Awards aplenty at Avondhu GAA annual social night
THE Avondhu GAA Board paid special tribute to retiring County Board secretary Frank Murphy who was the guest of honour at their annual social in the Hioberian Hotel in Mallow last weekend.
Board Chairman Barry Aherne outlined the huge amount of work and servive Mr Muprhy has done for the GAA in Cork over the last 45 years as County Board Secretary. Mr Murphy said he was priveleged to be be invited to the Avondhu function and congratulated the Board in honouring so many players. Looking back at his career in the County Board he served as Runai for 45 years under 16 different Chairmen. Two became GAA Presidents, Con Murphy and Christy Cooney. He looked back over the years remembering some special events including Siamsa Cois Laoi. Next year he stated will be the 50th anniversary of the founding of Scor in the Avondhu Division by the late Derry Gowen. The National Scor committee intend to have an Indoor Concert in Pairc Ui Chaoimh next year in recognition of Scor and a plaque will be unveiled in Pairc Ui Chaoimh to the late Derry Gowen. With this in mind he hoped that the clubs of the Division and County will respond to revitalise Scor. It is appropriate that Avondhu who promote Scor so well will continue to think what our ideals are serving the Irish society.
Chairman Aherne spoke of the success of the year and paid tribute to his fellow officers, management members and the delegates for their great work over the year.
Mr Aherne spoke of the 18 competitions played during the year. Eighteen clubs reached finals with 12 winning more that one title. In relation to the Avondhu senior footballers he paid tribute to the work of coach Noel Barry and his selectors. Avondhu lost out in the first round to Beara by 0-13 to 0-10. The Divisional senior hurlers under the guidance of Dermot O’Riordan had a win in their lst round against Duhallow by 1-18 to 1-10. They then faced UCC where they lost out by 3-20 to 1-9. Overall there were good preparation for both county championships.
The Chairman paid tribute to Fermoy and Charleville who reached both Munster Intermediate finals, congratulating Charleville on their win. Fermoy lost out to Kilcummin in Mallow. He also congratulated Charleville Under 21 B footballers who won the North Cork and county titles. Abbey Rovers took the JBFC title defeating Grange. Grange had been nominated so Abbey Rovers did not contest the County JBFC. Milford Intermediate hurlers were winners in the County IHL Div 3 beating Mayfield after extra time.
Mr Aherne spoke of Scor in the Division. At the moment interest is not as good as it should be. Miceal O’Siochain and his committee are doing great work in this field. He congratulated Kilshannig who won the Munster Scor title in Instrumental Music. The Chairman thanked the many sponsors of the various championships and leagues. We are he said ‘very lucky’ in this Division to have all leagues and championships sponsored. The Chairman outlined the great work being done by the Primary Schools Board in promoting hurling and football along with Camogie and Ladies football. The National Schools do a tremendous job with Scor na Paisti. Danny O’Flynn on behalf of the teachers came forward for a presentation. Being captain of the Charleville Intermediate hurling side he was wished well in the upcoming All Ireland IHC semi final next month.
Referees Committee chairman Ciaran O’Regan said he felt the number of referees is very small. “We have 24 clubs, 19 referees, many of those aren’t actively refereeing. There were over 300 games played at Junior level this year. At Rebel Og level there were over 800 games. On average each referee did 58 games this year. Some officials will do more, some will do less. These figures don’t include the sheer amount of County Juvenile games and matches played at Adult level within the county. There are those who officiate at camogie and ladies football. This puts a huge strain on the Board to get referees to look after the games throughout the year. We need more people to get involved, if not matches won’t be played because simply there is not enough to go around,” Mr O’Regan said, adding that levels of respect have got better in some areas but worse in others.
The final event of the evening saw Mick Lyons of Araglin honoured with the Board’s ‘Hall of Fame’ award. Unfortunately Mike was unable to be present due to the death of his sister Chrissie in New York. His son Tom accepted the award on his father’s behalf. Tom paid tribute to the Board for including his father in the ‘Hall of Fame’ and said it is something he really appreciates and would have loved to have been at the function. The Board will travel to Araglin in the new year and formally present the Hall of Fame to Mick Lyons.
Numerous presentations were made to primary schools, to the referees and the ‘man of the match’ awards.