By Shay Connolly

REMEMBERING CHARLES KENNY AT IRISHTOWN STADIUM
Phyllis Byrne is pictured right with the plaque which was unveiled recently at Irishtown Stadium in memory of her father Charles Kenny, who was a director of Shelbourne FC and the original founder of the Stadium site. Also present among the group were Father Michael Coady, Eoin Ryan TD and Chris Andrews.

There are a lot of anxious people in our club at the moment. The club sees itself in the business of recreation and health for young people. We train and compete around the green fields of Sean Moore Pk and Ringsend Park.

Is this healthy pastime to be destroyed by possible emissions from an incinerator right on our doorsteps? Will people send their children down to the club to be next door to an incinerator? Lots of serious debate lies ahead among our members and a meeting is to be called shortly to see what effective action our club, a club that has been in the area for almost 120 years can take. There are serious questions to be asked and we intend getting answers.

Sorry folks about the last edition. Depression set in and it was hard to remove it. Why depression you may ask? Well I think I lost the run of myself in the previous edition. We had just won three finals in the latter end of 2005 and were contesting three more in early 2006. I forecast victories in all of these. Guess what happened. Yeah… We lost all three!

The first one up was the Murphy Cup Junior Football final. This was fixed along with the Intermediate Football final at the same venue at Naul in Co Dublin. It was a horrible wet and grey morning as we left Ringsend for the long journey to the Naul.

Apart from a spell in the first half, we were never in contention for the Murphy Cup and St Maur’s were worthy winners in the end. But the big one, the Intermediate final was the one that all our hopes were focussed on. We had a brilliant campaign throughout the league and already had beaten our opponents in their own back yard early on.

It would be fair to say that we were raging hot favourites but favourite tags are not something we would be used to and from the very start we had problems with our shooting boots. We kicked 14 wides in this match and as the game progressed it became evident that this was not going to be our day and we were beaten by 5 points in the end.

The long road back home was paved with disappointment. Still we had one last chance to gain promotion as we were now in the play-offs. Alas, all confidence was gone at that stage and we lost by 2 points in those play-offs.

It had been a wonderful season up until those last two matches. Indeed, if score difference was applied to the league we would never have had to play off at all as we were 40-odd points ahead of our play-off rivals.

The club would like to pay a huge tribute to Albert Hannon. Albert took over this team three years ago. The state of play at the time was that we had lost four or five top players and no one expected anything from this team. Indeed, relegation was a word that was mooted strongly around the place.

However, Albert brought them to the play-offs in the first year and every year after that. Unfortunately, luck departed him at the crucial stages but no one can doubt the massive improvement he brought to the whole set-up. A measure of the man is that he has not walked away from us and is now training the U16 ladies football team and is also helping out with Gareth Saunders’s U13 team.

The last final we had to contest was the Junior hurling league final. Buoyant by their Championship win and promotion, the young lads gave it their all in their quest to land the double. With a couple of minutes to go the sides were level but Raheny’s experience prevailed and they got the last two scores to run out winners by two points.

Some of the hardiest young fellows I have ever trained on a hurling pitch were reduced to tears in the dressing room afterwards. This told how much it meant to these young lads and how much pride they had for their club and community. Oh if we could only bottle this stuff and pass around potions of it to every club member.

So there you have it folks. Six Adult Finals. Won three and lost three. Two county championships secured and two promotions. You can take what you want out of that but to get to six finals in one year is formidable progress in any man’s language. Add in a couple of league titles and promotions at Juvenile level and I believe that we can safely say that last year was a huge success.

The ladies ran a very successful floodlit competition in the months of February and March. Our own girls lost out by the narrowest margins to Croi Ro nAaofain the semi-final. This competition was held in preparation for the girls’ new promoted league campaign.

The club is planning to build a new all-weather floodlit surface at the rear of the clubhouse with a hurling wall. This area is a completely negative area at present with a hive of anti-social behaviour taking place at present. All we seek to do is to turn this area into a positive one where, instead of youths engaging in drinking and other irregularities, we will now see youths engage in all types of healthy recreation. As usual this area will be accessible to all members of our community.

The annual presentation night held in the Holiday Inn was a tremendous success. Expertly organised by PRO Jacqui McDonald everybody thoroughly enjoyed themselves. Chairman Pat Kane addressed the packed crowd and told all what a wonderful year it was for the club. He said it could not have been possible to achieve what we achieved without the help of our Sponsors Dublin Port Co and the input of the DDDA over the years.

He continued that there was much hard work ahead for all concerned but if we stick with the project and with everyone on board we can reach the pinnacle of our dreams.

Joe Burke, Chairman Dublin Port Company responded that his company were delighted to be involved in such a worthwhile community project and that the work that Clanna Gael Fontenoy had done for many years in this area deserved to be acknowledged in the highest fashion.

Matt Bolton DDDA, Joe Burke and Stephen O’Shaughnessy presented the following with their player of the year trophies.

