1. Scoil Stars

2. Championship Fever

3. Scoil Gear

4. Championship Fever

5. Amazing Aifric

6. Clara Visit

7. Message from Mairead

8. Coffee Morning

9. U10 Team Update

10. Hurling the Loser as Slowcoaches Fail to Roll Back the Years

Scoil Stars

The amazing Scoil Stars initiative begins this weekend on Saturday the 7th of September. Scoil Stars at Scoil Uí Chonaill is a sports inclusion programme for children with additional needs who want to have fun getting active in the safe grounds of Scoil Uí Chonaill, Clontarf Road. The objective is to learn new GAA skills, make friends and get active in a friendly non competitive environment. For more information please contact Jackie Geraghty 0872672038 or Erika Casey 0874125661!

Scoil Gear

The latest batch of Scoil gear has arrived and is ready for collection. Alva Cushen will be in the clubhouse over the coming week to hand gear out to those that ordered. Keep an eye on social media and emails for days and times when for collection!

Championship Fever

Best of luck to all of our adult teams over the coming weeks as the championship comes to the fore. Both of our adult ladies teams feature on Wednesday the 4th of September, with the B team taking on Shankill GAA in the Junior Championship Final in St. Margaret’s.

Our adult hurlers take on Kilmacud Crokes on Saturday the 7th of September in the Quarter Final of the Senior B Championship. The match will be thrown in at 6.30pm in Silver Park.

Wishing the very best of luck to all teams!

Clara Visit

Two full buses of boys and girls from the under 7-12 teams and parents headed off on Saturday the 24th of August to Clara GAA club. The quiz organised by John Kelly kept the children entertained on the way down.

Upon arrival the children paraded into the clubhouse with the club flag and also playing some Irish music tunes.

After some organising by the coaches the teams, which were a mix of different ages, (8s and 9s played together as did the 10s, 11s and 13s) got ready to play their matches. Boys and girls played separately and against two different clubs.

There was a great display of both ground and air hurling from all sides in some warm August sunshine and the Kilkenny teams were able to show the Scoil children the benefits of training all summer.

After the matches a number of Kilkenny hurling and camogie stars gave their time to each team for a question and answer session. The children had lots of interesting and inquisitive questions for the players. These are profiles below of the players.

Conor O’Shea
Conor was a member of the Kilkenny senior squad and player with the team for a number of years. He retired from inter county in 2018.

Shane Prendergast
Shane followed in his fathers footsteps to play for Kilkenny. As is tradition in Kilkenny, the club that wins the senior championship nominates the captain for the following year. In 1987, paddy prendergast, Shane’s dad was captain. They won the Leinster final of 1987. Paddy lead the team to the all Ireland that year – a time when a loss was the end of the season so every match was a knockout! Shane was captain in 2016 and lifted the Bob O’keeffe (Leinster cup) that year. Shane again lead the team to an all Ireland final but unfortunately, Kilkenny were defeated by Tipperary.

Lester Ryan
Lester Ryan captained Clara to their first senior win since 1986 and scored 1-02 on the day including a late goal to secure victory. Lester was captain in 2014 and lifted the McCarthy Cup after a replay of the all Ireland final. Lester gave his acceptance speech all “as gaeilge”. What very few people knew at the time was Lester had won a Féile in Irish poetry with an acceptance speech “as gaeilge”’on all Ireland day when he was 10 in 1998. He delivered his speech in 2014 with the same passion as he did in 1998!

Mary O’Connell
Mary plays with the Kilkenny Senior Camogie team and is currently preparing for the all Ireland on 8th Sept. Mary was part of the 2016 squad that bridged the 24 year gap since the last all Ireland camogie win. We wish Mary good wishes on 8th.

Aisling Nolan
Aisling trains the U11 Camogie girls in Clara. Aisling was part of the 2016 squad that bridged the 24 year gap since the last All Ireland Camogie win.

Claire Nolan
Claire trains the U11 camogie with Aisling. Claire is part of the Kilkenny intermediate squad.
After the matches and some lovely home made sandwiches and treats enjoyed by all the players and parents, it was time to thanks Clara GAA for their hospitality.

Elaine Owens, a Clara Native presented the club chairperson Tom Brennan with a framed Scoil Ui Chonaill jersey and gave a brief history of the origins of the club colours. A lovely end to a great day and we hope the children have special memories of their trip to Kilkenny.

The day would not have been possible without the organisers; Dave Daly, Elaine Owens, John Kelly, Mairead Sandford and Sean Leahy.

Amazing Aifric

Aifric is an under 10s player for Scoil Uí Chonaill. She won the Irish leg of the BIC Young Artist competition. She’s pictured here beside her winning picture on a billboard on Macken Street!

In order for her to become the overall champion, she needs votes!! Please vote for Aifric here -> https://www.bickids.com/uk/youngartist/competition

Best of luck Aifric! And congratulations from everyone at Scoil Uí Chonaill

Message from Mairead

That Scoil Sirens (GAA 4 Ma’s team) are hosting a 4 team Blitz this Saturday in the club from 3.30pm – 5.00pm Any ladies over the age of 24 are welcome to come down and see what all the craic is and consider supporting us or better still come join us every Tuesday night at 7pm for training.

Sts Vincent’s, Clane & Sherrif Street G4M&O teams are joining us.

