Chair's Night 2023

We had a fantastic night in the clubhouse this evening, with our Famous Five Women’s All Ireland Winners Caoimhe O’Connor, Niamh Hetherton, Mossie Ó Cuinneagáin, Mick Bohan and Willie O’Connor and the legend that is multi-All Ireland winner Jack McCaffrey in a fantastic chat with our own Damien O’Meara. A huge crowd of mentors and club helpers were in attendance to make it a most enjoyable evening.

Kevin also presented Club Person of the Year to Ciaran Doran, Mentor of the Year to Eoghan Hannigan and Club Legend or Laoch Chluain Tarbh to Anne O’Mahony.

A selection of photos from the evening are below with thanks to the PRO Team.

€20,000 Lotto shared between two winners!

Last week, our long overdue lotto win finally came and, like a Dublin Bus, you wait for ages and then two come at once! Huge congratulations to Conall Kehoe and Kevin Daly who were presented with their cheques for €10,000 in the Cúldoras bar last night by Club Chair Kevin Hoy and Jonathan Stafford from Stafford’s Funeral Home, our lotto sponsor. Well done lads and spend it well with all our best wishes!

A win for our Senior Men's Footballers to ensure Division 1 Status for 2024

Our Senior Men’s Footballers had a great win on Sunday morning on P35 over southside rivals Thomas Davis to cement their position in the AFL1 league table and ensure Division 1 status for next year. Well done lads. Some action photos of the game below courtesy of Sean O’Sullivan and the PRO Team.

Healthy Club GOLD Award!

Club Chair Kevin Hoy and Healthy Club Lead Ciaran Doran receiving the Gold Award recently in Croke Park.

We are excited to announce that we have been recognised as a GOLD Healthy Club for 2023-2025! This is the highest award possible under the newly introduced Healthy Club Recognition awards. Clontarf is the only club in Dublin to currently achieve the this level, so we are truly delighted and honoured.

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

The Healthy Club programme is all about Clontarf GAA contributing to the wellbeing of the local Community. Here are some of the activities that we run that helped us to achieve Gold Status:

⭐️Clontarf All Stars

⭐️Dermot Earley Youth Leadership development

⭐️The Meitheal group

⭐️Support for local Ukrainian families

⭐️The Irish Life Step Challenge

⭐️SafeTalk suicide awareness training

⭐️One Good coach mental health training for mentors

⭐️Talks for players on mental fittness

⭐️Healthy Eating and nutrition talks

⭐️Talk on staying active for the elderly

⭐️First Aid and CPR Classes

If you want to get involved in any of these programmes or join our Healthy Club project team we would love to hear from you.

Please Contact: healthyclub@clontarfgaa.com or Ciaran Doran at 0872579155

For more information about what the healthy club does, click the link to view our Healthy Club Page.

Junior D Hurling Champions!!

Our second men’s hurling team battled hard for a one-point win in a pulsating encounter with northside neighbours Naomh Barróg this morning on Pitch 35 in biblical rain conditions. It was a game that had everything including an iconic and ultimately crucial penalty save from Robin McGill. The quality of the game and the results was a fitting tribute to Conor Caulfield as he leaves us next year to head back to Galway with a Dublin medal in his back pocket and a new t-shirt on his back! Well done lads and thanks to Sean O’Sullivan for the great photos below.

The Men’s Hurlers are sponsored by Avolon Aerospace.

Halloween at the Nursery! 🎃

Richard from our fantastic Nursery sponsor Nolans of Clontarf came to visit the GAA Stars of the future this morning. Thanks to Sean O’Sullivan for the great shots of all the smiling faces!

Senior Men's Football Championship vs Ballyboughal

A great win for our Senior (first adult team) Men’s Footballers on Saturday evening at home on P35 to Ballyboughal. A dominant performance, well done to the lads and great to see them flying along in the Championship and now through to a Championship Quarter-Final.

Final Score:

Clontarf 4-10 (22)
Ballyboughal 1-5 (8)

A few action snaps below from this evening’s game.

Exercise for Healthy Aging - A guide to exercise to help address aging and chronic illness.

Having a chronic condition does not mean you have to be unwell with it.

The key message is that the unwellness and disability that occurs in any chronic illness is caused largely by becoming deconditioned or unfit because of lack of physical activity.

This can be fixed through appropriate exercise, thereby dramatically improving your physical and psychological wellness, without having to fix the illness.

The effects can be life-transforming for the person with the illness and also for his / her family.

If you are interested in hearing more, please come along to a public lecture by Noel in Clontarf GAA Club, Seafield Road, on Friday September 15th at 8pm. Places are limited, so please register by clicking on this link.

