Nollaig Shona agus Bliain Nua faoi Shean agus faoi Mhaise do gach n-aon ach go mor-mhor (Happy Christmas and a Prosperous New Year to all but especially) to those who helped the club in any way during 2016.
The coiste is especially grateful to its loyal Lotto supporters, to those who contributed to the recent Christmas Draw and its other fund-raising activities during the year.
The winning numbers drawn in the final 2016 Lotto were 2, 7, 22, 28. Next draw is on January 2nd.
The agm has come and gone and much remains as it was. However, there was a major change at the top table in that Runai Daniel English ceded his secretarial duties to concentrate his efforts, which to date have been far from insignificant, on promoting our paperless Lotto. Unfortunately, maybe because his was a hard act to follow, there was no one at the meeting willing to step into the vacancy so the search for a Runai is on.
Besides his work as Runai Danny alternated with Gerry Walsh as County Board delegate, a position which took him to Aughrim a number of times during the year. The fact that he lives i mBla Cliath means that, unlike the case for locals, duties centred on the clubhouse e.g. meetings, the cajoling of members with respect to paying membership, involved Daniel in a lot of travel. Furthermore now that he is a man with weighty parental duties his disposable time is limited and these time-consuming journeys are no longer feasible.
Taimid fior-bhuioch do Daniel for his hard work and for the professional manner in which he effected the business of Rna. Go raibh maith agat, Daniel.
PEIL NA gCAILINI Four Eire Og players viz. Eva Roche, Katie Lawless, Ellie ONeill and Kerry-Anne Hamilton (daughter of former Eire Og player Gemma Kiely) have earned places on the u-16 Wicklow county panel. This is no empty honour. Positions on the panel were greatly prized around the county and huge numbers (in excess of 80) attended the week-end trials. Comhgairdeachas. Well done, cailini!
COMHGAIRDEACHAS; Congratulations to club President Patsy Vickers who, jointly with the ever-pleasant and always helpful Tom McHugh of Ashford, received a Lifetime Achievement Award at the County Convention. From the time he joined the Eire Og juvenile club Patsy has worked tirelessly in the service of the club managing teams, fund-raising, sideline encouragement to this day. He also served for many years as the Cathaoirleach of the North East Wicklow Juvenile Board. A well deserved honour, Patsy!
IOMAINT The North Wicklow Gaels minor team which comprises hurlers from Kilcoole, Newcastle, Eire Og Greystones, Enniskerry and Newtown are County B champions and Division 2 League winners. They defeated Michael Dwyers (centred on Kiltegan) 5-06 (21) to 2-12 (18) in a hugely exciting final played in Pairc na bPiarsach in Arklow towards the end of November. Stale news! What is the point of writing about the game so long after the event? It is not as if these reservations do not have substance but then if one were to apply them rigidly to the sports pages of our newspapers, particularly around Christmas and the New Year, these pages would have large blank areas. Does not a lot of what these pages contain consist of oft-repeated accounts of the particular deeds of the sporting elite and not hot off the press matches, so one has to conclude that the readers never tire of perusing these stories.
(Incidentally, isnt it striking that people who work hard, create jobs and pay themselves well are often subjected to constant criticism while there is scarcely a question asked about the structure of a society which throws up the obscenity of a sportsman earning in excess of 200million in 2015. Think of it maybe a billion in his lifetime in the game. It would keep Uisce Eireann going for quite a while!)
Further, one is sure that there are many even among the hurling fraternity of the county who know nothing of the game and its outcome. A fate the brave efforts of the lads do not deserve.
The game was played at 14 a-side because of the Gaels inability to muster the standard 15. Michael Dwyers, no doubt to the chagrin of the excluded player, sportingly agreed to play with the reduced number. Cause? Lack of loyalty? Fixture so late in the year? In any event it must have been very discouraging to the mentors after all the work they put into the development of the squad to not have been able to field the statutory number in such an important match.
The 5 Eire Og lads, Jason Chapman and Brian Lawless in the half-back line, Sean Looby in the centre and Eoin Dorgan and Oisin Nolan in the full-forward line, were mentioned in dispatches as having made important contributions to the victory.
The score is truly reflective of the game. Very even exchanges outfield with scoring swinging rapidly between the teams ensuring that excitement was at a high pitch throughout the hour and that the outcome remained uncertain til the final whistle.
Dwyers were ahead 1-06 to 1-03 at the break. However, 6 minutes after the resumption the Gaels had jumped to the front, thanks to 2-01 without reply. An unevenly distributed flurry of points followed which resulted in the teams being on level terms with 5 minutes remaining. Unbelievably 5 goals were packed into the remaining few minutes, 3 of which were scored by the Gaels. This had the lads from the north clinging precariously to a 3 point lead at the final whistle.
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