The Beach Ball: Review & Pics
Cake Sale: Saturday June 17th
Family Picnic: July 1st
Coaches Appeal
Cast your vote for Architectural Farm
Summer Camps
Other News
Meet Eoin O’Carroll
Team News
Fixtures

The Beach Ball: Review & Pics

Saturday 10th June saw a massive wave of sunseekers pour into Scoil Uí Chonaill for the Ladies Section Fundraiser entitled ‘The Beach Ball’ and they weren’t disappointed. The Clubhouse was dressed within an inch of it’s life with everything from Inflatable Dingy’s to Beachballs, Baywatch merchandise to Free Cocktails.

All the guests got into the summer spirit arriving in everything from Hawaiian shirts to Inflatable Arm bands. ‘Bingo Babes’ (Naughty Naughton & Kinky Kinsella) took centre stage with their Bingo Games and spot prizes were flying in all directions. Organisers were delighted with the support as all tickets were sold out before the event took place.

Both the G4M&O (Gaa for ma’s team) & Senior Ladies were delighted with the night and would like to take the opportunity to thank Eileen Dunne, The Bingo Babes, Ross Bissett and all the local businesses and friends who offered support in way of Raffle Prizes and donations.

Not only did the teams raise much needed funds but hope to raise awareness locally of the newly formed Gaelic for Mothers & Others Team who play their first match in July. New friendships have been formed amongst the Ladies section as a result of their collaborative efforts and the event showed off Girl Power at it’s very best!

Cake Sale: Saturday June 17th

There will be a Cake Sale & Parents’ Social in aid of the Nursery on Sat 17th June from 10am.
Please help by bringing cake/biscuits/buns. There will be toys for the babies entertainment so parents can enjoy a cup of coffee!

Family Picnic: July 1st

Save the Date – Family Picnic, Saturday 1st July

Only a couple of weeks of official matches left for juveniles (before the intensive summer training period!). To celebrate the school holidays and the commitment of both the kids and parents during the first half of the year, there will be a midyear family picnic evening for all juvenile teams (boys and girls) and their parents on Saturday July 1st. There will be sporting entertainment for the kids, a chance for parents to get together over a couple of drinks and it will coincide with a Senior match Vs Erin’s Isle.

Mark it down in your calendars for now. More details to follow closer to the time.

Coaches Appeal

There is an appeal for ANY members who may have capacity to lend a hand. Training will be provided, so please get in touch

The way in which we pass down skills to younger members is crucial to the future of the Club.

Cast your vote for Architectural Farm

Get Voting!
Our talented in-house architects Architectural Farm (Shane Cotter & wife Kathryn Wilson), who designed our fantastic new facilities, have been shortlisted for TWO of their designs in the Irish Architecture Awards.

Please show your support
*AF’s designs are at the bottom of the page*

#UpScoil

Summer Camps

With summer upon us, it’s time to book with our GPO Thomas at 085 113 7728

Cul camp 24-28th July
Multi sports 15-18th Aug
Club camp 21-25th Aug

Other News

SUMMER OF #SCOILSKILLZ

Get your entries in now to be in with a chance to win the next prize of a €50 O’Neills voucher!

PITCH SIDE ADVERTISING

Pitch side advertising is a great opportunity for organisations to raise their profile in the community & in the club, in addition to providing the club with much needed funds. The costs are very reasonable and work out at about 8 EUR per week for a 3 year term.

If you know of a company that might be interested in sponsoring a pitch side banner in Scoil Uí Chonaill grounds Please contact Aidan Mulvey @ 086-1450407 or Killian O’Connell @ 087-2072866 for further information or with potential opportunities.

Leinster SFC Semi-Final Tickets

Anyone interested in arranging a group trip to Croke Park for Dublin v Offaly/Westmeath on June 25th @4pm should contact suctickets@gmail.com

A MESSAGE FROM OCS

Meet Eoin O’Carroll

Dual player, familiar face on the Executive and third generation Scoil man...meet Carroller! — Dual player, familiar face on the Executive and third generation Scoil man…meet Carroller!

