GOAL mile
Aodh Ruadh are hosting the GOAL Mile walk this Christmas. Shake of the festive cobwebs with a few laps of Páirc Aoidh Ruaidh for a good cause. It takes place on Friday, 29 December from 11am to 2pm in Munday’s. We’ll have the síopa open serving coffee, tea and treats to keep you going. ALL funds raised will go to disadvantaged people in some of the most vulnerable countries in Africa, the Middle East and South America. To sign up just head along to goalmile.org. You can also just come along on the day as we are fully set up for tap-and-go donations from you phone or card.
Christmas quizzing
This Thursday the Ladies will be running a quiz in Dicey Reilly’s plenty of prizes and loads of craic guaranteed. The action gets under way at 9.30pm.
The Park Development Committee quiz was held las Tuesday night in Seán Óg’s and it raised a staggering €1,265 for the park development at Aodh Ruadh. Well done Peter Gallagher on a fantastic quiz and well done too to all the sponsors, to Maurice McLaughlin and his staff, to Sylvester Maguire who was quizmaster and John Hughes who did the score-keeping. David McDonagh did the computer visuals which came up on all the TV screens – another nice touch. Sean Gibbons provided the PA and the teams turned up early and there was a great atmosphere and good craic. It was particularly nice to see a good turnout of our younger adult players there supporting the quiz. The quiz was won by Daithí Breen, Sabrina Brosnan, Lisa McTernan and Ayiesha McLaughlin who were presented with beautiful polo tops by Park Development Committee Chairman, Tom Daly. The runners up were David McCadden, Fiona Colley, Marie McGee and Thomas McNeely. There was an incredible array of top class raffle prizes and these were won as follows: Giant Hamper, John McCadden; €100 voucher for the Abbey Hotel, Brendan Maguire. Other winners were: Tom McNeely, Madison O’Connor, Kevin Harley, Jim Kane, Aaron Cullen, Ben Daly, Neil O’Malley, Mary Kilgallon and Frances Daly.
There was a massive turnout for the Juvenile Hurling committee’s end of year quiz in Owen Roe’s last Thursday. Thanks so much to all for braving the elements and coming along for some great festive fun. A grand total of €905 was raised on the night for our club funds. Thanks to the following for their support with prizes and spot prizes; The Rory Gallagher Festival Committee for 4 x Rory Gallagher festival weekend tickets and four official festival hoodies; William Doogan and MCM Spirits for four bottles of wine; Owen Roe’s Bar for four bottles of wine; the Juvenile Hurling Committee for a €100 eVoucher for McElhinney’s; Paul Sheridan Construction for a €50 Elevery’s voucher; Paul and Fran Duffy for a €50 Tete a Tete voucher; Ballyshannon Folk Festival Committee for two weekend passes for the 2024 festival; Patrick McGarrigle for a €30 Aurivo Homeland voucher; A Novel Idea for a €30 voucher; Decorworld for a €20 voucher; Kenneth Neilan and Keycall for a twin wine set; Sinead Keown for a Belleek Parian China boxset; Orla Bannon for a mini hamper; Sharon Reynolds for a bottle of Bailey’s; John Larkin for a bottle of wine; Liam Gallen at Mr Gs for a radio; Centra Ballyshannon for a bottle of wine; and John McCadden for two tins of biscuits. Huge thanks to Chairperson Eoghan Ruadh for organising and marking on the night and to quizmaster, Michael Daly – thankfully he didn’t give away too many answers! The committee would like to wish everybody a very Merry Christmas and a happy and healthy New Year.
Millstone reunion nite!
Bord na nÓg are hosting a Millstone reunion party on Friday 29th December, in Dicey Reilly’s. Herman will be on the decks playing all the hits from the 70s, 80s and early 90s, and he might even rock the boat! Sure to be a great night full of memories and laughs! Paper tickets are only €10, and can be bought from all Aodh Ruadh underage football managers. Sure they would make great Christmas gifts! Tickets can also be bought on line at klubfunder.com.
Hurling
The Senior Hurling committee are inviting nominations for the position of chairperson and a secretary. Nominations should be sent to secretary.aodhruadh.donegal@gaa.ie by Wednesday, 3rd January 2024.
The Juvenile Hurling committee were delighted to be able to see the reinstatement of our annual awards presentation night this year. There was a great turnout on the night in Dorrian’s Imperial Hotel where we welcomed Danny Cullen from county champions Setanta as our special guest. Danny is part of the record breaking Setanta team that recently bagged the Ulster Intermediate Championship. As a recipient of a Champion 15 award this year and others, Danny’s advice and tips to all our aspiring young players was both inspiring and insightful, and as Master of Ceremonies Michael Daly interviewed him there was a hushed silence throughout the room. Coming from a hurling only club, it was great to see that Danny was impressed with the sheer number of boys and girls involved in hurling and camogie in Aodh Ruadh. He gave some background to his team’s success and talked about the dedication and commitment involved. He recognises that hurling is growing in the county and encouraged all our players to continue practising and improving their skills so they too can be a part of this hurling revival.
