The Tracy Staunton ladies football tournament was held on our new Prunty pitch last month and what a successful tournament it turned out to be. Brilliantly organised by Jean Joyce and Pat Kane it involved 8 of the top junior teams in Dublin.

The draw for the competition was held early in the morning by Martin Mannion from Crawford’s Ford Centre. It pitted our first team against hot favourites Thomas Davis in the opening match and what a match it turned out to be with Clanns pulling away in the last couple of minutes to score a brilliant win.
They easily dispatched Naomh Barrog and Na Fianna in their next rounds to reach the semi-final. Meanwhile the second Clanns team was battling it out against much stronger opposition in St Anne’s, Ballymun and Ballyboden and they performed exceptionally well, losing narrowly in two of their matches.

The first team had a great semi-final win over Ballymun and went on to meet hot shots Ballyboden in the final. This was a great match with Clanns getting off to a flyer to lead by 5 points after 5 minutes and held the advantage to lead by four at the interval.

The game ebbed and flowed in the second half, with Clanns always keeping their noses in front. That was until the dying seconds when Ballyboden got a goal to lead by two. As hard as they tried Clanns, could not get the equaliser or the winner and despite being the better team for most of the match, victory was not to be theirs on this occasion. In the Shield competition St Anne’s beat Naomh Barrog in the final.

The presentations were held in the Clubhouse afterwards where some beautiful words were spoken by Tracy’s Mother. Tracy’s parents were in attendance all day and they thanked the Club for honouring Tracy in such a special way. Martin Mannion from Crawfords Ford Centre on the Beach Road said he was delighted to sponsor the event and looked forward to its continued success in the future. By the letters of thanks received by Jean Joyce afterwards, this competition is here to stay for many a year.
Jean has recently taken command of the Saturday morning football and hurling nursery. The numbers attending have now passed all records with 100 people plus signed up. Great credit is due to Jean’s organisation skills and if you want your child to participate please ring Jean at 6672204.

Tea and Coffee will be served for the parents each Saturday morning and they can keep an eye on little Johnny or wee Wendy from the beautiful view of our Clubhouse. From this view you can see the Dublin Mountains, Dun Laoghaire Harbour and Sally O’Brien and the way she might look at you.
We started our own Summer camps this year in football and hurling as well as the Leinster Summer Camps and we invited members from St Joey’s of Sheriff Street along. Dublin Port Co awarded some beautiful trophies to the best player etc and we would like to thank Charlie Murphy, Michael Sheary and Gerry Barry for their presentation.

The third Summer Camp available to the Club was the Docklands hurling and football camp held in Parnell Park. Club members enjoyed a wonderful 4 days being coached by Nicky English, Niall Quinn and Conal Keaney. They were collected each morning at the club by coach and returned safely that afternoon. So all in all a great summer was had by all the kids at the club.

David Trolan’s team is having a wonderful season to date. David, a past master of both football and hurling and who played with the legend himself, is passing on all his expertise to the U.10s.
David began coaching this team two years ago and they now find themselves top of the league, with three matches remaining, having had some great wins over Cuala Casements, Liffey Gaels and Ballinteer St. John’s. Some excellent players are performing for this team, Fran Mosnier, Gareth Trolan, Jacob Farrell, Kevin Stafford, Tadhg Coleman, Paul Casey, and Eddie Doyle to name but a few. David will be introducing hurling with them next month when they will prepare for next year’s Camaint Tournament

Inter footballers have remained unbeaten since we last wrote and are heading for the promotion play-offs with an outside chance of automatic promotion itself. Their latest mauling dished out was a 15 point hammering of Naomh Mearnog in Portmarnock. This again represents a fantastic achievement by Albert and the Boys considering the defections suffered at the beginning of the year.
Also having a great season are the U15 hurlers who, at time of print, are contesting the semi-final of the championship, having already won the league.

U16 hurlers were knocked out of the championship at the semi-final stage. A number of factors contributed to this, including some key players who were just returning after a flu virus. However, they remain top of the league with two matches remaining. These two matches are extremely difficult assignments so it’s fingers crossed.

Our second and wonderful new Prunty pitch held its first match on Sunday 12th September with the Minor hurlers beating Naomh Barrog in the first round of the Championship. This pitch is truly a great surface but we are all anxious here at the club because of the abuse that the first pitch suffered since it opened.

People practising golf in the very early hours in the morning have left gaping holes in the surface. Other times, club personnel have had to clear the pitch of broken bottles etc from previous night’s drinking. To add to that, we have had our juvenile goalposts broken down on more than one occasion.
These events have left a sour taste in the mouth considering all the investment that has gone into this pitch. We pray and hope that it will not happen to the second pitch but we are powerless to prevent it from occurring again.

