St Mary's, Athenry hosted a successful event for teams from all four provinces last Saturday.
By Cian O’Connell
Clubs from all four provinces participated in St Mary's Inaugural U11 Festival of Hurling.
The event held last Saturday in Carnaun featured St Joseph’s Doora-Barefield (Clare), Monaleen, Na Piarsaigh (Limerick), James Stephens, St Patrick’s/Fenians (Kilkenny), Naas (Kildare), and Dungannon Eoghan Ruadh (Tyrone).
Organised with Go Games rules the matches centred on enjoyment with St Mary's, Athenry juvenile chairperson Leonard Fay highlighting the contribution of those who made the day a real success. “Everything went well logistically, a lot of work and preparation went into it by a lot of volunteers,” Fay says. “With teams from four provinces, it was nice to see it.
“Eoghan Ruadh from Dungannon are a wonderful hurling team, I think they've got Féile in their mind, that is the standard they're at, to be fair.
“As a club we probably didn't have the facilities in the past. We've done a lot of work with that, new pitches and the development in Carnaun. That affords us an opportunity to give invites back to these clubs. It is all about the kids, these are U11s.”
The reaction in the club was very positive according to Fay. “Our senior hurling team were involved, helping out, our minor hurling team helped out,” he adds.
“They met all of these young kids, we were all 11 once, you look up to these older hurlers. You aspire to be them, it was brilliant the way it all worked out.”
Damien Sheridan, part of the organising committee, who is also Games Manager for Longford GAA, was delighted how it unfolded. “There was a lot of trepidation at the outset leading into it, the first time doing something, we wanted to do a good job,” Sheridan says.
The Inaugural St Mary's GAA Club Athenry U11 Festival of Hurling took place last Saturday.
“We had a lot of good people involved, pretty much no stone left unturned. The teams that came, the clubs were unanimous really with the positive compliments flying around on Saturday when mentors were heading home, messaging on buses.
“Even the referees were messaging to say it was a really well ran event, lots of really good stuff like that. Everybody involved was delighted on Saturday night, it set the benchmark for going forward and running successful events every year.”
The connection between the past, present, and future of Athenry mattered deeply. “We had one piper, he led the parade before the games,” Sheridan explains. “We had a minute silence for past members of the club and Ámhran Na bhFiann. We had one piper, five pitches, seven official referees - that was a big thing we wanted, we had breaks built into their days so they wouldn't be fatigued.
“We had eight clubs from four provinces, 20 teams between the eight clubs with 40 matches, and almost 100 volunteers.
“That was from the committee to the parents, who made food boxes for the kids, to the parking stewards, and minor players, who did umpires and line officials at every pitch.”
Ultimately, hurling and fun were on the agenda. “We tried to make sure every base was covered for the 260 kids, it was one great event, and no trophies,” Sheridan says.
“Nobody needed to have a trophy, it was just good hurling with a lot of respect and goodwill. People just enjoyed the game of hurling.”
That is what it was all about.
