Minor Football Championship: Mullingar Shamrocks 6-8 Western Gaels 2-17
 

Well done to our minor footballers on a brilliant battling comeback victory against Western Gaels in Drumraney on Sunday morning. Shamrocks trailed badly in the early stages and conceded 1-3 in the opening 5 minutes and by 2-8 to 1-1 after twenty minutes. The opening Shamrocks goal was a great effort by Mark Shaw from an Ollie MacNamara pass. However this team is full of spirit and battled back and at half-time had cut the deficit to 0-3 (2-8 top 2-5). Mark Shaw turned creator for the second goal and set up Conor Fagan who sent a great shot ripping into the top corner.

 

Mullingar Shamrocks flew from the traps in the second half and Oliver MacNamara and Mark Clinton combined to set up Daithi Martin for the third goal. At the second water break Shamrocks had pushed ahead on a 5-7 to 2-12 scoreline with Ollie MacNamara getting in on the goal scoring act and completed a hat trick of goals before the final whistle.. 

Adam Boyle made a few excellent saves in goal, Rory Hickey was superb at fullback and Rian Adamson was brilliant at centre-back on his comeback from injury game. Ollie was Ollie at centre-forward and ended with 3-4 to his credit but overall this was a great TEAM victory on a 6-8 to 2-17 scoreline. 

 

And well done to Vinny, Anthony, Seamus and Paul, a great reward for all their hard work with the boys. 

 

Busy Time at Under-Age & New Sponsors on board ..

It’s a busy time at underage level which is great to see after a few months of Covid enforced inactivity. Our under 6s travelled  to The Downs on Saturday  morning and faced the home team; for the vast majority of our players it was a first ever outing in a Shamrocks’ jersey. Our more experienced under 7s travelled  to Ballynacarrigy and played  a Go-Games fixture against the home club and Shandonagh.. Huge thanks to Ballynacarrigy and former Shamrocks players Aidan Lyons for hosting both Shandonagh and Shamrocks.

There was  activity in Springfield too as our under 9s and 11s hosted Moate All-Whites in Go-Games fixtures. Our under 13s continued preparations  for their semi final against Shandonagh next weekend and our under 15s continue to ready themselves to play Athlone in the semi-final on Sunday week, 20th. On the ladies’ side, our under-8 and under-10 girls journey to The Downs on Friday evening and  faced Na Dunta. Training continued  for the under 4 and under 5 boys and girls in the SeamrOGi group training and continued for our 8s and 10s . Our thanks to the many coaches who volunteer so willingly to help hundreds of Shamrocks’ young people to train and play and have fun.

 

Our thanks to Pat Collins who ensures that every team takes to the pitch resplendent in the green and white jerseys. Pat’s washing machine and dryer will be on overtime for the next few days.

 

Off the pitch it has also been a good week as we welcomed new sponsors for our under-6 and under-7 squads, the underage Exec would like to thank 3 local companies who have come on board, Robbie Fenton and his Company, Bricks4Kidz who is sponsoring playing tee-shirts for our u6 boys and girls, also Peter Collins and his Companies, Derravaragh Design/92NORTH Home & Design who will be kitting out our u7 boys squad with jerseys. Orders have already been placed with our suppliers, KC Sports & Leisure with delivery due on Friday,25 September. Many thanks to our under-6 Lead Mentor, Adrian Keaveney who worked behind the scenes on the sponsorship deal with Bricks4Kidz. 

A tribunal has been established to source the identity of the person/persons responsible for sourcing the Derravaragh Design/92NORTH Home & Design sponsorship.

 

All in all, a good week both on and off the pitch for our underage section, many thanks to everybody for their help, at the end of the day, it is all about the kids and their enjoyment of sport

 

Stress Control Programme ... message from Healthy Club Officer Joan ..

 

HSE Health and Wellbeing is hosting an online, free Stress Control  programme that began on Monday, 7 September . The programme, which helps participants deal with their stress and learn skills to support their mental wellbeing, is made up of six online sessions of an hour and half each. To join simply go to stresscontrol.ie to register.

 

Sessions are available every Monday and Thursday and are broadcast at 2. 00pm and 8:30pm (they will also be available up for 48 hours after each broadcast)

 

Programme Benefits include:

• Free user-friendly resource and easy access/sign up

• Helps manage anxiety and build resilience, where some people may be finding they are experiencing increased levels of worry due to the impacts of COVID-19

• All programme resources available online, including information booklets, relaxation and mindfulness tools.

 

Conor McKenna travels North and watches plenty of football that is not played behind Closed Doors ...

 

During the early phase of lockdown Conor McKenna provided us with a remarkable insight into his work and weekend travel as a freelance journalist covering GAA matches big and small. In another  great piece Conor explains how a bit of outside the box thinking has enabled  him to take in several GAA games at the weekend by travelling to Northern Ireland. 

 

The first Sunday of September is one of the main days of the year for GAA supporters, as it has traditionally played host to the All-Ireland Hurling Final, while the last two All-Ireland football finals have been played on that day.

 

I was at home watching the Dublin vs Kerry All-Ireland final last year and if you had told me that 12 months on I’d be at games enjoying a feast of football, I would have presumed I’d have been in Croke Park looking at an All-Ireland final, or if I wasn’t there then I’d be reporting on a match elsewhere or watching it on the TV.