Inter Football: Morgan O’Sullivan
Inter Hurling: David Early
Camogie: Antoinette Maguire
Ladies Football: Sinead Vivash
Junior Football: Thomas Joyce
Junior Hurling: John Fitzgerald
Minor Football: Bernard Lawless
Minor Hurling: Cormac Connolly

(For all the frolics on the night please see ‘Backchat’ column)

Inter footballers have got their new campaign off to a flying start with two good wins against Naomh Mearnog and Good Counsel. It was great to see Shay White back in the club colours and some of his superb split passing in that match against Good Counsel as well as a beautifully taken point brought an extra dimension to our attack.

The club also warmly welcomes back Anthony Darcy and the experience of both these players should help enormously throughout this year’s campaign.

And in case Stephen Mulreaney starts sulking because I didn’t mention him, he got the goal of the season so far and it will be hard beaten for the rest of the year.

Inter hurlers under the new management team of Mick Fitzgerald and Ray Murphy have a lot of good work under their belt before the season starts. The Juvenile section is all up and running and match reports can be viewed throughout the year in this column.

So we start off the new season once again in the hope that we can move forward to the very top of competition in Dublin GAA. Whilst winning is always sweet it is the participation that is foremost in our minds as we continue to provide recreation for hundreds of young people in our area.

But before I leave this chapter folks, please let me share with you the terrible dilemma that the club faces at the moment and that is the forced emigration of the finest upstanding young people from our Club and community to the suburbs of the county and beyond.

These young people who grew up in this area are simply not able to afford to buy homes in this area anymore. They are not even close to the finance required for a mortgage. Instead, they have to fulfil their dreams miles and miles away.

The sight of Brian Nicholson after a recent hurling match not being able to warm down after this match painted a thousand pictures. Instead, he was running frantically to catch the last DART as part one of his journey home.

And Brian and his like are doing this three and four times a week out of loyalty for their club and area. How long can they keep that up? This area needs a social and affordable housing plan put in place immediately so that just like the country itself not so long ago we will be not be exporting our young and finest to other areas. This is one for the politicians so you know where to put the pressure on.

Backchat:
Congratulations to Therese Nicholson on winning the ‘Overseas Dublin Supporter of the Year’ award. Therese, a lifelong loyal supporter of the Dubs said she was overjoyed at such an accolade. After the recent infamous Dublin v Tyrone match in Omagh, Therese was so incensed at the unjust penalties dished out to the Dubs’ players that she jammed every switchboard in RTE. After many failures Therese, like the rest of us resigned herself to the fact that if you are from Dublin you are discriminated against in the GAA world.

Also worthy of an award is local schoolteacher and Clann’s player Kevin Munnelly. Kevin has been nursing fellow schoolteacher and fellow Clann’s player Brian McDermott back to full health. Kevin can be seen regularly in the shops around Ringsend acting the nanny. Heavy on his shopping list are Kleenex for Mayomen, Bonnyconlon eye drops and Castlebar cough sweets. We wish Brian a speedy recovery

Poker classic in the form of ‘Texan Hold’em’ will be held in the Clubhouse on Thursday 20th April in aid of the Juvenile section. I believe you can win a fortune! Tickets from behind the bar or from Shay Connolly.

The Camogie section ran a very successful Quiz night in the clubhouse recently. Under the new Management team of Robin Booth, Conor Dodd and Paul Kennedy they have targeted finance as one of their objectives in the new campaign. All other teams please take note (Hint, Hint).
The team would like to thank the following for their sponsorship on the night: Action Hire, American Holidays, Blasting & Painting Services, Ray’s Shop, Yacht Public House, Clarke’s, Chris Andrews, James Morriarity PR, Ianelli’s Takeaway, Jack Hayes and Fleishman-Hillard.
(Gee they must have got close on a million with those names!)

Sincere condolences to the Murphy, Byrne and Kelly families on their recent sad bereavements and also to Noel McDonagh on the death of his father.

The Christmas presentation night held in the Holiday Inn lived up to all its expectations. I forecast in the last edition that this was the night when all hairs hang down. I was my usual self, earwigging, eye squinting and nose sniffing. What I heard, saw and smelt was enough to fill this paper for a year. The amount of snogging that went on was hard to believe.

It was as if the entire adult squad spent the night with gay abandonment. All alcoves, nooks and crannies around the hotel were engaged with players from all sides. In actual fact, some relationships born on the night are still blossoming. I had intended naming and shaming but all concerned coughed up with brown envelopes just in time.

DJ every Friday night in the club for our adult section with DJs Jonathon Rooney and Stephen Reilly

Special bar prices for members in operation every Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday.

Please see our advertisement on Page 11 of this paper regarding recruitment.

The Ladies football section recently paid a visit to their twin town Cappawhite in Tipperary where they etched out a draw against the burly natives. When asked about any scandal on the trip I came up against a wall of silence. Me thinks a bit of earwigging, eye squinting and nose sniffing is in order! Have a nice spring!