CLG Áth Fhada Christmas Newsletter 2024

A Chara,

Happy Christmas to all our members, players, coaches, supporters and our local community! It’s the time of year where all our young members anticipate the arrival of Santa Claus and here’s hoping he remembers to visit our parish tonight! It is important to remember the real meaning of Christmas is family and friends and hopefully everyone enjoys Christmas Day with their loved ones. This time of year can be a very joyous time of year for many but it is important to take this opportunity to remember all the people who have passed away in 2024. On behalf of CLG Áth Fhada, I would like to offer our condolences to all members who have lost family members and friends during the year. Special condolences to the Barry and Kelleher families on their recent bereavements. Ar dheis Dé go raibh a n-anamacha.

Our club held its annual general meeting at the end of November. This AGM was extremely well attended with the clubhouse packed with young and old. It was great to see representation from right across our club (GAA, Camogie & Ladies Football) at the yearly meeting. The meeting went well with good discussion on the night. The clear highlight of the season was undoubtedly our senior ladies county championship triumph with the trophy taking pride of place at the top table. Secretary, John Murphy presented his comprehensive annual report which was very well received. Mentors from each team gave a snapshot of the progress made during the year during the report presentation. John does a fantastic job as secretary of the club and should be complemented not only for his report but his professional work he does on a day to day basis. Being secretary of a GAA club is no easy task these days, from emails to letters to match day duties, it really is an all encompassing role. Well done John! Next, our treasurer John O’Neill gave a comprehensive breakdown of our income and expenditure for the year. This role is a crucial role in any GAA club and we are extremely fortunate to have John O’Neill at the helm here. He carries out the important work so well and professionally with the income and expenditure associated with any club these days mimicking a business’ accounts! Our club Chairperson Anthony Connolly then gave his chairperson's address which was done using our new TV screen in the clubhouse. Anthony utilised photos from during the year to give a snapshot of what went on during the season. During Anthony’s presentation, club vice chairperson Eoin O’Neill gave an update on the club's coaching committee and the work it has undertaken in 2024. The committee has done a lot of work to progress our teams on the playing fields and hopes to do even more in 2025! Thanks to everyone involved here. Once all the presentations were complete, there was a motion proposed from the club executive to change our club crest. After a good discussion on the importance of being a one club and the reasons for and against changing our club crest, a vote took place on whether to change or not. A resounding majority voted to change the crest and after another vote to decide what crest from three options to change to, option one won out which can be viewed below. Finally after AOB, club president John Motherway sang our national anthem to complete proceedings. 

During October & November, each section of our club also held meetings to discuss the year gone by. All these meetings went very well and were well attended with good discussions taking place to give good food for thought for 2025! A special mention must go to Vera Terry who stepped down as Aghada Camogie chairperson at the Camogie end of year meeting. Vera has been the driving force behind camogie in the club since the club's foundation in 2011. With Vera stepping down, Kim Hegarty was proposed as the new Aghada Camogie Chairperson. Kim has done a great job as camogie PRO over the last few years and there’s no doubt she will do a great job as chairperson in 2025! Vera may have stepped down as chairperson but she won’t be going far as she was named the new Aghada Camogie President. Well done also to Barry Day who was named Aghada Camogie Vice President. A well deserved honour for Barry who has also done tremendous work for Aghada Camogie since 2011. Congratulations to Vera and Barry! 

Huge congratulations to Sarah Walsh, Sarah Leahy, Roisin Phelan, Hannah Looney, Kaitlin Smith and Emma Farmer who were recently selected on the Rearden’s Cork LGFA Team of the Year 2024. A fantastic honour for the 6 women after a historic season for Aghada LGFA. The ladies will receive their awards at the end of December in Rearden’s. Don’t go too mad girls, the new season is only around the corner!!!

Our club coaching committee and players have been busy over the last month or so transforming our indoor hall into a new state of the art players gym. The equipment was installed by members of our playing squads with great craic had by all! This gym is already in use by some teams and hopefully it will help improve team strength and conditioning levels in 2025. Well done and thanks to all involved. Special mention to Tom O’Neill who drove the project. 

