GRASSROOTS
COOLKENNO
This week saw the untimely passing of former principal of Ballyconnell NS, Mr. John Fleming.
A proud native of Killarney, Co. Kerry, John went on to became a school teacher in Graiguenamanagh, Co. Kilkenny, before arriving in the Parish to teach at the old Clonmore National School before settling at Ballyconnell.
He rose to school principal and taught sixth class for his tenure at Ballyconnell, before retiring in June 1999.
Everyone who passed through the classrooms of Ballyconnell will always remember seeing the vast amounts of projects, models and history boards that John helped erect around the walls and window-sills of the school.
His enthusiasm knew no bounds. He adored local and national history, was proudly promoting of the Gaelic language and was an integral part of the Parish.
He would be seen at local fundraisers, was influential with local G.A.A. clubs and a member of various parochial committees down through the years including his co-founding of the Clonmore Parish Senior Citizens Committee and loved to participate in table quizzes.
His Christian and gentlemanly nature always made him show the utmost interest and pride when he met past pupils.
He oversaw the success of the Ballyconnell N.S. G.A.A. teams that won their respective county schools tournaments in 1992, 1993 and 1994 and also the same energy was channelled towards other sports including basketball and volleyball.
His G.A.A. teams in particular were unbeatable squads, with many of the young players later progressing to the ranks of both Coolkenno G.A.A. and Clonmore G.A.A. and even county teams.
John always loved to watch matches from both of these clubs and his tall figure was often noticed standing alongside the sidelines of the old Coolkenno pitch in the Crablane with his arms folded or holding a match discussion with a neighbouring spectator.
Coolkenno GAA wishes to offer its sincerest condolences to his wife, Nellie, and his children, Maura, Deirdre, Ian and Kieran.
Rest in peace, Mr Fleming. Ar dhéis Dé go raibh a anam.
In other club news, there was no winner of the lotto jackpot of €2,900. The numbers drawn were 5, 8, 9 and 25. The winners of the luck dip were Catherine Doyle, Tess Farrell, Conor Butler and Colm Doyle.
The next draw was due to take place on February 18 in The Crablane.
Our Scór na nÓg quiz team of Iain Walker, Niall Byrne and Liam O’Neill represented us well in the All-Ireland finals in Castlebar at the weekend finishing on a creditable score of 41 on a very tough set of questions.
Great to have the club represented by such great ambassadors at national level. Maith sibh a bhuachaillí!
AGB
Congratulations to the winner of AGBs 50/50 Draw for week nine. The winner was Brian Hersee and week 10 winner was Tom Honan, while week 11 winner was Catriona Hallum.
The draw will continue weekly on a Wednesday night for the new year. Once again thank you to all who have supported this new fundraising initiate and we look forward to your continued support in 2019.
Tickets are currently on sale for the National Draw at €10 a ticket and can be bought from any club Official. Please support this draw.
The first match for AGB’s Senior men in the Division 1 League took place at home in Ballymoney where AGB took on Hollywood last Saturday evening.
Final score saw AGB finish 2-7 to Hollywood 0-7. An excellent start for the AGB men who really gave it their all from start to finish.
AGB’s players on Saturday were: Mervyn Travers,Tadhg O’Callaghan, Tom Maher, Jack Hamilton, Shane Donohoe, Ciaran Hyland 0-2, Ciaran O’Shea 0-1, Stephen Hurley 0-1, Andrew Maher 1-0, Peter Hempenstall 1-1, Cormac O’Shea, Darragh Culleton 0-2, Shane McBride, Philip Healy,Mark Hurley.
The second match took place on Sunday in Blessington at 11 a.m.
After a tough first half on both teams, Blessington lead by the half-time whistle with a score of 2-7 to 0-5.
AGB came back out undeterred by this and really gave it their all the second half.
Final score saw both teams finish level 3-11 to 3-11. Scores we’re from Darragh Culleton 0-1, Cormac O’Shea 0-2, Ciaran Hyland 0-2, Philip Healy 2-2, Chris O’Brien 0-2, Andy Maher 0-1, Peter Hempenstall 0-1, and J.P Hurley 0-1.
The next match is at home to Rathnew in Ballymoney at 3pm. All support wel- come for the team.
AGB’s under-15s welcomed Gusserane O’Rahilly from Wexford to Ballymoney last Sunday to play in the Leinster U15s competition.
Huge well done to our under-15s boys who finished 7-9 to 0-6 winners in an excellent game of football.
The boys continue on in this competition, and will play at home on Sunday, February 24, in Ballymoney in the next round. All support welcome for the boys.
Huge well done to AGB’s Darragh Fitzgerald on being named Man of the Match last Sunday for Wicklow GAA. An excellent performance was put in by Darragh, and an award well deserved for his efforts. Congratulations.
