GAA Club Victory Dinner Dance
Next Saturday night (4th Feb) at 8pm in Rathkeale House hotel and it promises to be a cracker!! If you haven't secured your tickets at this stage, then that's just unfortunate as it is now within a half-dozen tickets of being completely sold out. The decision to keep the ticket price as low as possible looks like it is having its desired effect with a full house now guaranteed. Music will be performed by 'Keep in Touch', with many attractive Spot Prizes on offer. Medals will be presented to our all-conquering Junior & U21 football teams of 2011 as well as to the 2010 junior football league winning team. With all the presentations, it is important that we get going on time so all ticket holders are reminded to be at the hotel on time. 8pm is the start time.

Limerick Senior Footballers
Best wishes to Limerick Senior Footballers who play Leitrim in Carrick-on-Shannon this Sunday in the opening round of the Football league. The club have 2 players involved in the panel at the moment, namely Eoghan O'Connor & Damien Quaid. All in the club would like to wish both Eoghan & Damien all the best for the year.

New Limerick Clubs Draw
The club is delighted to promote the new Limerick Clubs Draw for 2012. This draw will be ran on behalf of all the Limerick GAA clubs by the County Board and will be a vital fundraiser for our club as it replaces the old "Limerick GAA Development Draw (Mackey Draw)".
It takes a similar format to the old draw with 10 draws throughout the year. The first draw takes place on the 1st Friday in March and goes right through until the first Friday in December. The annual subscription, remains at €100 which is unchanged from previous years. We encourage all our supporters and members to join the draw as the 50% commission earned by the club is vital to the financial well-being of the club.
Very shortly, our promoters will be canvassing for your support and we look forward to the same fantastic support as we received in previous years. First prize each month is a whopping €15,000, €5,000 for 2nd, €2000 for 3rd and €1,000 for 4th, €500 for 5th to 8th and €250 for 9th to 28th. Special bonus prizes consist of pairs of All-Ireland tickets and stays in Jury's Croke Park Hotel in April, May, June & July.
All in all, a very attractive prize fund and by joining, you are supporting your own local club which of course is the main benefit.

U21 Football Final DVDs
A limited number of souvenir DVDs of the County U21-A football final are still available. The game between Sean Finns and Shamrocks was played in Ballyagran on St Stephen's day. They are great value at only €10 each. Please contact club secretary Pat Sheahan if you wish to purchase a copy.

Club Membership now due
Club membership for the 2012 season is now due. Rates for 2012 remain unchanged from last year and are as follows: Adult €20, Under-18 €10 and a family rate of €50. All players must pay their membership prior to taking part in any games or training. This will be strictly enforced this year so make sure you contact Philip O'Donnell, who is the club registrar again for 2012, before training commences.

New Referees are required - Correction to last week's note
An error in last week's note was pointed out to me during the week. At least it proves that somebody is reading them! Thanks again to that reader for highlighting this. The corrected note is as follows: At last week's west board meeting, a call went out to all the clubs in search of new referees. These are urgently required if the board are to continue to organise our games. This club has a long and very proud tradition of supplying top class referees who have gone all the way to the top in their "trade". Men like Gerry Fitzgerald (RIP) and Neil Duggan have both refereed All-Ireland senior finals while current referees Shane Hourigan and Martin Doherty are both very well respected at a national level. So the call has gone out to all, there must be someone or maybe more out there who is interested in taking up the whistle. In these recessionary times, it could be a nice earner for someone. Think about it and if you think you fit the bill, please pass your name along to the club secretary Pat Sheahan. Training will be provided at divisional and county level, so no fear from that score.

Club's Children's Officer Information Night
An Information evening for all GAA Club Children's Officer takes place on Monday 13th Feb at Woodlands Adare from 7.30pm to 9.30pm.

First Meeting of County Football Board
The first monthly meeting of Coiste Peil Contae Luimni will take place this Wednesday 1st February in Fitzgerald's Woodlands House Hotel, Adare @ 8pm. The draws for this year's Griffins Coaches County Intermediate Football Championship and the Irish Wire Products County Senior Football Championship will take place at this meeting. Other points to be discussed are: All County Leagues 2012, Progress of Football Development Plan, Munster Post-Primary Schools Projects, Update on County Teams & 'Friends of Limerick Football' Fundraising Committee.