How long have you been involved in Scoil Uí Chonaill?
My whole life really. Started by going to all my Dad’s hurling games. I was even asked to throw a jersey on to make up the numbers at the start of a game the odd time. So, I made my senior hurling debut at about aged 8! Played for the club since u-9/10 having been plucked from a well-known Kilbarrack club by my Dad.

Do you have any nicknames? How do you like to be addressed?
Generally called Eoinie or Carroller around the club. Some other people call me Curly. Any of them, or my actual name, are fine by me.

Where do you hail from?
Grew up in Raheny (and proud of it!), but my mother would say that a lot of my formative experiences took place in Naas, Co.Kildare.

How did you come to be involved in Scoil?
It was a natural thing really. My family have been involved at various levels of playing, managing, administration and general event attendance. My grandfather, Mossy, is a former Chairman, ever present supporter and club legend (in my unbiased opinion) who has been involved for many years.

Briefly describe your Scoil career as a player / mentor / contributor, if any.
Have played both codes from juvenile and have been on the first football team for the past 13 years (Good God!!), meaning I’m now one of the “Ould Lads”. So I’ve been involved in periods of decline and, more recently, huge success, which I feel very proud of. I’m just back playing hurling also after a 5 or 6 year hiatus. I am currently on the Club Executive as mens’ players rep.

What would you say you are most known for within Scoil? i.e. what do people associate you with?
Hopefully for getting the odd score for the football team, but probably for being Mossy’s grandson.

What has been your greatest Scoil moment / achievement?
Apart from the week we got promoted, my favourite moment was definitely the day my brother Cian scored a goal in his first minor match out in Fingal Ravens a few years ago. The success of the adult football team over the past few years has been great to be a part of.

What is your profession / field of study / passion?
I’m a solicitor by trade, having qualified 3 years ago and am working in the Legal Services Team in KPMG.

What are your favourite hobbies outside of GAA?
Love playing and watching almost any sport. I am a member of St Anne’s Golf Club and my leisure time is largely split between Bull Island and Clontarf Road. Enjoy playing the guitar (admittedly very badly!). I also love nature documentaries (I’d be lost without David Attenborough).

If you could make one addition to Scoil in any way (don’t be restricted by the plausible!), what would it be?
Obviously upgraded floodlights and an all-weather training area would be hugely beneficial to the club. Also, I think a balcony on the clubhouse facing the main pitch would be amazing.

What is your favourite Scoil ‘quirk’?
If you ever need a tennis ball (for exercise routines, walking the dog or even tennis) you’ll usually find one down at the Oulton Road end of the pitch.

If you close your eyes and envisage Scoil in 10 years, what do you see?
Established senior club in both men’s codes with thriving ladies and juvenile sections.

Finally, if you had to describe yourself as an animal, what would it be and why?
Maybe a Labrador Retriever because if there’s a ball around, I’ll always want someone to throw it to me.

Team News

Adult Hurling

AHL3: 10th June 2017

Scoil 4-13 Commercials 1-8

On Saturday we played our fifth AHL3 game of the season, having won three and lost one of our opening four games we were keen to get back to winning ways following our loss away to Peregrines.

The game started brightly for Scoil, after 15 minutes we had a 5 points to 1 lead thanks in the main to good defending and accurate free taking by Barry. Commercials, led by their full forward set about making a game of it, in the next 15 minutes they outscored us by 1:5 to 1 point. During that time Danny had pulled off a great save to keep us in the game. Half time the scores were level 0:8 to 1:5.

Commercials started the second half well and by the 38th minute had a 2 point lead, Barry reduced the gap to the minimum followed immediately by a screamer into the top corner we now led by 2 points. Within a minute Gerald scored a goal to ease the pressure. Commercials bore down on goal and Danny read the play well and intercepted a dangerous effort, his clearance ended up with Kevin who saw his effort drop over the goalie into the net.

We were now in total control and tacked on a further goal from Pat Ryan and a couple of points to make the final scoreline 4:13to 1:8. The win keeps us in the top 4.

