Preparations are in full swing for the 2015 National Féile Peil na nÓg and Wicklow will play a major role in South Leinster along with Carlow and Wexford hosting over 250 U-14 Football teams, boys and girls, over 6,500 players altogether will take to the playing fields of the Sunny South East on the weekend of June 26th-28th 2015, which will make it the largest Féile Peil na nÓg organized since the inception of the competition with teams coming from as far as Scotland, England and America. This is the 2nd year that the competition will be run on a provincial wide basis allowing a wider expanse of teams to partake. An estimated 30,000 family, friends and supporters will travel with the teams ensuring a busy and bountiful weekend for businesses in over 100 different parishes, towns and hotels in Wexford, Carlow and Wicklow.
AGB are counting down the days on a body of work that began as far back as February. The Ladies will field two teams in the competition. The first team will host Cill Iseal from County Tyrone; the second will host Glyde Rangers from County Louth. The U14 boys will host Gloucestershire from England and these will be arriving in Arklow on Thursday June 25th when the families and Féile committee of the boys section will be waiting to welcome them along with their mentors and families.
The ladies teams are arriving on Friday evening. Cill Iseal will play their first game in St. Martin's in Wexford at 5pm against St. Martin's. AGB 1 will play Donaghmoyne from County Monaghan also at 5pm in St. Martin's so the new friends will kick off the weekend side by side.
St. Martin's will play AGB 1 at 6pm and Cill Iseal will tackle Donaghmoyne also at 6pm. Then it will be back to Arklow for a light supper, an early night and a good night's sleep with the host families as Saturday will be another busy day. The adults are welcome to attend a Table Quiz organised by the Juvenile Boys' committee in the Old Ship on Main St. where all can pit their academic wits against each other and relax after a busy evening of sport and a busy day of travelling!
AGB 1 will play Cill Iseal in Pearses' Park at 10.30am on Saturday morning. Light refreshments will be served in the hospitality tent under the able stewardship of Dee Hurley. Thanks to all the volunteers who have offered to make sandwiches and bring treats for our guests. If you wish to help out and haven't yet been roped in please get in touch with the organising committee and be part of this wonderful event for our young people.
Depending on the outcome of the games above the Shield and Cup Quarter-finalists will compete in Wexford Park on Saturday evening, with the shield quarter finals at 3.45pm and the Cup Quarter finals at 5.15pm.
On Saturday at 8.30pm there will be a presentation to our visiting clubs in the Arklow Rock's GAA club. Sincere thanks to our friends in Arklow Rock Parnell's for their continued support of our club and of this event. We look forward to welcoming our visiting teams, our home teams and all of their families to this celebration. Festivities will wind up at 10.00pm sharp as these youngsters will be ready for a second solid night's sleep to see out the busy weekend.
The resulting semi-finals of Division 1 take place on Sunday morning 10am and 10.45am for Shield and 11.30am and 12.15pm for Cup. These will be held in Ferns. The Division 1 Shield and Cup Finals will be run simultaneously in Ferns at 2.45pm.
Our Division 5 visitors Glyde Rangers will travel directly to Ballinakill on Friday where they will take on Ballysaggart from Waterford at 5pm. AGB 2 will play Scotland at the same venue and time. At 6pm AGB will play Newtown and Glyde Rangers will play Bray Emmets, both from Wicklow. After that it's back with the host families to Arklow for supper and bed!
On Saturday the Division 5 girls have an early start and play each other at 9.45am in Pearses' Park, Arklow. Then Glyde Rangers are off to Newtown to play Scotland at 4pm and Newtown at 5pm. The AGB 2 girls won't be too far away as they take on Bray Emmets and Ballysaggart at 3pm and 4pm respectively in Newcastle. The Shield and Cup Semi-finals for this division will take place in Éire Óg in Carlow on Sunday starting at 11am.
Sincere congratulations to the ladies' organising committee led by Mick Healy, Sarah O'Sullivan and Linda McAnaspie, to the boys' committee led by Brian McBride and Mary Fennel, to the coaches, mentors and administrators for both the girls' and the boys' teams for the hard work and dedication they have put into organising all aspects of this event at local level, to our Executive led by John Murphy and Jimmy Dunne for their committed support to the event, to our parents who are not only our host families but our greatest supporters and of course to the girls and boys themselves, who are our greatest assets! We know they are great ambassadors for our club both on and off the field of play. We look forward to lots of local support for the local events and for the away games also. Go n-éirí an tádh libh go léir!