Danny then got to meet all our managers and players and presented each with their individual awards. Each manager gave a short overview of their year and praised all their players for their performances, attitude and behaviour both on and off the pitch. There were medals for all our under 7, under 9 and under 11 players. There were special awards for our four under 11 players; Freddie Knott, Daire Reynolds, Shay McNulty and Eanna Redden, who represented Aodh Ruadh at the Croke Park Skills Day during the summer. The under 15s received their County Féile medals to compliment the Táín Óg medals they got earlier in the year when they won the competition. Special under 15 awards on the night went to ace goalkeeper, Jayden McGrath Clyne as most improved player and the under 15 players’ player of the year award was bagged by top player, Corey Sheridan. The under 17s received their County League medals, having already received their winning Táin Óg medals earlier in the year. The minor most improved player was won by Dara O’Mahoney and the players’ player of the year went to the minor captain, Cian McDonald.
Reflecting on a successful year, Chairperson Eoghan Ruadh O’Neill, outlined the many highlights of the year including the annual trip to Croke Park, the under 15 trip to Féile, the extensive fund-raising undertaken, the work and efforts of all the committee and managers and our fantastic players. He congratulated newly appointed Chairperson, Lisa McTernan and thanked her and the Executive for their help and assistance throughout his first year. He thanked all our sponsors for the continued support incl. Mr G’s, Nugent Construction, Rathmore Mechanical Services, Centra, Spar, CJ Farrell and Circle K, Belleek. Thanks too went to Tom Daly and the Park Committee for their assistance throughout the year and of course to all the parents for their continued support and commitment.
The evening ended with a call from secretary, Orla Bannon, for our ever supportive parents to get behind our next two fund-raising initiatives – the Christmas quiz on 21st December and the Last Man Standing competition in the New Year. A presentation was made to Danny Cullen to thank him for attending – which he declined to accept as he was just happy to have been invited and be able to support hurling in Aodh Ruadh. A pure gentleman, he stayed behind for a time to the delight of some of our younger players and was happy to pose for photos and sign shirts, hurls and sliotars! We would like to sincerely thank him for taking the time out to attend and wish him, his wife and their recent arrival a very happy Christmas.
The committee would like to take this opportunity to thank everybody in the hurling community and we wish you all a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year. I’m sure Santa will be busy delivering hurls and sliotars all around the town!
Ballyshannon Bingo
We had a bumper Christmas bingo with bigger cash prizes and loads of festive spot prizes last Tuesday! Thank you to all our local sponsors of spot prizes – please support them and shop local this Christmas. The €500 Jackpot was won by Celine McGrath. The €150 house was shared by Una McGarrigle and Maureen Coughlin, with Jean Murray winning the €100 house. The other house winners were Frances Murphy, Caroline Murphy, Lesley McNeely, Sean Coughlin, Teresa Anderson and Kathleen McDaid, with Finbar Torney and Caroline Rooney sharing Game 9. The €50 line winners were Ellen Maguire and Mary Donagher, with the €40 lines being won by Joseph Darcy, Claudia McCrea, Ann Patterson, Rachel Anderson, Mary Coughlin, Denis Sheerin, Antoinette McKinney and Majella Gettins, with a three way share on Game 7. The €1,000 Winter Snowball survived another week and will be played on 52 numbers next week. There was also a juicy Stand-Up prize of €180, with Ellen Maguire last on her feet to scoop that. We also had six free book winners! There will be no bingo on Saint Stephen’s Day, so we return to the Abbey Centre on Tuesday January 2nd for the usual time of 8.30pm. So in the meantime, We wish all our bingo players and supporters a very merry Christmas and a happy New Year!
Club Calendar
The 2024 Aodh Ruadh Calendar is now on sale! The calendar can be purchased at Kernan’s Spar, A Novel Idea and Pearse O’Neill’s shop. Copies will also be available this Saturday at the lotto stand at McCosker’s Centra, as well as at Aodh Ruadh fund-raising events over Christmas.
Nollaig shona
Aodh Ruadh wishes all associated with the club and everyone in the wider Ballyshannon community a happy, peaceful Christmas and a prosperous New Year.
Aodh Ruadh lotto
There was no winner of the Aodh Ruadh Lotto jackpot of €5,300. The winning numbers drawn were 1, 3, 7, 13, 14 and 18. In the lucky dip prizes of €20 were won by Alannah Matthews, Rose Gallagher, Josephine McDonagh, Patricia Hill McShea and Liam Hassett. The next draw is for a jackpot of €5,400 on Monday, New Year’s Day, in McGinley’s bar. Lotto tickets are available in Kernan’s Spar and Pearse O’Neill’s. You can play also play the lotto online. Log onto klubfunder.com and then search for and select Aodh Ruadh Ballyshannon. Users can now avail of the auto-renew option to play the same line every week until they decide to stop when they pay using Stripe. If you’re not in, you can’t win!
The lotto team for McCosker’s Centra on Saturday is: RESERVE FOOTBALLERS.