Scorers on the night were Barry, Andy, Robert, Gerald, Kevin, Padraig Kinsella & Padraig Morrissey.

Our next AHL3 fixture is away to Brigids on 24th June @18:30. As for ALL Scoil teams we would love your support.

IHC: 7th June 2017

Scoil 1-13 Ballyboden 1-8.

Played on a slippery pitch following a day of heavy rain. This game was very important as we had lost our previous championship game.

Playing with the help of a strong breeze, we started brightly and Robert had us in the lead early, by the 10th minute we were 3 up with scores from Neil & Barry. In the next 5 minutes we doubled our lead Barry having scored all 3. Boden came more into the game and scored after 20 minutes, Eoin Kennedy took off from deep in defence and knocked over a point from 70 yards. This was followed immediately with a goal from Joe, we were now leading by 1-7 to 0-1. By the 25th minute Robert had extended the lead to 10, Boden got the last two scores of the first half to leave us ahead by 1-8 to 0-3 at half time.

At half time the team were left in no doubt that we had been in similar half time positions in the past and taken the foot off the gas. Boden were now playing with the breeze and within 5 minutes had reduced the margin to 6. Robert steadied the nerves with a point to extend our lead to 7. By the 40th minute Boden had tapped over 3 frees to narrow the gap to 4. In the 48th minute following great build up we were awarded a free, Barry duly added the point. We were now in total control and with a couple of minutes of normal time remaining Podge Naughton grabbed his first point of the game. Against the run of play Boden then scored a goal to reduce the margin to 4. We regained control and Barry got the final score to close out the win 1:13 to 1:8. Two wins from 3 in the Inter championship, our next game is on the 21st June away to Clontarf and we really would appreciate a big support on the night.

Scorers on the night were Barry, Robert, Joe, Neil, Eoin & Podge.

#UpScoil

Junior Hurling Championship

Scoil Uí Chonaill 1-14 Kilmacud Crokes 0-04

Scoil’s junior Hurlers played the second game of the group stage of the Junior Hurling Championship, in what was a must win tie against Kilmacud Crokes, on what was thundery and extremely wet Thursday evening.

Once again a strong squad was assembled with the depth of Hurling talent available within the club stretching the length and breadth of the country with Martin Tierney (Kerry) and Eddie Smyth (Antrim) making their competitive hurling debuts along with our more established Hurler Tiernan O’Frighil, who also was joining the debut club.

Having suffered an opening Championship defeat to St Sylvester’s pressure was on to get the Championship campaign back on track with win against Crokes.

Once again Scoil were blessed with a number of skilful, young and talented quartet in David Kennedy, Conor Ennis, Eoghan McKay and Sam Callan.

The open half was played in what can only be described as Biblical Rainfall, Sam Callan opened up Scoil’s scoring account and set the tone for a brilliant team performance.

David Kennedy continued his rich scoring form that was event a number of weeks back in Malahide as he worked the score board along with scoring contributions from Ruairi Egan, Tiernan O’Frighil, Sam Callan and Daragh Reddy.

Scoil’s dominance of the first half was built around a strong performance from Daragh Reddy who was acting as a great foil for Eoghan McKay who was combining exceptionally well with Callan and Kennedy with Conor Ennis proofing more than a handful for the Crokes defence.

Mark Cunningham, Cian O ’Donal and Ciaran de Burca performed as a solid group in the defence with the inside line showing Tierney working busy like and breaking up play along with Chubb’s, freeing up Kennedy to add the scoring touch.

The second half saw Scoil produce the same tempo, in thankfully much better weather conditions and this led to more scoring chances been created for O’Frighil with Ennis keeping the Crokes defence on their toes throughout.

Despite all of score dominance and having worked the Crokes goalkeeper a number of times through Ennis, Chubb’s and McKay, it was Kennedy who finally came up trumps with the only goal of the game!

A brilliant performance from Scoil came on the back of an equally brilliant performance the night previous by the Inter Hurlers, having produced a 1:13 to 1:08 defeat of Ballybodan in Intermediate Hurling Championship.

