Farewell to John Kirwan

The whole community of Ballygiblin were shocked and saddened when they heard of the untimely passing of John Kirwan. The Ballygiblin club have lost another great club man, character and gentleman. He contributed greatly to the Ballygiblin parish and will be sadly missed by all who knew him.

John was very involved in the juvenile club when he came to Ballygiblin in 1978. He was a very successful and committed team selector over many years, he encouraged and developed many players under his watch, winning North Cork titles in all grades. He was vice president of the club for the last number of years. He was a very proud supporter of Limerick and the green and white was always flying at the house when Limerick were playing and this was long before their recent success though we have noticed the flags looking bigger and flying higher of late.

He was appointed cultural officer in the mid-80s and it was here he excelled in promoting Irish music, song and dance. Himself and his wife Peg got the club involved in Scór na bPáistí, Scór na nÓg and Scór Sinsear in dancing, instrumental music, recitation, ballad singing. The Ballygiblin club were well represented in all these activities, winning a huge amount of trophies over the years. John also took part on stage in dancing and ballad singing and was great at organising the buses to the different events. Many would have very happy memories of his time doing the Scór where he and Peg worked with such enthusiasm and dedication to promote their passion for the Irish music, song and dance. Many of the dancers even went on to dance in Riverdance.

It was always a pleasure to meet John and have a chat with him and there will be lots of past and present members of the club that will miss him. To show the high esteem the community of Ballygiblin had for him, a huge crowd turned up at his removal to express their condolences to the family. The red and white flag of his beloved Ballygiblin draped over his coffin. The club would like to express its sincere sympathy to his daughters Josephine, Noreen, Margo, Kay and Trish and his sons Seamus and Ger and also to his extended family and friends. Ar dheis Dé go raibh a anam dílis.

ANOTHER LEAGUE LOSS

On Saturday afternoon in lovely sunshine we took on newly promoted to Intermediate, Erins Own in Caherlag in the Division 6 Red FM League. After a disappointing loss to Aghada the last day out we were looking to get back to winning ways.

We were missing a few of the regular starters but the first half was evenly matched with both teams looking lively and the sides level at half time. Ryan Donegan getting our opening goal but the loss of Lorcan Finn early in the first half and Darragh Flynn at half time to injuries didn’t help our cause. It was literally a case of a game of two halves, evenly matched first half and we were outplayed in all areas in the second half with Erins Own upping their levels of effort and we struggled badly to start with them. We found it increasingly hard to get possession past our midfield or win puckouts and our backs were therefore under constant pressure and eventually this lead to 3 second half goals, the last one coming in the dying minutes. Unfortunately it was obvious there was always only going to be one winner on day. The game finished Ballygiblin 1-10 Erins Own 3-17.

Overall a disappointing display all round and a lot of work will need to be done as we face Kilbrittain away on Saturday, 18th May at 17.00.

SYMPATHIES

The club would also like to extend their condolences to the O’Mahony and Hanley family and friends on the passing for Mary.