GAA club volunteers crowded into Armagh City Hotel today for the 5th Annual Irish News Ulster GAA Club and Volunteer Conference.

Over 400 Gaels attended the flagship community conference which focused on the challenges facing GAA clubs in harse economic times.

As part of Ulster GAA’s ongoing outreach programme Rev Norman Hamilton from the Presbyterian Church addressed conference and received a standing ovation for his contribution.

One of the highlights of the day was a panel session hosted by BBC’s Lynette Fay which included some best loved GAA personalities including Mickey Harte, Brian Dooher, Joe Brolly and Peter Quinn. Minister for Culture, Arts and Leisure Cara Ní Chuilin also joined the panel to give her view of current issues facing the GAA.

In his usual humour Joe Brolly entertained the audience with his frank and humorous insights. There was good banter between the panel, a bit of controversy and of course some very open and honest opinions on the big issues of the day. A range of issues were covered during the panel discussion. All members strongly rejected the GPA’s controversial proposal to demolish the Provincial Championships with former GAA President Peter Quinn saying it was still his dream to see Fermanagh win an Ulster Championship. There was also emphasis placed on the development of the GAA in urban areas and members welcomed the plans for Casement Park. Joe Brolly said, “Casement Park will be a smaller version of Croke Park. It will be great to have such a stadium in Ulster. I believe the stadium proposal will help regenerate that area of Belfast and will be open for use for schools and community to develop GAA.”

Minister Caral Ní Chuilin used the opportunity to promote her LEFA campaign where she hopes to sign 1000 people up to become fluent in the Irish Language. The role of the media was analysed while the panel explored how to ensure the Association is inclusive to all people from all backgrounds. Immigration was a big issue on the minds of the panel and delegates and there was an agreement that Ireland was losing many GAA stars due to the ongoing recession but as Peter Quinn put it ‘People always come back to their club and their clubs always welcome back those from foreign shores.’

A Live Link from Australia allowed Ulster President Aogán Ó Fearghail to address the conference. He is currently on tour with the Ireland International Series Team and immigration was also a key issue on his mind, he said, “I have met many of my fellow country men here in Australia. Many have set up home and many more are playing Gaelic Games building clubs over here. These Irish men and women add to the community and sporting life in Australia but they are a great loss to Ireland and their GAA clubs. There is no doubt that we are facing very difficult economic challenges but the GAA is a strong community that will work hard to stand strong during difficult times.”

A poignant moment in the day was when former Moderator of the Presbyterian Church Rev Norman Hamilton took to the stage. The 400-strong audience listened attentively as Rev Hamilton posed two challenges to the Association. His first was over the politicalisation of the Irish Language and he urged the GAA to ensure the language was not kicked around in a political game. He said he believed the Irish language has a valued place in our society but if used unwisely then it can be used to antagonise others. He also said he was wary promoting Irish signage as it will only mark territories, just as flags do.

His second challenge to the GAA audience was to help shape coming centenaries so everyone benefits from anniversaries of the past. He highlighted the landmark anniversaries of the Titantic, World War I, and events which shaped the political landscape for the island of Ireland. He said it was important that we acknowledge and remember but should not get trapped in a re-run of the past.

Rev Norman Hamilton received a very warm standing ovation from the GAA crowd as he was presented with a Gaelic piece, designed by Belleek Living from Ulster GAA President Danny Murphy.

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Presentations and videos from the Conference are available to view at www.ulster.gaa.ie/community/irish-news-ulster-gaa-club-volunteer-conference/

This entry was posted on Monday, October 31st, 2011 at 10:51 am and is filed under Homepage News.

Armagh Ulster GAA DENI Coaches recently held an innovative competition to inspire children to be creative in designing their own game.

This competition was rolled out in Foley Primary School in Ballymacnab and was open to all pupils in P3/P4/P5.  The children were given a simple game card template to work from.  The template required children to draw a picture, include number of players needed, equipment needed and rules of each game.  Children also had to name their game and show how game could be made easier or harder as with the Gaelic Start cards.

The school pupils put a lot of time and effort into the project and huge credit must go to teacher Barry Carville for his input.

