On Friday night the 8th of September the Carnmore Community Centre and Carnmore Hurling Club jointly launched the Carnmore website and the hurling club’s supporters gear in Grealish’s lounge. A large crowd turned out for what proved to be a very enteraining night as a number of guest speakers spoke eloquently about the website and the supporters gear.
Kathleen Boyle Chairperson of the Community Centre opened the proceedings by welcoming everybody for coming and she went on to thank all that had put a lot of work into the website especially Joe Fahy who took on the task of gathering the information from the various participants and clubs for the web and then getting the web set up. Kathleen went on to say how useful the web would be to the various clubs in the area and especially the Community Centre for advertising upcoming events such as the auction that will be taking place in the Centre on Sunday the 22nd of October.
Joe Fahy then spoke and also demonstrated on a large screen he had set up earlier the different clubs information on the web. He told and showed the gathering how some local companies had gone to a lot of trouble setting out their own pages advertising their products, he demonstrated how very professional they had been in their approch to the project. He thanked all the clubs the school, the buisness who had advertised and local man Michéal Ó hEidhin for his huge contrubition to the historical and biographical sections of the site. Joe further reminded us that the address for the website is www.carnmore.net and when he concluded Kathleen Boyle presented him with a beautiful crystal vase on behalf of the Community Centre for all of his hard work.
Tómas Fox then introduced us to the good quality gear that is available to purchase in the colours of the hurling club. He described the new crest that is on the clothes and which will also be on all the Carnmore hurling club jerseys in future. The crest consists of a cross and a large C encasing a hurley. Tómas then showed us samples of all the clothes which are a black sleeveless fleece with the crest in red available in three sizes for £30, a red v neck jumper with the crest in black £35, a red t-shirt with blue edging on the collar and sleeves and black crest, a white t-shirt with red trim on the collar and sleeves and red crest, and a red t-shirt with black crest each available for £20 and as with the jumper all come in three sizes. Tómas finally showed us the red baseball cap with Carnmore Hurling Club printed in white letters on it and size adjustable avaailable for£5. Tómas and Mike Fox hurling club treasurer with their tall alethic frames modelled some of the clothes which served to enhance the beauty of the clothes. (To purchase any of the items contact Tómas at 091 799190 or Mike at 091 794992 between 6pm and 9pm any evening.)
Padraic Fahy Chairman of the senior hurling club in his tributes thanked the Community Centre committee, Joe Fahy, Tómas Fox and Mike Fox for their hard work and dedication in both projects and added that the website would generously and usfully serve all of the community. Padraic said that he always felt that the supporters who are vital to any club and of which the hurling club had a large following within the parish were the neglected part of the club and at long last they were to be catered for and in recognition of their loyal support down through the years the supporters gear was to be sold at cost price to the people and the club was making no financial profit on the clothes.
Pat McCartan Chairman of the Juvenile Hurling Club spoke of his delight at having a place where the club could display both its fixtures and its results, he said the website would definitely serve the juvenile club well as the club has matches for U8s, U10s, U12s, U14s, U16s and also U12s, U13s and U15s city league matches plus tournament matches for the various age groups. Pat said with young children being taught how to explore the Internet at school nowadays that clubs to be efficient will have to be on websites and it was great to see Carnmore being one of the leaders in this regard. He congratulated Marie and Tómas Grealish long serving members of the hurling club on the birth of their first-born son Darren Peter the previous evening.
Frank McHugh on behalf of the camogie club expressed great joy at being able not only to put results on the website but also pictures of the various teams. He said it will give him great joy especially to have the under 10 team this year on the website as they had beaten Kiltormer in the county final to bring home the camogie club’s first county cup (not a bad achievement considering the Carnmore camogie club is only formed a couple of years) and in years to come the website will serve to remind us of these glorious times. Frank also added that the supporter’s gear would add greatly to the colour at the camogie matches in the future.
Michéal Ó hEidhin president of the Carnmore hurling club and acknowledged local historian said that when first approached by Joe Fahy to do a piece on the locality and on some of the important people who had either lived in or hailed from the area he felt apprehensive about it but was delighted to see it on the website. Michéal in our beautiful native language wished Conor Morris out going Chairman of the Co Galway Vocational Educational Committee best wishes in his retirement. He said Conor who was born and reared in Carnmore never forgot where he came from and when he had reached the pinnacle of the educational system continued to support clubs and organisations both financially and otherwise within the area from whence he came. Michéal then went on to congratulate Philip Cribbin another man from the parish on being the sucessful candiate in succeeding Conor as the new chairman of the V.E.C.
Conor Morris outgoing Chairman of the vocational schools in the county addressed the gathering firstly in Irish .He said it was great that the website would serve to remind us of the richness people like Michéal Ó hEidhin brought to an area, Conor went on to add that it was voluntary bodies like the Community centre committee and the hurling club that makes an area a joyful place to live in. He went on to remind us that the website would make future generations aware of the immense importance people such as the late Paddy Ruane R.I.P. whose anniversary mass was the previous morning was to the county. Conor then went on to tell us that our present councillor Noel Grealish is held in very high esteem in both the council and governing bodies in the county because of his good humor and great commitment to getting work done. Conor finished by congratulating Phillip Cribbin in succeeding him as Chairman of the county VEC, he added that Phillip had beaten off very stiff opposition such as the former GAA president Joe MacDonagh to attain the post.
Phillip Cribbin, like Conor, first addressed the gathering in Irish where he wished Conor a very happy and fulfilling retirement and added that he would be a hard act to follow. Phillip then congratulated the community centre on the website and he said he had known Joe Fahy for a while because Joe used to come into the school fixing the photocopiers and he always found him a very efficent and likable worker. Speaking on hurling Phillip said that at the recent Carnmore v Sarsfields senior match he noted that of the fifteen players lining out for Carnmore he had thaught thirteen of them. He finished by telling us that Pat McCartan the juvenile chairman took part with him in the first ever play Compántas Lir put on in the community centre almost twenty years ago.
Councillor Noel Grealish wound up the tributes by congratulating the community centre committee and hurling club on their ventures. He said that the website would not only serve the local community but also the diaspora such as his own brothers and sister and their families in the USA. He said that some of them had already looked into it and thought it was wonderful as it reminded them of home with the old school photos. Noel went on to say that he looked forward to buying some of the hurling supporters gear for his relatives in the States, as they would get great pleasure in wearing them. He congratulated Conor on his retirement and said that Conor must have some memories considering it was the first September in 61 years that Conor would not be going into an educational establishment, some achievement when one considered he had started his education in the old Carnmore National School 61 years ago. Noel then went on to say that the parish of Claregalway must be the luckiest parish in the country when we are able to replace one man from the parish with another man from it in the top educational job in the county. He said that he had gotten to know Phillip well while they were both working on the local mortury committee and found him a very charismatic hard working and committed individual and he knew that Phillip would not forget the parish when in his new job.
Finally the Community Centre Committee and Hurling Club would like to thank Mike and Helen for allowing them to hold the launch on their premises and also JoAnne Cullen for taking the photographs on the night.
John Carr
