GAA executive to appoint child welfare officer

THE executive of Clare GAA will appoint a child welfare officer who will replace the post of youth officer. Sandra Reynolds, the Bord na nÓg hurling secretary, was the outgoing youth officer but this position no longer exists within the GAA.
Otherwise, all outgoing members of the Clare executive were returned, without opposition, for another term when delegates gathered at the annual convention. A number of these officers will have to step down at the end of 2012 as they will have completed five years in the posts they currently hold.
The executive for 2012 is: president, John Hanly, Clarecastle; chairman, Michael O’Neill, Ballyea; vice-chairman, Joe Cooney, O’Callaghan’s Mills; assistant secretary, Des Crowe, Ruan; treasurer, Bernard Keane, St Joseph’s; assistant treasurer, Gerry Lynch, Tulla; public relations officer, Syl O’Connor, Sixmilebridge; Irish/culture officer, Tom Burke, Corofin; development officer, John Fawl, Ennistymon; coaching and games officer, Eamonn  Fennessy, Sixmilebridge; central council delegate, Ger Hickey, Feakle; Munster full-time official, Pat Fitzgerald, Sixmilebridge; council delegates, John O’Sullivan, Ruan and Tom Downes, Kilmihil; delegates to congress, Syl O’Connor, Robert Frost, Bernard Keane, Noel Walsh, Tom Downes, James McMahon (U-21, O’Callaghan’s Mills) along with the chairman and secretary; Munster convention delegates, Bernard Keane, Syl O’Connor and Gabriel Keating.

Secretary’s report deserves more discussion

“ONCE a year, a secretary has the opportunity to put forward his views, no more no less and its up to everybody if they wish to comment or not. It’s an opportunity that is there and I have always availed of it. I put down my views as I see them. I am not saying they are right or that anybody should agree or disagree,” secretary Pat Fitzgerald said having listened to some comments arising from his report to convention.
“I appreciate the comments that were made as they show that notice is taken,” Fitzgerald added.
Earlier, board chairman Michael O’Neill had offered the view that “sections of this report should be discussed in more detail at various meetings during the year as there is an awful lot of substance in the report, which goes un-noticed after this meeting”.

Change taking longer than expected

ARISING from the minutes of the 2010 convention, St Joseph’s Doora-Barefield delegate Seamus O’Sullivan pointed out his club had successfully proposed a motion at that meeting asking that “in recognition of the full-time secretary position and the investment in the office facilities that the official address on all county board communications be Áras Chiosóg, Clareabbey”. He acknowledged that the treasurer had pointed out that this would be introduced on a phased basis as they had a lot of official notepaper in stock at the time. “I did not expect it would take 12 months for this to happen,” O’Sullivan stated at last week’s meeting.
Apologising for the delay, chairman Michael O’Neill said, “it was an oversight on our behalf”.

Every club must have an Irish officer

CLARE’S GAA’s Irish officer, Tom Burke told delegates at last week’s convention that “every club must have an Irish officer. Any club without an Oifigeach Gaeilge is not properly constituted and this could have serious implications for clubs in certain situations,” he said before reminding clubs that they should be competing in the annual Scór competitions, which are currently being promoted.

More referees needed

CLARE referees administrator Ger Hoey told the convention more volunteers are needed. “In association with the Munster Council, we will provide in service training,” he said.
In a written report to the delegates, Hoey said, “The abuse of referees has to be severely dealt with at all times and all our referees have to be protected and get the support they deserve.”

Drop in income

NOTING that income for the year was down by €160,442, treasurer Bernard Keane said “the biggest disappointment for this massive decrease was the drop in income from our domestic games. The biggest problem was that the patrons weren’t coming out and that’s a big worry. Our county finals were particularly disappointing. Our hurling final realised €44,580 and our football final realised €45,754. We were very disappointed with the hurling final because we had a very attractive programme but on the day, the weather caught us and then TG4 killed us,” the St Joseph’s clubman said.
He added that the returns for the national leagues “were also disappointing with the football realising €17,540.35 and the hurling bringing in €21,950.12”.
“Raising €81,000 from the fundraising draw was not bad in the year we had but it could have been much better if every club had played their part. There will be a fundraising project in 2012,” he said, before telling the clubs they had until January 20 for submissions as to what format the draw should take place.
“We cannot get away from the fact that our income is down €160,000 and that is a worrying aspect, which we cannot get away from. We can and we will do our best to trim our expenditure. It’s a brick on the wall and there are only so many bricks you can take off the wall before it crumbles. We have to come up with new scheme of making money as well as enhancing the schemes we have. Every club will have to come on board as we are all in this together,” he added.
Before concluding, he paid special tribute to the Friends of Clare organisation in Dublin and to the board’s main sponsor Pat O’Donnell.

Tighten the belts and perform on the fields

AUDITOR Tony Fitzpatrick reminded the delegates expenditures must be watched and costs cut before praising the work of the board’s audit committee. “Just tighten the belts and perform on the fields and we will be fine,” he said

More coaching projects

THE annual report from the Clare coaching and games committee to convention is, according to the county games development officer Sean Chaplin, getting bigger each year because, “we are involved in more and more activities and in more and more projects. With that comes the demand for additional finance, which has to be found and the great thing is that every time we have met ye [sic] [county chairman, secretary and treasurer] with regard to funding, ye [sic] have backed us 100%. As we see in the report, every other area has experienced cuts but with regard to the development of our games at underage level, the figure is going up and we believe that is vital. We must continue to provide the opportunities for the underage. We did give a detailed breakdown at both Bord na nÓg conventions. The total spend was over €405,000 for hurling and football. There was €14,500 more spent on the development of football. It is an expensive area but we get great backing from the clubs and from the executive and we hope this will see our teams going forward,” he said.

Chairman’s tribute

BEFORE the convention concluded, chairman Michael O’Neill called for a round of applause for Lissycasey’s Anne Hayes. “She recently stepped down after 22 years involvement with Bord na nÓg, while she is also involved with Clare Scór,” he told the delegates

Br McNamara honoured

CLARE GAA president John Hanly, on behalf of the board, made a presentation to Br Sean McNamara at last week’s convention after the West Clare native informed the delegates that he has handed over a collection of material on association founder Michael Cusack to the board.
Speaking to the delegates, Br McNamara said, “During the last 30 years, I have been collecting material dealing with the life and times of Michael Cusack. Nobody would be here tonight without him. I decided to make all the information available to the board. We have spent many hours putting this information together, which consists of 14 folders of material, which is in excess of 200 items. All the material belonging to the late Michael Cusack is in the university in Galway,” he said.