All pupils from the class received an Armagh bag and poster for their huge efforts.

This entry was posted on Friday, October 28th, 2011 at 1:05 pm and is filed under Blog.

Getting into the Halloween spirit schools across County Armagh recently took part in the ‘Spooky Sports’ organised by local GAA DENI coaches.

Five school venues were used for the Halloween activities including St Jarlath’s, St Oliver Plunkett’s Ballyhegan, St.Patrick’s Crossmaglen and St. Malachy’s with 500 Key Stage 1 children taking part.

The Spooky Sports focussed on a Halloween theme to inspire children to get involved and enjoy the activities.   Participating schools were encouraged to invite another school from the maintained and controlled sectors.

This entry was posted on Friday, October 28th, 2011 at 12:46 pm and is filed under Blog.

On Wednesday 26th October, Derry held their second annual ‘Wall Ball Hurling’ competition in Dungiven Sports Pavilion. This is an innovative initiative which helps players develop hurling skills indoor and in a different environment from a normal hurling training session. The game is played in a 40 x 20 handball court and the rules are roughly based around the rules of handball and squash. The game excellent for improving players catching, first touch and striking as well as improving their speed and footwork.

5 clubs were represented at the finals. The players who took part were, Joseph Grant (Swatragh), Sean Cassidy (Slaughtneil), Ciaran Steele (Kevin Lynchs), Darragh Cartin (Banagher) and Reese Mc Sorley (Ballinascreen). The players played off a league section with each player playing one another once. At the end of the league section Ciaran Steele and Reese Mc Sorley topped the table and went on to play in the final match. Reese came out on top in the final on a score line of 15 – 6 and was presented with a ‘Club Derry’ sponsored jersey for winning the competition.

Well done to all the players who took part, the standard was very good with all the players displaying a high level of skill. A word of thanks must go to all the clubs and parents who supported the programme a made it a very worthwhile nights hurling.

This entry was posted on Friday, October 28th, 2011 at 12:44 pm and is filed under Blog.

Donegal Secondary schools have had a busy Camogie schedule since returning to school this September. Already over 100 participants from 8 secondary schools have taken part in 3 exciting Camogie initiatives.

The first initiative offered Donegal students the opportunity to become qualified Camogie foundation coaches and pursue their Gaisce Bronze Award under the ‘Community involvement’ or Physical recreation section.

This initiative was followed up with a Green CARD foundation level referee course aimed at TY students/senior cycle students from Donegal.
The course contained three modules: Theory Course, Assessment and Practical.

A First and Second year blitz was the third and final initiative in this hectic schedule where all games were closely contested with some excellent displays from what are sure to be future Donegal camogie players.

A huge thank you to all Schools who took part in these initiatives in particular Errigal College, Letterkenny for the use of their facilities. Thank you also to Gavin Craig Camogie CDO for his help and expertise while rolling out these initiatives. Finally thank you to Niamh Cullen, Stephen Doherty, Donal McLaughlin, Adrain Doherty, Shauna Devaney and everyone else who helped to make all the above a huge success.

This entry was posted on Friday, October 28th, 2011 at 12:42 pm and is filed under Blog.

The County Derry Under 13 hurling competition concluded on Sunday 2nd October. The competition ran throughout the month of September with 16 teams from 3 counties taking part. The idea of the competition is to bridge the gap between Go Games at under 12 level and competitive hurling at under 14 level. The teams play 13-a-side. Thanks to all the clubs who took part in the tournament and for the continued efforts of their coaches, players and parents. Also a special word of thanks to Brian Smith for co-ordinating referees over the past few weeks and to the referees themselves for taking charge of the games.

Overall the standard of hurling was very high with some excellent individual talent on  display. A special mention must go to Buncrana for reaching the division one final which is further example of the strides they are making to improve hurling in the club and also to Dungannon for winning the division two title.