#UpScoil

Adult Football

At the time of writing, the Senior Footballers are set to travel to Donabate to play St Pat’s in their 6th AFL2 game, followed by St Anne’s on Saturday, hoping to continue a strong run of form.

The AFL7 and AFL11 teams also play this week. Details below.

#UpScoil

U13

Scoil Uí Chonaill 5-10 Ballinteer 8-19

Scoil for the second game in a row made it very difficult for themselves in that the majority of the opposition scoring was done in the first half in St Anne’s Park. Similar to their previous match against N Barrog they came out fighting in the second half but the damage had been done in the first half and it was too much to claw back. Some work needed on consistent play over the full match.

#UpScoil

U12 Thunders

Scoil 2-3 – Kilmacud Crokes 5-6

Scoil came out of the wrong side of a frustrating match last weekend in Clontarf. Scoil were well in the match all through the first half despite having a slow start. The Scoil backs were the busier though and Oisin, Patrick and Brendan stood tall against numerous attacks from the nippy Crokes forwards.

Richie Egan again rallied the troops at half time and spurred on, Scoil tore manfully into the second half and began to impose themselves physically on the game. Eoghan and Sean started to dominate the midfield, feeding the busy Jack in the Scoil forward line. Crokes however had the little bit of extra guile in their play and when they needed to, they took their scores at crucial moments.

Back to the drawing board for the Scoil management.

#UpScoil

U10s Hurling Blitz

Team Liam Ryan

On the final hurling game of the season, Scoil played their best hurling by far this year! The team worked hard from the start – Luke and Charlie worked hard in the forwards to get some early scores, they were unselfish all day setting up some great scores for Alan. The inter link play between all players was a privilege to watch today. A great individual performance from Adam Ryan this morning who worked hard non stop in all 3 games & was ruthless/clinical throughout.

Team Jp Courtney

Short & sweet – Game 1 v Na Fianna was a total disaster! Kids definitely didn’t have their weetabix and were well beaten/bullied off the sliotar by excellent Na Fianna Team.

Game 2 v Erin Go Bragh was a much better performance all round with some excellent scores/win from our lads.

Game 3 v Na Fianna (same team again) showed the true measure of our kids. From the outset they went hell for leather at them and put up some super scores (Niall/Conall/Fionn) and contested ball in a manner we are used to seeing – A late goal & “skill” point from Na Fianna proved our undoing, as we “lost” by single point (something all the parents would dispute but the Ref is always right….or is he??).

No matter the result, the manner in which they raised their game /attitude was brilliant & Na Fianna management recognised same also. Kids took some big hits (Alex/Conall) &

Alex Cahill Culligan despite not wanting to play defence, stuck to the task and improved with every game.

Well done to all the lads!

#UpScoil

Under 9’s Girls Football

On Saturday the u9’s girls took to a soggy St Anne’s to take on Erin go Bragh. After an uncharacteristic slow start the girls grew into the game as it went on.

Abbey led the fight back with a determined performance in midfield. Nessa carried well out of defence and made some very clever clearances. She was well supported by Martha who battled strongly. Niamh, Caoimhe and Sadhbh were typically industrious. Laura and Lauren were busy in the forward line while Aibhilin provided some excellent kick outs.

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Under 9’s Boys Hurling

The boys last hurling match was in February as part of the Gormanstown tournament. We didn’t enter a team this year as we needed to work on building up skills. To get some competition we organised a friendly with Wild Geese last Saturday to see where we are at with hurling. We played them away in Oldcastle and in a positive sense surprisingly we were able to field two boys teams. This shows that we have a positive base for going forwards and their is an appetite for hurling.

Game 1

This was managed by Alan and Brendan. Whilst I cant remember the score Scoil had a good win. We had two brothers playing for the first time (Evan and Noah (a slightly underaged player) Casey). In this game we had some outstanding players who were blocking and shouldering with gusto – particularly Callum and Ruairi which shut down the opposition. Conor Meehan had a great performance in goal/defence ably assisted by new recruit Lee. Scores were distributed amongst the players with Diarmuid, Noah and others putting away the goals. All in all it was a great win.

