A place for everyone to play

Grand opening of refurbished alley goes down a treat

THERE was sunshine, smiles, sausages and superb handball in Tinahely last Sunday as the hard work of a dedicated committee and the generosity of a wonderful community paid off with the opening of the refurbished Tinahely Handball and Sports Centre.

A project long in the pipeline, it is a reality today because of the hard work and commitment of the committee led by spiritual leader Pat Quaile whose love and passion for the game of handball is second only to his love and passion for the village of Tinahely.

The interior work was completed by Seamus Monaghan over recent months and it is of exceptional quality with a fine spacious balcony area looking out over the pristine 60x30 handball court that is also regularly used for racquetball and is available for use as a badminton court or any other game imaginable that can take place in such a space.

Upstairs on the new balcony there is a reasonable floor space that could host classes of any kind or meetings and the walls are covered in interesting journeys down memory lane by way of newspaper articles and photographs.

A great crowd turned up on Sunday afternoon to hear a fine speech from Robert Cleary, rousing words from Pat Quaile and a well delivered piece from Joe Cleary.

Richard Pollard, son of the late and great Billy Pollard, in whose memory the centre is named, travelled all the way from Tipperary to be there on the day and was on hand to cut the ribbon ahead of the Billy Pollard Cup final which was played for between Pat Quaile and John Ryan and Jerome Willoughby and Christopher Doyle with the Coolboy men coming out on top in the end.

Pat Quaile said that he was blown away by the support from the local community over the last number of years as they rowed in behind fundraisers and were always willing to lend a hand.

He said that the refurbished building was completed for the entire community and everybody was welcome to make use of it.

He also said that from Saturday, July 1, he will be starting up handball coaching for children of all ages in the are and he’s available on 087 1360113 for more details.

The hard-working committee of the Tinahely Handball and Sports Centre. Back: Robert Cleary, Joe Cleary, Vivienne Perry, Roisin Walsh, Kiara Byrne, Clare Cullen, Siobhan Geoghegan. Front: Rosanna Lawlor, Lisa O’Rourke, Pat Quaile.

Lena Murphy, Mag Kenny, Jim Darcy, Pat Quaile, and Helen McDonald.

Richard Pollard, son of the late Billy Pollard whom the centre is named after, cuts the ribbon on the wonderful new ammenity.

Christopher Doyle, Pat Qualie, John Ryan and Jermome Willoughby.

Robert Cleary, Pat Quaile, Joe Cleary, Amby Quaile, Jim Darcy and Dermot O’Connor.