 

As mentioned earlier, our club has a new crest after one was selected at our AGM in November. The crest is below and it looks great. Thanks to all involved in our crest committee who met on several occasions during the year to bring many ideas together into a shared vision. Special mention to Brendan Crowley who started the process of updating the club crest last year and to Lar Collins who led the crest committee in 2024. 

We have breaking news in this newsletter as our club dinner date has just been announced. It will take place in Midleton Park Hotel on Friday the 31st of January. Ticket details will be announced soon. It promises to be a great night with our Senior Ladies Football County Champions and our East Cork U21 A Football Champions receiving medals! Save the date! 

Congratulations to Diarmuid Phelan who won the senior football league with UCC recently. Similarly, congratulations to Aoife Healy who won the Senior Camogie League with UCC a few weeks ago. A big well done to Tom Walsh who was the star goalkeeper for Midleton CBS as they defeated the North Mon in the Dean Ryan Cup Final at the end of November. Another star goalkeeper in the Walsh household! 

Thanks to everyone who continues to support our club lotto! Our lotto is key to helping us pay for our day to day running costs and we really appreciate everyone's support. A big thanks to all our loyal ticket sellers in the parish. As Christmas ends (yes, next week it’ll be over!), it would be great if our members could support these local businesses as January can be a hard month for small businesses. Tickets are also still available online at: https://bit.ly/3bWAiqD 

This week’s draw will take place on FRIDAY (27th December) at 7:30pm live on our club Facebook page. The Jackpot is a whopping €14,250 so make sure you are in the draw. If you’re not in, you can’t win! 

Thanks to everyone who purchased a ticket in Rebels Bounty 2024 and chose Aghada as your nominated club. This year we had a number of winners with Alex Casey scooping the top prize of €20,000 in October. A fantastic win to make the winter even shorter for Alex. Úna Cashman also won €500 in October. This month, Emer & Tara O’Keeffe won 6th prize of €1000. A nice Christmas bonus! So as you can see, there are brilliant cash prizes up for grabs. Whisper it quietly but sales for 2025 Rebels Bounty tickets are now on sale at: 

https://rebelsbounty.ergogroup.ie/prod/rebelsbounty/join-draw 

Over the last few months, a number of improvements have been made to our club grounds. Thanks to Michael O’Brien & Seanie O’Keeffe for installing a new wheel ramp into our portacabin. Thanks to the Men’s Shed for installing a handrail on the ramp. Thanks to Anthony Oosthuizen who has carried out a number of jobs below in the pitch during the year. Anthony is always on hand when a job needs to be done and this is invaluable. Thanks Anthony! 

The GAA Club December Newsletter is available at: https://www.gaa.ie/article/read-the-latest-gaa-club-newsletter-december-2024 

The annual Tony Ahern Memorial Long Puck takes place on St. Stephen’s Day in Whitegate. The first team will be out at 10:30am. As usual, this is a great day out for both young and old. Get some exercise in to burn off that turkey while you’re at it too! Presentations will take place in the Schooner Bar after the Long Puck has completed. Bring your own sliotars! 

The Aghada Long Kick will take place on the 5th of January this year in Whitegate. Time TBC. This also promises to be a great family day out with a fantastic crowd having great fun last year at the event. Keep an eye on social media for more details closer to the event. 

Well sin é. I would like to wish everyone a Happy Christmas on behalf of Aghada GAA, Camogie & Ladies Football Club. I hope Santy arrives on time and everyone has a great, festive and safe Christmas. Looking forward to seeing a big crowd on St. Stephen’s Day at the Long Puck. 

Ag deireadh, guím Nollaig dheas shuimhneach shíocánta ort, ar do mhuintir agus ar bhaill Áth Fhada ar fad.

Ag súil le gach éinne a fheiscint ag an bpoc fada.

Nollaig Shona agus Athbhliain fé mhaise daoibh go léir.

Slán,

Vince