Information night for Club Irish Officers
An information evening for all GAA Club Irish Officers takes place on Wed 1st Feb at the Devon Inn at 8.00pm

Trath Na gCeist Luimnígh
We are looking to put a team into this year's Trath na gCeist. Please contact Kieran O'Donovan (085-2302393) if you are interested in representing the club. Limerick GAA's adult "Trath na gCeist" will be held in Ahane Clubhouse on Wednesday Feb 8th at 8:00pm. Rules are as follows: Ceathrar (4) are ghach foireann, €20 do ghach tábla. Ocht mbabhta le deich ceist faoi Eirinn mar seo:
Cumann Luth Chleas Gael x 2, Ceol na tire, Cúrsaí Reatha na tire (current affairs), Stair na hÉireann, Tír Eolas na tire, Litríocht na tíre (literature), Cultúr na hÉireann.
Top 2 teams go forward to Munster Final on 7u Márta (Ceadaoin) I Mala.
Top 3 teams presented with prizes.

Gaelic 4 Girls
Tara Ryan, the Urban Programme Officer with the Ladies Gaelic Football Association wrote an article during the week highlighting an upcoming initiative to encourage young girls to participate in Ladies Gaelic Football. We would encourage this initiative and if somebody wants to get involved please let us know. The detail of the e-mail is copied here. Gaelic4Girls has chosen to target the Rathkeale area, commencing sometime in March. The programme has been a phenomenal success throughout the country. All Ladies Football clubs involved were thrilled with the programme and the positive impact it has had on their club. The following is a brief outline of the programme and I have attached further information.
Gaelic 4 Girls
Gaelic4Girls is an 8 week programme (each session is 1 hour) aimed at increasing participation in urban areas, disadvantaged areas or in an area of no Ladies Gaelic Football. It targets girls between the ages of 9-13 who are not part of a Ladies Football Club and introduces them to the sport in a fun environment. It involves the teaching of skills through FUN Skill Games by coaches who have been identified by the club. The programme culminates in an internal blitz day where the participants receive a Gaelic4Girls certificate and jersey. After the programme all Gaelic4Girls participants will attend a Major Regional Blitz Day on the 26th of May.
I feel that the programme will be extremely beneficial for the area and will be a huge success. It will have huge benefits for the club as hopefully the girls will filter into the club after the programme finished. All the schools in the area will be targeted and the girls will be encouraged to attend the programme. This programme is also a fantastic opportunity to further develop the club and to recruit additional volunteers. To ensure the coaches are qualified we will put them through the Ladies Gaelic Football FUNdamentals coaching course for free.
Tara has expressed an interest in meeting the club officers and others who may be interested. So this might be a great opportunity for the ladies to get involved. We would be delighted to hear from anybody willing to get involved.

Award One Courses
Limerick Coaching & Games are holding a number of Award-One Coaching courses over the coming months. They will be holding two Award One Child courses which are aimed at club coaches who will be coaching children's teams (U8-U12) during 2012. They will also be holding three Award One Youth courses which are aimed at club coaches who will be coaching youth teams (U13-U18). Please find dates below. Applications Forms and further information are with Tom Keating if you are interested in participating. The club actively encourages all its coaches to attend.
Booking is essential as there are a limited number of places available (25-30 Max) on each course. If a course is fully booked you will get a place on the next course. Participants must have a Foundation Award course completed before they can apply for the Award One courses. Participants must attend the entire course to ensure certification at Award One Child or Youth Level. Course fee is €50 per person. Further information can be obtained from Noel Hartigan (087-9581568)

Minor Hurling Blitz 2012
In order to try to strengthen the club identity in the county, it is proposed that a special Club Minor Hurling Blitz will take place for Limerick club teams. The competition will take place over two days (Blitz Day and Finals Day) on 25th Feb and 10th March at multiple venues across the county. All hurling clubs are encouraged to participate in the blitz. It is important to note that the competition is for club teams and will not affect declared amalgamations for the championship.
* Teams may enter at either 15-a-side or 12-a-side
* Games will be 10 minutes per half and each team will be guaranteed a minimum of 3 games
* Venues will be arranged geographically in order to minimise travelling in as far as is possible
* Results on Blitz Day will determine the groupings for Finals Day
* Medals will be presented for 15-a-side Premier, 15-a-side Div 1 and the 12-a-side competition.
* The competition will not be used to grade teams for the minor hurling championship.
Entries must be submitted to the County Secretary by 8th February in order to organise groupings and venues.


The Weekly Worthless GAA Question
To keep the minds ticking over during these long evenings we have introduced a weekly GAA trivia question. Now before you get too excited there is no prize on offer, hence it is called the 'Weekly Worthless GAA Question'. We will kick off with a Limerick question for week one.

Question: There were three nominations for the 2007 Young Hurler of the Year. Two of them came from Limerick. Name them?

Answer will be published in next week's notes Tweet

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