Dr Noel McCaffrey MB, BSc, HDipOccH, FFSEM

About Noel: Dr. Noel McCaffrey is founder and CEO of ExWell Medical, a social enterprise that offers structured, medically-led exercise programmes in community settings to people with diverse chronic illnesses.  Access to the programmes is by referral from health care professionals. One of the ExWell centres is in the Irish Wheelchair Association.  ExWell operates in 22 centres nationwide, hosting nearly 3000 weekly participant visits throughout the network

He is a consultant in Sports Medicine in Cappagh National Orthopaedic Hospital where he runs a musculoskeletal injury clinic and is also a Foundation Fellow of the Faculty of Sports and Exercise Medicine. In 2022 he was named as a United Nations 2022 Healthy Ageing Top 50 World Leader.

His main passion is ExWell Medical and he is committed to the mission of making the service available through partnerships to everyone in Ireland and beyond who would benefit from it.

Summer Camps 2023

August 2023 saw the return of our summer camps. We had over 300 children attend the 2 weeks of camp and over 50 young coaches.

A wide range of Hurling, Football and Camogie activities where implemented to help the children learn skills.

We were delighted to welcome our Ukrainian and All Star children into the camps. A great success!

A big thank you to all the coaches, our club sponsor MSL and also to Niamh and Caoimhe who visited the children after their super All Ireland Win.

Thanks also once again to Pat Walsh for coming down to take these brilliant photos, complete with the “manual drone” (i.e., ladder!) shots…

Launch of Dermot Earley Youth Leadership Initiaitive (DEYLI 2023)

DERMOT EARLEY YOUTH LEADERSHIP INITIATIVE (DEYLI) TO START IN SEPTEMBER

This fantastic initiative takes its name from one of Ireland’s and Connacht's most influential leaders and greatest sporting heroes, Dermot Earley. It is aimed at 15-18 year olds, particularly those in TY. It was developed to help equip young people with the skills and qualities necessary to be good leaders, and to challenge them to use these skills to improve society.

The initiative has been held successfully in Clontarf for the last two years and the 2023/24 programme will be run over 3 modules, on Friday evenings, starting in September. For more information and details of the information, click on this link to read the leaflet; there are more FAQs below.

Registration is now open and will close on 14th September. To register to participate: please click on this link

We are holding an information evening for parents and participants on Tuesday 5th September at 9pm.

Zoom meeting ID: 94943365613
Password: 140864

ARE YOU INTERESTED IN BEING A VOLUNTEER FACILITATOR?

No specific experience is needed, just your enthusiasm and desire to help develop young leaders! The programme is run on a number of Friday evenings between September 2023 and May 2024. Volunteers will receive on line training and ongoing support from our other experienced facilitators.

This is a great opportunity to gain facilitation skills, have fun, and make a real difference to young people's lives. To find out more. or to express interest, please contact the following by Saturday 2nd September:

Clontarf GAA DEYLI Coordinator: Carmel Jordan at carmelm_jordan@hotmail.com / 086 8277103
or 
Clontarf GAA Healthy Club Officer: Ciaran Doran at healthyclub@clontarfgaa.com / 087 2679255 

FAQS

What is the likely schedule?  
We plan to run module 1 (15 hours workshop format) September to November, module 2 (15 hours workshop format) January to March and module 3 (action learning project) April to May. The schedule for module 1 is 5.30pm - 7.30pm on Fridays starting on 15th September

Must Participants be there for all the sessions?
Full commitment and attendance is expected and participants will be challenged to engage actively in every session. Over 80% attendance, plus full completion of all workbooks, is needed to successfully achieve the programme.

Must I be a member of a GAA Club? 
We welcome applications from all interested local young people and you don’t have to be a current GAA member to apply.  However all participants must be GAA members and we can provide GAA ‘social membership’ for a nominal fee to anyone who needs it. 

Do I get a qualification at the end of the programme?  
On completion of all 3 modules, participants have the option to apply to graduate from NUI Galway with a Foundation Certificate in Youth Leadership and Community Action, accredited at NFQ Level 6.

What is the cost involved? 
To take part in the programme participants pay for the workbooks (€40) and if joining one of the GAA clubs, the special social membership rate is €20.  Application to NUI Galway to be awarded the Certificate is optional and NUIG charge approximately €200 for their assessment and accreditation process.

Is there a selection process to join the programme?  
The places on the programme will be filled on a ‘first come first serve’ basis, up to a maximum of 30 places, with preference given to current TY students.  

Who will facilitate the programme? 
The programme will be run locally by Clontarf GAA Club.  It will be delivered by trained, volunteer facilitators, based on a structure and resources developed by the GAA and Foróige.

For any queries please contact:

Clontarf GAA DEYLI Coordinator: Carmel Jordan at carmelm_jordan@hotmail.com / 086 8277103
or 
Clontarf GAA Healthy Club Officer: Ciaran Doran at healthyclub@clontarfgaa.com / 087 2679255