Well done to Ben Fennel and Andrew Maher in an impressive win with Wicklow Schools against Offaly.
Well done to AGB’s ladies, Sarah Garnett, Grace Hurley, Caoimhlinn Kavanagh, Nicole Storey and Keelan Stafford, who all had an excellent game of football yesterday in Bray with Wicklow Minor ladies football.
AGB send their sincere condolences to the family of Michael Murphy and all at St. Pat’s GAA Club. A friend to many in AGB and a loyal Wicklow GAA man. Michael was secretary of Wicklow GAA from 2004 to 2015.
The next meeting of the Club Executive is scheduled for Wednesday, March 6, in the AGB meeting room in Pearse’s Park.
Many thanks to all who attended our Club Registration Day last Saturday. We had an excellent turn out, and we look forward to seeing you all in the coming season.
Texts will be sent to all with training times over the next few days.
AGB and Stephen Hurley Health and Fitness are continuing to train eery Tuesday evening with classes held at Stephen Hurley Health and Fitness, Croghan Industrial Estate every Tuesday at 7 p.m.
A walking group will run every Thursday for the eight weeks in Pearse’s Park at 7pm, where we will light up the grounds and join in the nationwide Light Up Your Club campaign.
All are welcome to attend, club members and non club members are all welcome.
AGB’s annual Dinner Dance will be held on Saturday, March 2, in the Arklow Bay Hotel.
This year is a celebration of 21 years of the club Arklow Geraldines Ballymoney. Tickets are now on sale at €30 per ticket. Please contact Sinead Redmond on 087 1374812 or Jennifer Mitchell on 086 8833159 to book your tickets.
Club gear is available online from the Arklow Geraldines Ballymoney Club Shop on O’Neills.Com.
RATHNEW
‘Rathnew Gaa 1885’ is the club’s one and only official Facebook page. Any other page with our name has nothing to do with our club is not run by anyone in our club.
The new ladies team is training every Tuesday night at 8pm with the juvenile girls training also on Tuesday at 7pm. New members are always welcome please contact Katrina 087 8837577 to get involved.
The club has replaced and upgraded the equipment in the gym and its looking great. The membership for the gym is the cheapest around so if your interested contact Bobby 085 1115514. Existing members please be aware that the code for the gym cannot be passed around and must stop immediately.
There was no winner of the lotto jackpot on February 11.
Numbers: 8, 9, 10, 17. One matchthree: Darren and Erica Newsome c/o Darren.
At the time of writing the jackpot stands at €9,500. Get your tickets from Doyle’s, The Arches, The Village Inn, Rocky’s, Healy’s Mini Market, View hair and beauty, Malone’s, Dowling’s butchers.
Tickets can now also be bought in Centra every Friday evening from 5.30 p.m. The club would like to thank Mark in Centra for letting us sell our tickets in store.
A massive thanks to SKC Providers Limited for once again coming on board as the main sponsor for our senior teams. We hope that all our members and supporters will support not only SKC but all our sponsors in the coming year.
National club draw tickets and money are now due in. Contact Bobby for collection.
Well done to Ciaran Coffey and the rest of the county schools team and management on their victory over Offaly in the Leinster schools quarter-final on Saturday.
The 2019 Kellogg’s Cúl Camp dates have been released. Rathnew will be hosting it the week starting August 12. It’s always a brilliant week for the kids so book early on kelloggsculcamps.gaa.ie from March 1.
There will be a safe guarding course taking place in the club house on Wednesday, February 27, at 6.30 p.m.
It is very important that all coaches do this course so contact Darren 087 6340782 for your place.
Also all coaches involved in juvenile teams must be Garda vetted. There is a link on our Facebook page and it only takes a few minutes.
Our Senior team played out a very hard earned draw with Tinahely on Sunday morning.
It was a very low scoring game played in very windy conditions with the final score five points each.
We didn’t help ourselves having two players sent off for second yellow cards but showed great battle to get the draw.
AVONDALE
Our most recent lotto draw took place in Jacob’s Well. There was no jackpot winner.
Numbers drawn were 4, 6, 11, and 12. There was three match-three winners. Congratulations to Ola Steele, PJ O’Shaughnessy and Helen Penn. Each receive €70.
Next week’s draw is in the Corner House and is worth €3,100.
Prizemoney is climbing nicely, so make sure to get your tickets.
Thanks everyone for your continued support.
Our Senior footballers had an early start Sunday morning as we travelled over the beautiful Wicklow hills to take on the men of Dunlavin in our second league game.
It was a low-scoring first half as we led 2-1 to 0-1 at the break and we weathered a late Dunlavin storm to hold out for a 3-5 to 1-8 win. We have now two wins out of two in the league with Bray Emmets up next.