 

Never in my wildest dreams did I think that I’d be in Castledawson GAA grounds in South Derry taking in Slaughtneil vs Foreglen in the last 16 of the Derry Senior Football Championship, before racing across to Glen GAA club in Maghera to watch The Loup take on Dungiven.

 

I would go to the vast majority of the Republic of Ireland home games and instead of being in the Aviva Stadium at Ireland vs Finland on Sunday evening, I was in Celtic Park in Derry City watching Magherafelt vs Lavey.

 

These are very strange times, though I’d be a great believer that you should always make the most of a bad situation.

 

 

 

The non-sensical decision to bar spectators completely from attending games led me to think outside the box.

 

I read Mick O’Dywer’s autobiography “Blessed and Obsessed” years ago, one of the first sports books I can ever remember reading.

I recall a quote that O’Dwyer had in his autobiography where he said that “I have often said that football just wasn’t in my blood – it is my blood,”.

 

I would feel the same way towards both codes of the GAA and sport in general. Attending live sport has shaped my life.

 

I might have been hard to live with over the lockdown, when sport was off our screens and I couldn’t bring myself to watch any of the older classics shown on TV.

 

I swore to anyone who would listen that I would never, ever take attending games for granted again and vowed to go to as many games as humanly possible when spectators were allowed again.

 

I cursed NPHET for not letting 500 people go to outdoor events and then banning spectators altogether.

Last weekend I saw fixtures released for the last 16 of the Derry Senior Football Championship. Tickets went on general sale for all eight games and I had to act fast, as they were due to sell-out fast due to crowd restrictions.

I purchased tickets for six games over the course of three days, fitting in Bryansford vs Carryduff in the Down Senior Football Championship, in Pairc Esler, Newry on Monday evening.

 

Alarm was set for 8am Saturday morning and my first stop was Dungiven GAA grounds where I took in the meeting of Coleraine and Claudy.

It was a long drive up on bad, rural roads, through the mountains of Tyrone and South Derry. I was tired after it and it was one of the longest journeys I’ve ever undertaken.

 

I checked into my accommodation, Serendipity House, in Derry City after the game, which is within walking distance of Celtic Park.

 

I witnessed the meeting of Ballinascreen and Bellaghy at 6pm, which was an evenly contested game, though I had a frightening experience after the match, when on route to a local shop, a group of youths through a firework which went off directly across the road from me after a very loud bang, which led me to turn back and change direction very, very quickly!

 

 

The first game Sunday was at 1pm and I was the most angry and disappointed person in Castledawson GAA grounds when word filtered through to me that Southern Gaels had defeated Clonkill in the Intermediate Hurling Championship, thus eliminating St. Oliver Plunkett’s.

Castledawson was an hour’s drive from Derry City, so I was home relatively early on Saturday night, with outdoor pubs open up north for punters without the requirement to purchase food, leading to a much more relaxed environment for tourists like myself.

 

It was impossible to be angry for long however when watching Slaughtneil, who are the country’s best club in my opinion, as they dominate Ulster Football, Hurling and Camogie and watching them in action was the highlight of the weekend.

 

I hopped from Castledawson to Watty Graham’s, Glen, in Maghera for a 3pm game between

The Loup and Dungiven, which was a well-contested affair, with two of the greatest forwards of the modern era in opposing dug-outs, as Paddy Bradley was over The Loup, with Stephen O’Neill in charge of Dungiven.

 

I then saw reigning champions Magherafelt take on and defeat Lavey on Sunday evening, with Tom Maunsell from The Downs a selector with Magherafelt.

 

Maunsell used to own the old Springfield Stores shop, which is only a Philly Shaw kick-out away from the Mullingar Shamrocks pitch.

 

I travelled across the North from Derry to Belfast on Monday then, stopping off to see two of my best friends Odhran and Micheal Fox, who I always visit on any trip up north, before heading to Newry that evening to see Carryduff deliver an exhibition to eliminate Bryansford.

 

I got home eventually at 11:30 on Monday evening and had driven roughly 661 kilometres.

I used going to GAA games as a “staycation”, during this pandemic, and it was my second time to do so this summer having previously attended games in Down and Armagh over a weekend.

 

I certainly intend to go on more of these trips before the year is out. People struggle to believe that I would travel all that way for a club GAA game, but I love driving and I love seeing new parts of the country.

 

I’ve almost had more interest in the Derry, Down and Armagh Championships this year than I’ve had in the local Westmeath ones, as the law has locked punters out of Westmeath club games.

 

I’ve bought the Irish News almost every day for the past few weeks, which has unrivalled coverage of Ulster Club GAA.

 

I really hope that this will be the only summer that there will be restrictions on spectators, though personally I feel that I’ve made the most of it and my only regret is not getting to more games over the border.

 

I drove through Bellaghy, homeplace of Seamus Heaney, on Monday, and one of Heaney’s great lines was “If we winter this one out, we can summer anywhere”.

 

Another quote I love is one Garrycastle captain Doron Harte used in his county final speech last year, where he mentioned how people should “Keep swinging, even in the dark times.”

 

It’s incredibly important for folk to remain positive and make the most out of what are truly strange and depressing times and I’d really encourage folk to find a new passion or past-time, like I’ve done with attending Ulster GAA games.

 

Fixtures

LGF Intermediate County Final: Mullingar Shamrocks v Killucan on Saturday 19 September at 4.00 pm. Venue: TBC. 

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