosts, play against Cillard of Kerry and then Carrickshock play New Ross.
We then played Cillard and unfortunately got beaten. Time then to board the bus and head for New Ross where we were to be based. We met our host families and headed off for the night.
Saturday: All back together, great chat comparing notes on what our host families were like and the friends we had made.
Then time to get back to the important part of the weekend, the camogie!
This morning we were to play our hosts Geraldine O’Hanrahans. We started with a parade lead by the local pipers to the cheers of all our supporters and we felt very proud to lead our team.
Then down to business, we had a good game against our host team and came out winners.
This win put us second in our group and we were then set to travel to Carlow for the quarter-finals in
the cup. Our hosts were also off to Carlow to compete in the Shield.
Back on the bus we went and stopped on the way for lunch the weather was so good it felt like we were on holidays.
However, when we arrived in Carlow it was down to business we faced a team from Kilkenny called Lisdowney it was a tough match but we came out on top.
We had great support in Carlow not only from those who had been travelling with us but a lot of people from our club turned up to cheer us on and it was great to see all the flags and banners on the sideline.
Back to New Ross, tired but happy, we were going to the semi-finals on Sunday.
Our hosts had food ready for us and gifts were exchanged between the clubs to mark the occasion.
Our host club were really wel- coming to us and we headed to the disco to have more fun.
Sunday: Early start as our semi-final was in Ferns at 10.30am. We were sad to say goodbye to our hosts as we had really enjoyed our stay in New Ross. However, a crowd of them came to Ferns to cheer us on.
We were to play a Kilkenny team, the Rower/Inistioge. We got a good start and were in the lead however we were unfortunate to miss a few chances and they got ahead of us in the second half.
We were disappointed not to make it to the final but the team had played their hearts out throughout the competition and we could go home feeling proud of all we had achieved.
We watched the finals of our group and then loaded up on the bus for home tired but happy.
We had a great weekend and made lots of new friends and memories there will be little things that this group shared over the weekend that will remain with us for a long time, our teamwork on the pitch, the importance of getting WIFI codes at lunch stops, the bus having to make a special pit stop outside a church and lots more.
Thanks to our mentors, Brian, Fionnuala, Anetta, Amanda and Linda and to the club for all the support.
Thanks to all who sponsored us and to our parents for all their hard work bringing us to training and matches.
Féile is a wonderful experience and hopefully more Donard-The Glen teams will get to qualify in the future and if they do we will be there on the sideline cheering them on.