Team: Brian Burke, Shane Beevor, Saoirse Kearon, Kevin Fitzpatrick, Aonghus O’Briain, Eoin Baker, Liam Kinsella, Barry Sheehan, Conor McGraynor(0-1) Ian McDonald, Oisin McGraynor (0-1) Zac Cullen, Ross Ward (0-1) Conor Byrne (2-1) Jack Manley(1-1). Subs: Kieran Penn, Simon Cullen, Patrick Kinsella, Ross Merry, Donal McGraynor and Joe Kennedy....Abhainn Dala Abu....!
Avondale GAA Club are currently seeking a voluntary first aider to attend Senior football matches throughout the year.
If you think it might be for you, please contact Seamas Doyle (086 8704958) or Helen Penn (086 8058983).
Please register on Clubforce for membership all membership is now been taken online it’s set up to be able to pay for all from nursery up to adults.
If you are looking for family membership which is a minimum of one parent and two children please contact Helen for a discount code 086 8058983.
Congrats to Clara ladies for a fabulous night in Jacob’s Well tonight. For us children of the ‘80s it was a great trip down memory lane, for all of ye who never experienced the 80’s well what can we say....you have never really lived!
The 80’s rock!
ST PATRICK’S
A minute’s silence was observed at all Wicklow county games and local games over the weekend as a mark of respect to the late Michael Murphy who passed away on Sunday, February 10, peacefully at St. Vincent’s Private Hospital, surrounded by his loving family.
Dearly loved husband and best friend of Angela, much loved father of Mark, Rhona and Ian, and dear brother of the late Tim and Bridget, he will be sadly missed by his family, sister Margaret, brother Liam, cousin Anne, daughter-in-law Aileen, brothers-in-law, sisters-in-law, nieces, nephews, grandnieces, grandnephews, extended family and friends. Now at peace with loved ones.
Michael was secretary of Wicklow GAA from 2004 to 2015 and the current secretary of St. Patricks GAA Club and Wicklow’s representative on Leinster Council.
Michael was born and raised in Ballincollig, Co. Cork. He moved to Wicklow Town in June 1976 to work with An Post. After briefly playing for St. Patricks Michael took over as Juvenile Secretary of the club and over the years served on numerous committees including the Minor Board and the North District Board.In 2004 Michael was appointed as administrator of County Wicklow GAA.
Michael quickly established himself as a popular and efficient fixture in the GAA community in Wicklow and with his provincial and national colleagues. A Guard of Honour was provided by St. Patrick’s GAA Club and Wicklow County Board at the Funeral Mass on Thursday. Michael will be missed by all Wicklow Gaels players, members and officers near and far. A true Gael and one of life’s real Gentlemen.
Ar dheis Dé go raibh a anam Wicklow Schools qualified for the semi final of the Top Oil Leinster Senior football A Championship with a 4-7 to 0-9 win over Offaly Schools in Blanchardstown on Saturday.
Wicklow got off to a good start and went on to lead by 2-5 to 0-2 at half time. Offaly started the second half with four quick points but goals got Wicklow back on track to win by 10 points.
Well done to all involved with Wicklow Schools especially our own Paddy O’Keane and Selector Padge McWalter.
Congratulations to all involved with Wicklow county Senior hurlers who made the long trip to Donegal on Sunday in the Allianz National Hurling League 2B. Wicklow overcame a halftime deficit to record a quality win. Full time score: Donegal 0-15, Wicklow 2-14.
A big two points on the road sets Wicklow right back on track in Division 2B with some big games with Derry and Kildare on the horizon!
Great to see our own Andy O’Brien back on the score sheet wearing the Wicklow Hospice Jersey.
Hard luck to the Wicklow county Minor ladies against Louth on Saturday especially our St Pat’s girls - Captain Sinead McGettigan, Sarah Evans, Lucy Dunne, Amy Kavanagh, Emer McNulty, Aoife Dunne and Niamh Caffrey .
On Friday night our Senior footballers made the trip over the gap to Hollywood in round 2 of the Division 1 Senior Football League.
Playing with the wind in the first half the lads were down by the minimum at half time Hollywood 1-04, St Patrick’s 0-06. A much better second half performance from St Patrick’s ended with Hollywood snatching the draw with a free at the end of the game.
Full time: Hollywood 1-08 St Patrick’s 0-11
A minute’s silence was observed by our senior lads and Hollywood as a mark of respect to St. Patrick’s GAA Club Secretary the late Michael Murphy.
TABLE QUIZ arranged for March 1 in St. Patrick’s GAA Clubhouse. Starting at 8pm. Team of 4 - €30 per team. Proceeds to St Pats juvenile club