The first few weeks of the competition were group games which determined the seeding of the respective divisions for the final day of the tournament. All group results can be found in the results section of the Derry GAA website. Each team got 4 or 5 competitive games in the group sections. The fixtures and results for the finals turned out as follows:

Division One (winners = Kevin Lynchs )
Kevin Lynchs bt Slaughtneil
Buncrana bt Ballinascreen
Kevin Lynchs bt Buncrana

Division Two (winners = Dungannon)
Dungannon bt St Eunans
Lavey bt Swatragh
Dungannon bt Lavey

Division Three (winners = Banagher)
Banagher bt Kevin Lynchs B
Na Magha bt Carrickmore
Banagher bt Na Magha

Division Four (winners = Carndonagh)
Carndonagh bt Letterkenny Gaels
Burt bt Coleraine
Carndonagh bt Burt

This entry was posted on Friday, October 28th, 2011 at 12:39 pm and is filed under Blog.

There have been some tired legs among the Derry GAA coaching fraternity after the county’s Games Promotion Officer, Chris Collins, and members of the county coaching staff returned to Owenbeg after completing an 800 mile sponsored cycle from Dungiven to Paris raise funds for the  schools coaching in the Oak Leaf county.

The citizenry of Paris have become used to seeing Irish cyclists like Stephen Roche, Sean Kelly and more lately Nicholas Roche powering up the Champs Elysees but a few heads were turned last weekend when Chris, along side county coaches, Emmett Stewart, Diarmuid Scullion, Richard Ferris and Faughanvale clubman Cathal Magee held up traffic at the Arc De Triomphe to mark the completion of the two-wheeled trek which began a fortnight previously from Owenbeg.

Already over £10,000 has been raised by the event and Chris noted that the team had felt a real sense of achievement in completing the marathon distance.

“When we arrived at the Arc De Triomphe everyone was on a real high, we were buzzing, from an idea in the office at Owenbeg to actually cycling to Paris from Dungiven and it was only at this moment that it had really sunk in that we had done it.  Ten days cycling, over 800 miles (everyone completed 700 miles on the bike due to the fact that we had to share the driving), it was some going, parts of it hard and testing but parts of it were just magic. We set up the tripod in the middle of the road and hoped the cars would wait for 10 seconds so we could get a snap, they did and we got a great shot,” he said.

The Oak Leaf Cycle Slam is key event in raising funds to maintain the excellent free coaching service that the Derry County Board currently provides to schools all across the county with last year’s cycle slam raising over £20,000.

“The Cycle Slam is a great way of raising funds for and awareness of the substantial coaching support that Derry county board delivers to schools within our county.  Currently we have 14 full-time coaches in place providing services such as physical literacy coaching to children at key stage 1, Gaelic games coaching to key stage 2 and secondary school pupils, GAA foundation and child protection certification to sixth form students, professional development for teachers and supervisors and, of course, a substantial programme of games and blitzes for players to compete and demonstrate their skills.

“We believe that the schools within our county are an essential element in building future success on the field of play. We therefore see it as a matter of paramount importance that we keep our level of support at the standards we have set over the past 24 months. We have always provided these services free of charge. Last year Club Derry thankfully funded a Coaching and Games deficit. In the current economic climate we understand that everybody is facing constraints, and although we are adamant that we don’t want our schools to suffer, we also don’t want to start charging for our services as the majority of our competitors already do,” said Chris.

This entry was posted on Friday, October 28th, 2011 at 12:36 pm and is filed under Blog.

On Tuesday 30th August St Pauls P.S. Irvinestown and St Marys P.S. Tempo came together for a shared Inservice day for staff. The day was organised and delivered by Owen Mooney, Aisling Doonan and Fabian Burns.

24 teachers and classroom assistants took part on the day which was split up into two parts. The first part was led by Aisling and Fabian and the focus was on developing the participants knowledge of games and how games can be adapted to suit different abilities.

The second part of the day was led by Owen who looked at classroom based activities to increase children’s motivation in class either to settle them down after break/lunch time or to get them energised so that they have extra energy to perform certain tasks during class.

Owen also focused on problem solving activities as well as ideas on how teachers can adapt a classroom based lesson through the medium of PE, giving the children the learning needs as well as the physical needs though certain themed activities in numeracy/literay & PDMU

“This was a very successful and worthwhile day for everyone involved. The ideas the Owen, Fabian and Aisling showed us today will definatley be used by my staff to further enrich the experiences of the children” Fergal McCann, Principal of St Mary’s P.S. Teemore.