Our floodlight project has commenced and this will see the two pitches floodlit from some time in November. Having spoken to numerous walkers who use the park, they are all delighted that the park will be lit-up at night and that they will be able to take themselves and their dogs for a walk during winter time.

This is indeed a massive undertaking for the club and despite a generous grant from Dublin Docklands Development Authority, for which we are extremely grateful, we will still have a hefty deficit on this project.

To offset this deficit we are introducing a 10-year family Membership scheme. This scheme will be formally launched in the clubhouse in the next few weeks. So members– the club is a-calling. We need you!

All club members are up in arms over our Juvenile pitch in Ringsend. To put the record straight, we released our Juvenile pitch in Ringsend to accommodate our soccer neighbours while the stadium project was taking place.

This project is now complete and we still have not recovered the Juvenile pitch in Ringsend. The end result is that many of our 14 juvenile teams now have to concede home advantage.
As if it wasn’t difficult enough, having to compete against many of the bigger clubs but having to concede home advantage is making it impossible for us. And to really pose a problem, our first Prunty pitch will be closed for repairs during the month of October, which will leave us with no Juvenile pitch at all! What are we supposed to do?

Backchat
Sincere condolences to Mulreaney, McCabe, Mantle, Boylan, Dunne, Byrne, Jago and McCartney families in what was a terrible month for deaths in our community.
Condolences to her family on the death of Abbey Rose Kemple.

Celine Mulreaney was the life and soul of many a social occasion in the Clubhouse and will be sorely missed as too will our lifelong friend Joe McCabe, who was part of the furniture with us over the past 15 years.

Another dear and cherished member, Kathleen McCartney, was a great worker for the club over the years and always treated it as her second home and we all too will sorely miss her.

Des Markey is now working for a government agency in trying to promote hurling in the Far East. Des is regularly travelling that part of the world trying to unearth raw talent for this ancient craft of ours. So far, Des has come back with nothing only miraculous medals.

King of Karaoke himself, Pat Kane surprised quite a few and raised more eyebrows than normal when he took the stage at the launch of our Friday night Karaoke spot recently. Keeping his eyes closed as he does when he speaks, the crowd was aghast at the singing powers of the Chairman. Older patrons compared him to Count John McCormack and Perry Como, while younger ones were whispering Robbie Williams and Eminem.

Pat gave a lovely rendering of the 1930s love song ‘Kissing you at the goalpost down by the Prunty Pitch’. Thank God, Conor Dodd was in place to attend to the many women who fainted. The club wishes them a speedy recovery.

Sincere condolences to U9 mentor John Dodd on the death of his father in Sligo.

The ‘Moan of the Year Award’, inaugurated last year, is fast becoming the most sought-after piece of crystal going. Such are the amount of moans that we received this year that the judging committee is set to be increased from two to ten. But the job is very satisfying due to the nature of the complaints. Here are just a few:

‘The floor is too shiny’
‘That door doesn’t open quick enough’
‘The drink is too cheap’
‘The music is too much seventies’
‘The Bar staff aren’t pretty enough’
‘The Big Screen is too big’
‘The Small screen is too small’
‘The tables are too round’

I could go on forever. There are many who are shortlisted for this coveted prize and I will have pleasure naming the winner in the New Year.

Shay Connolly recently tried out his thespian talents with a special extra part in Fair City. The crew of this wonderful soap was shooting in the surrounds of our new clubhouse.


Martin Mannion presents the Sheild to winners St Anne’s with chairman Pat Kane.

They actually used it as a hotel but Julie Egan was peeved that actor Paul was sitting in her chair.
Such was the impact that Shay made that Director, Stephanie Stielberger has pencilled him in for a love scene over the next couple of weeks. The scene involves a fairly steamy session with the local rose of Carrickstown but ends up in tears when he starts talking about hurling in the middle of it. As if there was ever a comparison!

Australian Seamus Keating entered the Clanna Gael Fontenoy book of records when he scored 1-1 for the U11 hurlers recently. He became the first person from that part of the world to score for the club. No he isn’t one of Des Markey’s recruits.

New Club website is up and running. The address is www.clannagaelfontenoy.ie and its constructor is Dan Palmer. Any information at all can be left in the Clubhouse where Dan will duly paste it on to the site.

Clubnight takes place on the 30th October in the upstairs lounge. Players of the year, Club person of the year, Legend of the year etc are all up for grabs. Nominations in a brown envelope to Secretary Conor Dodd.

St Patrick’s, Ringsend and Star of the Sea hurlers at their Hurling Blitz Day in Clanna Gael Fontenoy.

Dublin Hurling and football star Conal Keaney and Coaches with the prizewinners at
the Club Hurling Summer Competition.