Game 2

This was managed by Colin and Cormac. Special mention to Jake, Cillian and Eoin Óg who got there nice and early to practice their pucks and annoy the linesman !

The game was a great match of the two teams despite what looked like a material height and calorific advantage to the opposition at the outset. Something in the water no doubt.

The game started well with some great movement of the ball up and down the pitch. Joe demonstrated some great lifting and movement skills, getting the ball forward quickly. Senan started off in goals and put his long puck to good use serving up a few balls direct to the forwards as well as fending off a number of shots. Eoin Og held the centre of the pitch for the first half keeping the Wild Geese fighting hard to keep his forward passes back. Cillian well supported by new recruit Luke once again proved his strength and bravery in defence taking two different knocks in defence of our goal and getting back up and into the game each time – his strength and tenacity were a huge asset to the team. Jake has clearly been practicing outside of training and showed great attacking skills as well as winning far more than his fair share of ball out of scrambles in defence and midfield. Seoirse, as ever, worked Trojan defence and dispossessed many of the opposition at critical times and getting the ball forward to a revised forward line.

Overall the team showed great skills and structure throughout the game. We scored a number of goals and points and while we lost overall, it was marginal. The opposition coach and supporters were quick to comment on and praise a number of ball skills across and players across the team. They want a rematch !!

From the coaches perspective we were delighted both with the quality and progression of the kids skills as well as seeing them compete well and enjoy it so much. We will continue to focus on building the core skills and match experience in training but encourage all kids to get out practicing at home.

Without being statto, it was interesting in that it was the first time that St Columbas kids outnumbered Scoil Neasain kids on the pitch. St Columbas has evolved from a school with no GAA tradition to being the backbone of the Scoil team for boys for Under 9s. The evolution is continuing for the Under 8’s with a lot of St Columbas players at that age group also.

This is a really positive thing and stems from the groundwork put in by Joanne over the past few years which Thomas is continuing to build on in the school.

#UpScoil

U8 Hurling

In our final hurling game before the summer break, our U8 hurlers continued their good form and delivered strong performances against St Sylvester’s.

For the blues, Rian played well in both defence and attack not being afraid to get in close to tackle his opponent. Aoibhinn had a great game in defense, getting to the ball before her opponent before making long accurate clearances. Noah put his body on the line many times and Emily Rose was not afraid of anyone.

The Amber team got off to a slow start and tended to stand off and admire their opponents too much. However, we regrouped at half time, make a few positional switches and thereafter put in some great performances. In defence, Oisin had a super match and quickly closed down the opposing forwards before delivering quality passes into our forwards.

Our midfielders Conall and Aisling got through mountains of work between covering back to crowd midfield on opposition puck outs, to driving the ball into our forward line. Conall had his best hurling match of the season and kept getting in close to his opponents to tackle and clash. In very physical games, Aisling took several knocks, but bravely kept coming back stronger and stronger.

In the forwards, Paddy kept showing for the ball, winning possession and stopping the opposition from clearing the ball. He also scored a cracking goal which was a just reward for his hard work.

The Maroons had a mixed day. They started slowly, looking a little rusty, but in the second half of the first game they began to stand up to the physical challenge of Sylvester’s. Cian and Aibhilin put in a couple of great challenges and clearances. They continued this into the first half of the second half, with Orla in particular using her strength to come out best in a number of tight scrums that developed on the wet pitch. Their efforts began to tell and they began to fade as the second half went on (we may need to look at an intensive fitness program for the summer break

) But there was a crescendo at the finish when Darragh still had enough in the tank to break his opponent’s hurley! First Hurley break from this group of u8s.

Overall, our progress in the first half of the season has been satisfactory with every player showing improved technique. However, to master the skills of hurling (which will bring more satisfaction during games), requires practice, practice, practice over the summer. The coaches will be happy to suggest some games to improve hurling skills at home, in the park or on holidays.

#UpScoil