This entry was posted on Friday, October 28th, 2011 at 12:29 pm and is filed under Blog.

The annual recreational hurling blitz took place at Kickhams Creggan on their 3G pitch on Saturday 1st October, teams involved were Kickhams Creggan, Clooney Gaels and Glen Rovers Armoy.

The majority of players have been involved for the past few years for this event but it was good to see a few new faces on all teams, many players said they had not played since last year’s event and were eager to get the games going.

The games as always were played in good spirit with many players showing that they still have what it takes to find the back of the net. This annual event is organised by Ulster GAA regional development officer Shane McCann.

Results:
Creggan 1-8 v Clooney Gaels – 5-2
Glen Rovers 3-6 v Clooney Gaels 4-5
Creggan 2-4 v Glen Rovers 4-6

This entry was posted on Friday, October 28th, 2011 at 12:27 pm and is filed under Blog.

On the 17th Sept over 220 children attended the U10 Hurling GO Games Blitz at Casement Park. The main pitch was divided into four with each team playing 3/4 matches on the day.

All the players enjoyed the opportunity to play in Casement Park. The games were refereed by the following Young Whistlers

Matt Mc Killen/ Eoin Mc Neill both Pearses , Alex Gallagher/Marc Crean St Joseph’s Glenavy and Conall Roberts St Johns

The following clubs attended Rossa x 2/St Galls x 2/St Pauls/Gort na Mona/Eire Og/ Mc Dermotts/ Latharna Og / St Mary’s Ahoghill/ St Comghalls/ St Johns/ St Joseph’s Glenavy / Sarsfields / St Endas/ Lamh Dhearg and St Ergnats Moneyglass. This is the first time St Ergnats have taken part in a hurling blitz , well done to Colm Scullion and all the coaches and parents for their hard work over the last year with their juvenile hurling.

Thanks to all the players/coaches and parents who attended.

This entry was posted on Friday, October 28th, 2011 at 12:24 pm and is filed under Blog.

On Wednesday 12th October the University of Ulster at Coleraine hosted a ‘Have a Go – Hurling’ afternoon for foreign national students who are attending the University.

The day was organised by the universities overseas officer Sean Cunningham. 37 students in all attended from various parts of the world including Hong Kong, Germany, Portugal and France. The players were put through their paces by Derry hurling development officer Kevin Hinphey in what turned out to be a very enjoyable afternoons hurling.

For all the students it was a first experience of hurling and many of them expressed an interest in giving it another go and are keen to watch the Universtiy hurling team in action when their season begins.

Members of the local club Eoghan Rua, Coleraine were also in attendance including Derry senior football captain Barry McGoldrick and Joe Passmore who guided the club camogs to back to back titles this year. Well done to everyone involved, plans are already a foot for another session in the Spring!

This entry was posted on Friday, October 28th, 2011 at 12:21 pm and is filed under Blog.

September has brought about the start of a new school year and with it 32 highly enthusiastic KS1 Coaches thanks to the in-service delivered.  September’s in-service shed some light into the minds of children, John Morrison enlightened the coaches with his vast knowledge in the area, explaining the importance of correct language and visual stimulation in children’s learning.  Mrs P. Mc Bride followed on from this by sharing her experience and knowledge of the curriculum and how to link curricular areas together to allow greater understanding for the children; this left the coaches enthused at the prospect of starting the school term.

New schools, new teachers and new children provide a new challenge for the coaches.  Random testing of children’s physical literacy skills has been carried out this month to get a baseline result to ascertain what level the children will be working at.  Throughout the school year the coach and school teacher will provide expert coaching to assist in the child’s overall development.

Rhona Torney, Amy Cunningham and Mary Nugent have all come on board as new KS1 coaches.

This entry was posted on Friday, October 28th, 2011 at 12:19 pm and is filed under Blog.

Children across Newry and Downpatrick this week participated in FUN days organized by Ulster GAA coaches to help develop the children’s fundamental handling skills. The FUN days were held in Newry and Downpatrick Leisure Centres and were huge successes with a large number of primary school children participating.

