Really big news is that after many months of intense meetings and seemingly endless debate, a formal application for development of expanded facilities at our clubhouse was lodged at Dublin Corporation Planning Office on 16/11/98 by Project Designer Michael O’Kane.

When complete, our players and members will have facilities for sporting and social activities second to none. Construction should commence early in the new year with the celebration of the new Millennium by the formal opening of our expanded complex as our goal.

Make no mistake, this is an enormous undertaking with an estimated cost of £500,000 for such a small organisation as ourselves, and difficulties are bound to arise, but with the confidence of your continued support we have no doubt that any problems that arise will be overcome. Keep that cheque book handy!

As the year ends on the playing field, it’s time to review how things went. Pride of place must go to Jack Nicholson & Tom Ryan’s Junior B hurlers who went unbeaten in the league and lost out by a mere two points to the experience of Kilmacud Crokes in the championship final in a game we could have won.

Now promoted to “A” league, they’re settling nicely with a great away win to Ballyboden after being eight points down at the break.

County chairman John Egan, assisted by Brendan O’Brien and Noel McDonagh, steered his crew through a minefield of major clubs to win the inaugural U-15 County Shield in a fantastic final v Fingallians of Swords on a seriously wet summer’s evening in Parnell Park.

Many of the same crew gave a hand to Dave Reddy’s U-16 hurling lads to win their league play off away last Saturday to, yet again, the unfortunate Fingallians of Swords.

While Tadhg Twomey, Kevin Carroll and Patti Rogers U-14 footballers probably will just miss out on the medals this time due to a few draws and losing a couple of games by just a point, they have had a good season with some lads really developing into quality players.

They can look forward with confidence to the Football Feile in April and we would certainly expect some to represent the club in the annual Garda tournament in May, which has now become the foundation of the County U-14 development squad.

After a few hiccups Peter Burnett and Michael O’Kane’s U-13s have now sorted themselves into a very useful outfit and can certainly look forward to the play off stages of the league with confidence.

Our U-12s started off giving a walkover in their first game with only six players. However, things are much better now thanks to dedicated work by Pat Walsh, Ken Cunningham and Tomas Hall, who now have a panel of eighteen to pick from.

They, too, are looking forward to the restart of games after Christmas, by which time they will have been regraded.

John McKenna and Shay Connolly’s U-11s hopes of winning their league went up in smoke away to Liffey Gaels, when practically the last kick of a thrilling game ended up in our net to loose by two points. However, if they win their remaining matches they should be runners up.

Eileen McCormack, Paddy Joyce, Dave Farnley and Anthony Darcy have some very talented players in their U-10 crew but are tight on numbers and would particularly welcome a few new faces. On the field they are doing very well and while Cuala will win the league, we’re in with a strong shout for runners up.

Certainly numbers is a problem with Tom Ryan and Larry Kearns U-9s, this time too many and it seems quite likely that the club will have a unique first after Christmas with the formation of a second U-9 squad. Again, they’ve had a very successful season and expect to finish runners-up in their league.

The Saturday morning training and skills sessions for six, seven and eight year olds under the expert eyes of Graham Cooke and his assistants David Lyons and Bernard Groves are proving very popular.

Junior footballers managed by Mick Fitzgerald and Tommy Boyle were very disappointed to be knocked out of the championship by eventual beaten finalists Inisfails, but all is not lost as they’re doing very nicely in the league. We’re all hoping they can continue their good run and with a bit of luck to go along with all the hard work, force a playoff to decide on who goes up to Intermediate for the New Year.

Our adult camogie section will find the change in format to 15 a side very difficult to meet and we all hope that Therese Nicholson, Margaret Handley and all the girls can keep working together to keep the show on the road. Conor Dodd and Elaine Maguire’s work with the younger girls is coming along well and will eventually be the foundation of a very strong camogie section.

Its not all games at the club as we take the odd hour off for a bit of socialising, and this year’s highlight must be the EBS-sponsored Team of Excellence evening, where the Galway All Ireland football three-in-a-row winners of the mid sixties were our guests.

President of the GAA, Joe McDonagh presented the team, captained by Enda Colleran, with their trophies ably assisted by MC for the evening Sean Ban Breathnacht from Radio Na Gaelteacht.
It was a fantastic night with the clubhouse full to the brim of good-humoured Tribesmen and a special thanks to our own Aran Islander, Mick Costello for all his great work behind the scenes and last but not least to Pat Farrell and EBS for their good faith in the club.

The other highlight of the year was the occasion of Ted Cooling’s 89th birthday last May. Those guys really know how to enjoy themselves and we’re all looking forward to next year.

Elsewhere in this issue you will notice a number of photographs of new jerseys being presented to the club by various sponsors: Heitons of Ringsend; Teamworks of Barrow St.; Bennetts of Sandymount Green; Bank of Ireland Irishtown; Red Spot dry cleaners of Sandymount and Yorkshire Water, of whom much more will be heard. To each of these a big ‘thank you’ for digging deep to help the club cater for its continuing expansion.

A sure sign that things are really improving is the increasing representation of Dublin 4 in the County colours.

Recently, we were absolutely delighted to see U-15 footballer Graham Dent not only captain the Dublin team in semi final v Offaly but win ‘man of the match’ award as well and although coming out slightly the worse for wear played a stormer at full back in the final v Laois in Abbeyleix, where the Dubs won by two points.

Ciaran Connolly and Johnny Costello had a recent successful outing to Galway with U-16 footballers while Brian Rush is in just light training with County U-16 hurlers waiting for Spring to arrive and so to the adults where Declan Darcy wasn’t the only Dublin 4 Darcy playing in Croke Pk on 21/06/98 as our Anthony Darcy was corner back on Junior squad that were narrowly beaten by Kildare in Leinster final. Anthony is training hard with County U-21 squad at present and we wish him all the best.

We cannot conclude without mention of some sparking performances by some of our local schools.

Elsewhere in this edition you can read of Star of the Sea’s great day in Croke Park, so we’ll concentrate on Marian College instead where the college at long last won their Dublin Colleges’ league but, surprise surprise, not in football but in hurling.

The U-14 win in O’Toole park last May was indeed some achievement. To come out of an initial group of 32 schools, many of them with a long tradition in hurling like Benildus, Oaklands, O’Connell Schools, Donaghies, Scoil Aodan and eventual finalists Clonkeen College who Marian drew with in a preliminary round really is remarkable.

The lads got off to a great start in the final with early goals from Michael Kerins and David Blake. Well done to Mick McCarthy, Paddy Troy, Jimmy Dent and Terry Hanlon on their good work on preparing the lads.

The year ending has been very satisfactory with progress being made on all fronts as the club continues to expand. The year ahead no doubt will present some considerable difficulties, particularly in regards to our ambitious building plans but we are fully confident that all these problems will be ironed out somehow or other.

A very Happy Christmas and all the best for ‘99.

Top: Marian College U-16 Hurling Team.
Back, left to right: Teacher Brendan Corbett, Gary Boland, Niall Hall, Graham Dent, Mitch Cavanagh, Chris Canavan, Warren Hawkins, Ciaran Connolly, Brian Rush.

Middle: Jack Nicholson, Manager of Junior ‘A’ Hurlers, seems very pleased with new jerseys sponsored by Heitons of Ringsend, as does player Martin Neville.

Bottom: left to right: David Lyons, Fiacre Doyle, Mitchell Madill, Bernard Groves, David Doherty, Stephen Ingle, Carl Geoghan, David Blake