After the visit of all the very important people to us in February we all got down off our high horses and started again with the day-to-day running of the Club. And this can be a very onerous task most of the time
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To try and put better structure for the way forward, we organised a day-long seminar in the Holiday Inn on Saturday 14th May. It was my birthday and instead of going for a sumptuous meal with my darling wife I found myself eating from a doughnut with one candle flickering a faint light from it.
The meeting was divided out into workshops and the findings were later discussed in an open forum for all. And it came up with many surprising results.

One subject that was discussed in depth was how we are perceived by the community and how much in fact the community knows about us. The meeting was attended by public reps, Tom Crilly, Daithí Doolan and Chris Andrews. (Many other public reps sent their regrets)

Their view of us was very interesting. They saw us a very well run organisation. It was when they listened to all the problems that we aired that they realised that everything is far from rosy in our organisation.

This column has probably painted the wrong picture over the past while, in that the article seems to portray that everything is AOK with us. So let me in this article try to balance that myth.

Before we commenced on our new development some years ago, we fielded at every age group at Juvenile level. At present we don’t have U13, U14 and U15 teams. We have the players to field teams but we cannot get any mentors to go out with them. Many mentors are looking after two and three teams with chairman Pat Kane involved in 4 different teams.

The present activists in the Club are near burn-out as we strive to keep the young active in our games. Getting mentors to look after a team is now the biggest problem that we face. Whether this is the Celtic Tiger where people don’t have time any more or other reasons, we are not quite sure.

But in the end it is the kids who suffer. If it is possible for 45 kids to slip through the net because we cannot get anyone to look after them, then all the energy that we put into our new facility is worthless. For it was the children of the area that we always had in mind when we prepared ourselves to expend such energy in the first place.

What does it profit a child to get involved in sport? There are many advantages including a healthy mind, avoiding obesity, interaction with other children, discipline etc etc. We can do all this but we cannot do it without mentors. In a sense this is an SOS to all who may wish to help us out. If you feel you could answer this call please don’t hesitate to drop into us or give us a ring at 6604064.

Another topic that came up was finance. Another perception that came from our workshops was again that we were AOK. It costs the Club €165,000 to run the playing end of it each year. Our main source of income towards this expense is our weekly lotto, our All-Ireland forecast competition and our sponsors Dublin Port Co. But, believe me folks, we struggle to make ends meet each year.

Each grant that we have got towards the new facilities all had to be match funded. In other words if we got a euro in grants then we had to come up with a euro ourselves before we could draw down the grant. And whilst we are extremely grateful for all the grants we received, we had to raise some serious euro ourselves to make it all happen. And we borrowed most of those euros. Thus, we have hefty repayments for the foreseeable future.

Another view to the forefront was that we are all one big happy family. Well, let me tell you that we have some serious ‘debates’ in our club. But I suppose it is the same for most voluntary organisations but we do our best to overcome them and move on– and we do move on.

But one thing we agreed on was that there are a certain few people in our area who seem to have serious problems with what we do. I would like to ask that if Clanna Gael Fontenoy was not in this area would the area be better off– I doubt it.

Would children be better off if Clanna Gael Fontenoy was not in this area? I doubt it.
Would the services in this area be better if Clanna Gael Fontenoy were not here? I doubt it.
We feel that we have the support of the vast majority of the community and that is what is most important to us but continuous complaints about a voluntary organisation from a certain few can sap your energy sometimes.

We have an open door. If anyone, and we mean anyone wishes to walk in that door and better our system then we gladly and genuinely welcome them.

A follow-up meeting is planned. The facilitators will collate all the information and will give the report of their findings back to us in July. I hope we are brave and honest enough to accept their findings and recommendations.

So folks, I have given it to you straight from the hip (one of my failings). Our operation, for all its good points is no tin of gloss. When it was raised at the meeting about public awareness of our problems, this page was suggested as one of the avenues to get the message across and I thank Ann Ingle and her staff at News 4 for allowing us this space to begin it.

* If you have time on your hands please call in to us
* If you fell out with us in the past, please return to us
* If you have problems with us, please be patient with us

So there you have it folks. We wish everyone a long, hot and beautiful summer!

Backchat:
* Will those who keep robbing the Dublin Flag from outside the Club please refrain from doing so until we’ve won two matches in a row. It could be a long time before the flag is safe. Mick Kerins is helping Irishtown with their enquiries.

* Stephen ‘Sticky’ Dunphy, was the host of Ringsend when he chipped in with 4 goals in an U.16 match last month. Not since the legend himself in 19?? has such an achievement been matched. Stephen’s Father, Matt has not come down from cloud nine since.

* Most Caring Club Person Award for 2005 went to Michael Fitzgerald. Mick rings at least 10 different people each day to collate all the goings on and then gives his expert advice free of charge to all. Now, where would we be without the bold Mick!

* Fair play to Celine Kemple who organised many locals to run in the Mini Marathon on the June Bank Holiday weekend to raise funds for the Abbie Rose Trust. The club has organised beds and respirators when they return to prepare for the night ahead. Music is provided by the Hangovers who are giving their services free.

* Inter footballers are unbeaten in the league. ‘No play-offs’ is Albert’s cry this year. Over to you, players!

* Works on the new balcony in the bar have commenced so smokers can enjoy their pipe in comfort from now on.

* New romances are still continuing in the Club. The latest Mills and Boon story is the evergreen Peter Burnett and the blossoming Gillian Early. The early bird always catches the worm.

* The Nicholson family is offloading their offspring at an alarming rate. Last year Brian packed his bags and crossed the Liffey with his belle. It is told that son John has been kidnapped by a rare bird and has not been seen since. Other son Dermot has moved into the Sadlier household in Sandymount and is pursuing a serious career with one of their offspring. Father Jack has never been so happy in all his life as he can now listen and dance to Céili House each Saturday night in the kitchen uninterrupted.

* Meanwhile Martin Neville is pining for his true love who has taken flight to the U.S.A. for the summer. Mamma Noeleen is currently fund raising to help with the phone bill.

* Stephen Cox has landed himself a big part in Fair City in the not-too-distant future. Stephen has to put on five stone to play the character. He’s almost reached it.

* Ger O’Neill, he of Soccer goalkeeping fame in the area over the last fifty years finally fulfilled a lifetime ambition to play for Clans when he togged out for the third adult team some weeks ago. Ger’s son Gerard also played full back on the same team. Ger was like an acrobat in goal but got himself booked by the referee for continuously shouting ‘handball’ at him.

* The footballing women have reached the quarter final of the Championship. If by any chance they go on to win it, I want to warn the area that some serious celebrations could be done by these amazing amazons.

* Best of luck to Brian McDermott, Kevin Munelly and Star of the Sea Junior hurlers who have reached the final of Cumann Na mBunscol to be played at Croke Park this month.
See ‘Gael Force at Clanna’ on page 32 for more photos.

GAEL FORCE AT CLANNA