Tag Archives: referee

Referee Chris Maguire from the Wolfe Tones club in Shannon departed from the airport on Saturday evening to officiate London versus Carlow in the National Football League. While there is nothing unusual about this what does make it a particularly unique trip is for the very first time travelling referees were allowed to bring their own umpires. In Ruislip on Sunday five Clare men officiated over proceedings with Maguire bringing his trusted umpires namely Frank Mee from the Kilmurry Ibrickane club, Jamie Divilly from Wolfe Tones, Martin Frawley from Kildysart and Cian Collopy from Wolfe Tones. Speaking exclusively to the Clare Champion Chris is extremely proud to be a referee and feels that officiating matches has enhanced his love for all things GAA. ” I’m in my ninth year as a referee and to be honest it’s not something I planned on. I was below in my own club one evening when they had no referee for a Junior match. …

CLARE referees are getting old and their representative association in the county is very keen to recruit up to 30 new whistlers for an upcoming training course. There are 39 active referees currently, with 70% of them over 40 and 10% over 60. Inter-county referees Rory Hickey and Rory McGann are adamant that a new injection of younger folk in black is imperative, with just five referees aged under 30. “We’re getting older. Clubs might be sick of looking at us but there is no one else. In Clare, we have an older demographic in our referees’ association. We need to be pumping new people into it,” Rory Hickey told The Clare Champion this week. Hickey has been refereeing since 2000 and has taken charge of seven county finals, while Rory McGann took charge of the 2016 drawn hurling final. Both are aiming to make it back to the list of inter-county referees this year and will know this weekend, …

A REQUEST made to members of the national GAA referees panel to highlight an awareness of cancer Clare referee Rory Hickey had his head shaved at the Éire Óg clubhouse. “Back in the autumn, the members of the national referees group were asked to do something to heighten an awareness of cancer. Some of the lads participated in a fundraiser in November and others are doing their project now,” the Ennis man told The Clare Champion. “In conjunction with Micheál Malone from D Barber shop in Francis Street, we decided to participate in a shave and dye project,” explained the Éire Óg GAA clubman, who had his head dyed on Monday last. At Thursday’s event, Rory and Micheál completed the project. “Unfortunately, everyone we speak to has a cancer-related story. Even in our own club, we have had some cancer-related losses over the years,” said Rory, adding that he lost an uncle to cancer in the not too distant past. …