Secondly- I’m putting a clubwide callout for help! We’re creating an Art Installation at the club and need all broken Hurls that cannot be repaired!! Come find me. Scoil Uí Chonaill deserve its own Throne.

Mairead O’Sullivan 086 2675392

Coffee Morning

The next OCS/PPU Coffee Morning will be held on Tuesday 24th of August at 11am.

U10 Team Update

The mentors have been involved with this team for the past 3 seasons (plus a couple more in the nursery). Without any doubt, Saturday’s tremendous battle with St Finian’s was the most complete hurling performance that we have delivered in that time.

Both Scoil teams worked hard from the first to the final whistle and showed huge levels of intensity, commitment and determination.

This match showed how good we can be when everyone does their best and does not get disheartened or ‘drop the head’ when things are going against us. If we can keep this standard up, our team is going to be a force to be reckoned with in the future.

In the pre-match talk for Team John, the importance of preventing our opponents from lifting the sliotar was emphasised.   Jamie O’Leary took this to heart – in his finest ever game in a Scoil jersey, he delivered a fantastic display of tackling, covering and pressuring. This was his first time to play midfield – but after this super performance, I have a feeling that we will see him there again!

It was clear to see that Darragh has been working hard on his striking. He had a super game in defence, keeping “touch tight” to his opponents and driving the team forward with strong  tackles followed by lengthy clearances on both sides.

James O’Reilly started in a new role up front and scored a cracking goal from distance. More importantly, he worked hard to keep Finian’s defence under pressure and prevent them from making any easy clearances. As Kilkenny Manager Brian Cody says, this is the first and most important job of a forward!

A huge thanks to our guest players Aibhilin, Caoimhe and Cliodhna who (as usual) set the tone for the team with tough tackles and great striking skills.

Team Cormac put on their finest display of hurling this year. With a player less on the field, the performance was driven by a tireless turn in the midfield engine room by Adam and Brodie. Adam, in only his 3rd hurling match for Scoil, covered every blade of grass and in particular always sensed danger, covering well when backs were pulled out of position. Brodie was a revelation. Word was out that he had been putting in extra practise over the summer and it was quick to see that the rumours were true. Brodie caught high ball and low and popped over points off both sides. He also drove ball into the inside forward line where the likes of Joseph and Aoife (who was helping us out on the morning) took full advantage. It’s a great example to his team mates of the rewards that practice at home brings. Well done to the team.

Hurling the Loser as Slowcoaches Fail to Roll Back the Years

With tensions festering in the juvenile girls ranks in the run up to the All Ireland Final, a mini All Ireland between Dave Daly’s Kilkenny Selection and Sean Leahy’s Tipp All Stars was agreed as the only way to settle bragging rights.

So, on the Saturday morning before the senior final, two teams representing Tipp and Kilkenny which were made up of boys and girls from our under 10 – 12 teams and their mentors met in the Scoil mini All-Ireland Final. In contrast to the game on Jones road, the Clontarf road version was an entertaining, highly competitive epic that will be analysed during the long winter nights.

As our weekly match report normally provides updates on our kids’ performances, this reporter was dispatched to report on the mentors’ performance (or lack thereof), during the classic encounter.

At the back for Kilkenny, team captain Dave Daly was displaying the full repertoire of dark arts that he learned in St Kieran’s college back in the day.

Unfortunately, he also bought more dummies from his son Fionn (who inexplicably lined out for Tipp ), than the entire student and alumni bodies in the University of Ventriloquism. Eventually, the bould Dave saw red and made one tackle on the younger Daly– which was just possibly legal under the rules of sumo wrestling. Sean Leahy (a school friend of ex Tipp Manager Michael Ryan so no stranger to dirty strokes), seemed very impressed.

To demonstrate that crime does not pay, Fionn dusted himself down and took Dave for 3 goals with the next 3 balls that went his way.

Once again, ex-Galway Manager Micheál Donoghue’s baffling selection policy was highlighted by the consummate skill and all action performance of John Kelly who had somehow been inveigled to sacrifice his principles by playing for the cats. Stag Park’s hallowed turf has rarely witnessed such grace, poise and poetry in motion.

Faced with Kilkenny’s dazzling array of attacking talents, Tipperary went with experience at the back.  Between the sticks, Aidan Ruane was his usual unflappable self and did not drop a single ball all day.

A bit more flappability might have been no bad thing – as he did not catch a single ball either. In fairness, he introduced us to an innovative puck out strategy – which seemed designed to ensure his defense got a good workout by being kept under relentless pressure.

Popping up in positions that had opposing tacticians scratching their heads (as well as teammates, spectators and nursey kids), Tipp’s Cormac Moran showed just why Kildare is regarded as a football county.

Tipp captain Seán Leahy was mopping up at the back. He might have made a better fist of things, if he had played hurley like everyone else. With childlike exuberance, he drove his team forward and showed all the characteristics of a top class hurler – except talent, application, vision, skill and speed. To this observer, he appeared to have a slight swing in his flaw. At any rate, he was constantly standing too close to the sliotar after striking it.

Now that the stiffness, aches and pains have (almost), subsided, and Sean and Dave are (more or less), back on speaking terms, the Slowcoaches are relishing their next challenge – and have thrown the gauntlet down to the Scoil Sirens for a pre-camogie final match.  Ladies – who’s up for the challenge?