We had a big turn out of minor and U16 players in the club on Thursday evening 2nd February to hear a talk from Shane Carthy on minding your mental health.
Many thanks to Shane for a fantastic thought provoking talk.
As part of our Mental Fitness Month for January, we invited our members to try out the parkrun on Saturday 21st and we were delighted to see so many of you out in the Red and White! Thanks to Pat Walsh for the great photos and Parkrun Ireland for their great welcome!
A quick reminder from the Healthy Club team for your attention about the Every Step Counts Challenge which starts next week on Wed 11th January and runs until 15th February. So far, we have around 65 people signed up to our Every Step Counts challenge Clontarf team which is great. The challenge kicks off next week and we need to get lots more people signed up and recording their KMs to have a chance to compete as well as we did last year!
Signing up is really simple - just follow these easy steps:
📱 Download the app
💬 Register or log in (if you have an account already)
💪 Select your challenge (Social▶️Leinster▶️Clontarf GAA❤️🤍)
🚶♀️🚶 Track your walks or runs from next week (11th Jan Start)!
↔️ Connecting your phone's step counter/activity tracker is really important or we won't get the benefit of all your walking! Remember - Every Step Counts!
The challenge lasts for a month and it's a great excuse to get yourself and the family out for a much needed bit of air. There is some good banter back and forth between the clubs on Twitter too, so keep an eye on @clontarfgaaclub to follow all the craic!
Stay safe, stay well, and if you see anyone out in their club colours, this year you can stop to say hi! There is also lots more information on our website around what the healthy club are doing (clontarfgaa.com/healthy-club) and some more specific information on physical activities to think about to stay well throughout the year (clontarfgaa.com/physical-activity)
On 27th December we held the Inaugural Nora Arthur Memorial Tournament at the club in which six teams of adult players, mentors and parents competed over the course of the afternoon for the memorial trophy named in honour of Nora.
The eponymous trophy was presented to the winning captain Darragh Fagan (Junior!) on behalf of the winning Team 6 by Nora’s Dad, Neil.
After 15 high-intensity and dramatic matches including a couple of penalty shootouts, a tense and exciting final ensued between Team 2 and Team 6. Team 2 would eventually win the day by a score of 3-1 with a couple of goals from young Cian O’Connor proving the difference between the sides in the end. A worthy final for a brilliant day of sport and craic.
But the real winners of the day were the Arthurs and the Community of Clontarf GAA who came together to bring some light into a dark time for the family. While they were at it, they raised more than EUR3,000 for a worthy cause close to the hearts of the Arthur family (https://oscarskids.ie/).
That sum is still being added to and a final total is yet to be reached. If you would like to donate, please click this link and just donate as a "non-player”. This link will be open until 10pm on 29th December.
A sincere thank you to all the volunteers who helped organise the day and make it such a success.
With apologies for the smartphone quality (not quite up to our usual snappers’ standards!), here are a a few shots taken on the day of the people and the games that made it a special day to remember.
The Christmas 2022 Newsletter has been sent out to all members and parents of juvenile members. If you didn't get to see it, you can read it here:
The Clontarf community came together on Saturday for a special Christmas party for local Ukrainian families, hosted in St Anthony’s Community Hall.
Well done to all the volunteers who helped make it happen, including local residents, An Garda Síochána, and the young leaders on our local GAA Dermot Earley programme.
Special thanks for the wonderful music to the OLV Gospel Choir, the Ballygall folk group and our Ukrainian choir - who performed a musical selection which included Molly Malone and N17! And great to see Santa there too!
Clontarf GAA was delighted to help support this wonderful family event. Some photos below of the event.
The Adult and Minor Player of the Year Awards were held on Saturday night in a packed Áras! A great night was had, topped off by some great entertainment from our own Katie Murray. Here is a list of all the deserving winners and some snaps of some of them receiving their awards.
Player of the Year Kieran McKeon
Young Player of the Year Leo Cunningham
Joint Player of the Year Niall McCaffrey
Joint Player of the Year Paddy Breen
Joint Young Player of the Year Dan Lloyd
Joint Young Player of the Year Paddy O'Grady
Joint Player of the Year Cian Mulligan
Joint Player of the Year Thomas Craddock
Player of the Year Kevin Mangan
Young Player of the Year Matthew McMahon
Player of the Year Dan Patton
Young Player of the Year Cillian Hayes
Player of the Year Brian Kelleher
Young Player of the Year Jack Crumlish
Player of the Year Tara Fitzgibbon
Young Player of the Year Ciara O'Connor
Joint Player of the Year Ann Shannon
Joint Player of the Year Isobel Finnegan
Young Player of the Year Lizzie O'Callaghan
Player of the Year Caoimhe Mulligan
Sprit of the Team Anne O’Keeffe
Player of the Year Aoife Walsh
Young Player of the Year Ciara McKeon
Player of the Year Grainne McDaid
Young Player of the Year Amelie Ni Riain
Most Improved Player Grace O'Donnell
Player of the Year Grace O'Keefe
Most Improved Player Rachel Scott
Player of the Year Alison Garvey
Most Improved Player Sophia Keane
Player of the Year Timea Kovacs
Most Improved Player Aisling Ahearne
Player of the Year Naoise Finnegan
Most Improved Player Cara Doody
Player of the Year Áine Mulligan
Most Improved Player Maeve Howard
We have collected all the lost property around the club and left it in a box outside the office (upstairs and down the corridor from the bar). We are going to give all unclaimed items to charity in 2 weeks. The items are mostly coats and jackets. If anyone wants to reclaim lost property, please do so by 9th December.
The Club Shop clearance sale of left over stock will be on this Thursday 1st Dec at 7pm to 9pm. It will be downstairs, in through the main doors of the clubhouse and into the room on the right.
Please note is is a clearance sale of old stock and shorts & socks & hurleys we won’t have any of the new range that is on the online shop. When they're gone they're gone!
Click here for a list of items we have with the sizes available and the prices they will be at (greatly reduced from the current web price) and also we have a number of items which are not on the web shop which are discontinued.
For the first time in three years, we were able to hold our AGM in person last week. It was a really well attended night as we welcomed our incoming Chair, Kevin Hoy and his new executive committee and we thanked our outgoing Chairman Ollie Mangan and his committee for their years of service. Ollie has agreed to serve one more year as Kevin’s vice-chair.
We also recognised the services of previous Chairmen, Stephen McGinn (collected by his Dad Chris) and Donal Nolan, presenting their medals delayed by the pandemic restrictions.
After presentation of the Chairman’s report, the Finance update and the review and ratification of the Club Constitution, there was some good debate on AOB matters.
Thanks to the great numbers that attended on the night and made it such a success.
We showed a “look back” video on the night also which is available to watch here. If you would like to share it with your teams, send them this link: https://vimeo.com/764476476/2738bf7a18
After the meeting, Ollie and Kevin both enjoyed a pint of the finest to celebrate the occasion… well deserved both of you.
Later on we were joined in An Culdoras by a number of Ex-Chairmen and we were lucky enough to grab the “council of elders” for a quick snap with our new Chairman. I’m sure they all had some sage wisdom to impart…