A selection of 8 P3 pupils from the local schools along with their teachers attended the event, in total around 200 children took part. Throughout the day the children took part in Games such as Volleyball with a balloon, Over the River, Basketball, Dodgeball and Captains Ball. All the games were non-competitive with the emphasis on Fun and Enjoyment.

The initial reaction from both Teachers and children has been extremely positive with them commenting on the great enjoyment they received from playing the Fun games. After completing the activities the children received a Certificate and a poster of their favourite Down Stars to acknowledge their participation in the Event.

Downs KS1 Coaches would like to thank both Newry Sports Centre and Ballymote Leisure Centre for the use of their venues and help on the Day. We would also like to thank both Down County Board and Ulster Council for their help in making the day such a success.

Participating schools in the Newry FUN Day included: Abbey PS Newry, Ballyholland PS, St Clares Newry, St Patricks Meadow Newry, Attical PS, Kilbroney Integrated Rostrevor, Grange PS, St Colmans Saval and St Bronagh’s Rostrevor.

Schools who participated in the Downpatrick Day included: St Macartan’s Loughinisland, St.Marys Dunsford, St Patricks Saul, Cedar Integrated, St. Malachy’s Castlewellan, Christ the King, Aughlisnafin PS, St Patricks Ballynahinch, St Colmcilles Downpatrick, Holy Family Teconnaught and St Brigids Downpatrick.

This entry was posted on Friday, October 28th, 2011 at 11:42 am and is filed under Blog.

Eight Primary schools in the Dungannon area have participated in the Fungi Club initiative which is now in its second year. The programme is tailored to educate children about mushroom growing, nutrition, and experience the supply chain from growing to final customer.

Hughes mushrooms, Producer organisation Northway Mushrooms and Sainsburys have worked together to bring the initiative to the schools. During September compost was delivered to schools and Eugene Hughes helped the children to grow mushrooms in their classrooms. Children were able to see how the two different varieties chestnut and white compared during growing and taste the fruits of their crop.

The children had some impressive crops and grew huge flats, the largest being 25cm. Hughes were impressed with the interest that the children showed in mushroom growing.

The children then all visited a commercial mushroom farm, Frank Donnelly who is based at Collegelands near Moy. There they were able to see the efforts that a commercial grower takes to produce a high quality mushroom that they see in their local Sainsburys. Frank demonstrated how he had made efforts to reduce his carbon footprint by installing a biomass boiler to heat his growing tunnels.

The children were able to follow Frank’s mushrooms right to the end of the supply chain at Hughes Mushrooms factory. They seen the refrigeration, quality checks and labelling procedures required before the product can be dispatched to its final consumer.

The final phase of the programme was a Fun day at Loughview sports Centre in Dungannon. Karol McQuade organised a fun filled 2 hours of activities for the 180 children from the 8 schools. The teaching staffs were also involved in an impromptu dance off which was secretly enjoyed by all. The children competed in the 14 mini sport stations set up by Karol and his colleague Kelly. It was a fun packed energetic two hours for all involved and suited all the children involved as they had to use various skills.

The winning school overall was Bush Primary school. The eight schools involved are looking forward to the new challenges and activities that the fungi club will throw at them next year.

This entry was posted on Friday, October 28th, 2011 at 11:34 am and is filed under Blog.

GAA clubs across Ulster are showing a huge interest in the Irish News’ ‘Bring Someone Home for Christmas’ campaign

Staff from The Irish News marketing department help launch The Irish News ‘Bring Someone Home for Christmas’ initiative.

The Irish News are offering readers the opportunity to Bring Someone Home for Christmas from anywhere in the world. To enter collect 10 out of the 12 tokens which will be printed in The Irish News until Saturday 29th October and attach them to the entry coupon which will be printed on Fridays 21st and 28th October.

The link to The Irish News facebook account is: http://www.facebook.com/IrishNewsLtd

The link to The Irish News Twitter account is: http://twitter.com/#!/irish_news

This entry was posted on Friday, October 28th, 2011 at 11:19 am and is filed under Blog.