Spirit of Volunteerism In Renvyle GAA Club Is Commended At AGM
The Annual General Meeting of Renvyle GAA took place in the Teach Ceoil, Tully, recently. In her opening address, Chairperson Noeleen McConway acknowledged that while her first year at the helm had been a big learning curve on a personal level, it had also given her great fulfilment and enjoyment. “I definitely got more out of it than I put into it”, she started, “and this is due largely to the tremendous spirit of volunteerism that exists within our community in the parish of Letterfrack-Ballinakill. The coaches are the backbone of this club because they are the ones who are constantly putting themselves out there year after year and I cannot thank them enough for their ongoing commitment to developing out young footballers of the future. In my opinion, the club will continue to thrive as long as we all continue to work together in a positive and constructive manner, but I also think it is very important that we get more people on board, in order to inject a new dynamic into the whole process”.
The annual financial report was prepared by Father Gerry Burns and, not surprisingly, the three costliest items on the expenditure side were insurance, transport and affiliations. The sterling fun-raising work being carried out on a voluntary basis by a number of auxiliaries was acknowledged by the top table. Outgoing Junior A manager Brendan Kane noted that while emigration and injuries to key players made his task more difficult, Renvyle still progressed to the Division 3 West League final only to lose out to newly crowned Connacht junior championship winners, Clonbur, in a thriller that went right to the wire. He extended a special word of thanks to his three selectors, Paul O’Neill, Benny Kane and James Flaherty. Pride of place in 2011 went to the Under- 21s who captured the West Board B Championship title after an epic encounter with Oileáin Árainn in Rosmuc. Team manager Michael John Gannon lamented the timing of the subsequent county final against Caltra in Pearse stadium. “We didn’t do ourselves justice on the day”, he acknowledged, “but in fairness to the players, the fact that they had to wait eight months to play that match certainly worked against them”.
Outgoing Juvenile Chairperson Willie Gannon paid tribute to the trojan work of the various coaches, John James Flaherty (Under-6), Johnny Coyne (Under-8), Mike O’Malley ( Under-10), Finian Sheridan (Under-12), Joe Lydon and Mikey Faherty (Under-14), David Regan (Under-16) and Brendan Kane (Under-15). He thanked the latter for donating the proceeds of the Stephen Thomas Kane Memorial Seven-a-Side Tournament to the underage section of the club. On the playing fields, the Under-16s reached the Division 2 Shield final and only to lose out to Craughwell. The Under-14s fell at the final hurdle to Michael Breathnachs in the Division 3 League and, at the time of writing, the Under-15s are waiting to play Oranmore-Maree in the City League final. A series of locally based blitzes at Under-8 and Under-10 level within the West Connemara region constituted one of the highlights of the year. In his wide ranging and comprehensive report, Juvenile Secretary Mikey Faherty paid tribute to Caltra’s County star, Michael Meehan, “a gentleman both on and off the field,” for his eloquent contribution to the Club’s Awards Presentation night. A number of Underage players were involved in county development squads during the year and Cathal O’Neill’s fine achievement in lining out for his county in an All-Ireland minor semi-final in Croke Park was also acknowledged.
Written by Paul Gannon, Connacht Tribune, January 27th 2012.
Full Version Available in “Pride in the Parish: Volume 2”
