In 2024, we celebrated the Club being 100 years in existence and on the 4th Dec the club helds its AGM. Chairman Mick O’Regan welcomed all in attendance. He thanked all who volunteered and supported the club in this our special year.
Mick thanked our Centenary Committee, under the stewardship of Pat Lane, for the work they have put in to marking such a significant milestone.
Ballymah Pitch has been much in demand during the year for hosting of games – and this reflects the fantastic work done by our Development Committee led by Francis Twohig – and the work that continues throughout the year to maintain the facility. Hosting of these external matches would not be possible without the efforts of our Fixtures Secretary – John Brosnan, and the match stewarding team, led by Donal Barrow. All of this allows us to showcase the work being done within the Club.
We are delighted that we have been successful in securing a grant of almost €100,000 from the Department of Tourism, Culture, Arts, Gaeltacht, Sport and Media – and combining this with the €50,000 TOMAR grant, will allow us to proceed with the further development of Ballinora pitch and environs. We commend Pat O’Neill and John Dooley for their excellent pitch maintenance.
During the 4th quarter of 2024, a major re-vamp of the Club Lotto was undertaken.The Lotto is very important to us, as all of the proceeds from the Lotto are used directly for the continuous development and maintenance of our facilities. During 2024, funding from our Lotto coupled with a grant allowed us to replace the ball stop nets in Ballinora – this is an example of how the Lotto supports on-going developments. Pat Desmond deserves special mention for the work that he does in securing grants to support various activities across the Club.
On the playing front the U21A football and U21B hurling have acted as book ends to our adult season- kicking off the season by winning our first ever U21A Muskerry football title qualifying for the county championship only to be beaten in the semi final by the eventual winners Bishopstown.
Our U21 Hurlers won the U21B Muskerry hurling title after a massive effort and just got beaten by Youghal in the recent county final. The progress of both u21 teams at the latter end of the year, having had to deal with multiple injuries can only lead to huge optimism of bright days to come at adult level.
A special highlight this year was the U15 Feile double – winning the all-Ireland series in both codes – this is a huge achievement.
Our Junior A Hurlers achieved a four in a row of Muskerry titles – unheard of in this Club previously – great credit is due to all of the players involved, but special mention to Don O’Brien for the leadership and direction that he has given to this group during this time – along with his management team.
Our Intermediate footballers are making steady progress with the great win in the league final and gaining league promotion and our Junior A footballers keep their status for 2025.
The Camogie / LGFA Club are to be commended on their fantastic year with a huge Intermediate Camogie win, followed by a Junior Football win the very next day. Their underage performances bodes well for their future in both codes.
The achievements of the club, on and off the field, are a direct result of the expertise, effort and commitment of our volunteers across so many aspects of the Club. Additional volunteers are always required all across the Club so all new recruits welcome.
Once again players from our community were honoured by the Muskerry Board and we had a couple of nice occasions courtesy of the Muskerry Board with award winners Michael Quirke, Maebh Murphy and Shane Kingston.
Our close association with Scoil Baile Nora continues to develop and provides benefits to the School and to the Club. Our school coaching has been fantastic and directly impacts the success of the School in the Sciath na Scoil competitions.
The School led out on the re-surfacing project which benefits both the School and the Club, and we are grateful for this. We will continue to work closely with the School as it provides a natural pathway for the youth of the community in to the Club.
Referees are absolutely essential to our games and we thank our Club referees, Denis Dineen, Pat Lyons, Colm Walsh and Joe Larkin along with their various umpires and lines men and we must continue to provide them with the support and respect that they deserve.
We continue to have close association with other community organisations – notably, Camogie/LGFA club, Retired Men’s Group, Tidy Towns, Red Cross, Community Association and we will work with any community group on efforts that help our community.
We have many people and organizations who continually support us in all of the activities that we undertake. This support is essential to the continued growth and development of the Club and is greatly appreciated. Wishing all in the Community a very Happy Christmas and best wishes for 2025.
Go raibh míle maith agaibh.
Baile Nóra Abu!
