Outstanding volunteers added at Offaly Community Games awards

OUTSTANDING volunteers were honoured at a special Offaly Community Games awards ceremony last Friday night.

A couple of hundred members and friends turned up in the Tullamore Court Hotel as speakers spoke about the importance of volunteerism in Community Games.

It was also the start of a year of celebration for Offaly Community Games, who are celebrating their 50th anniversary.

Each of the 11 areas in Offaly Community Games selected their own reward recipient while the highlight of the evening was the presentation of an overall county winner.

The Marion Feehan award was presented to Nicola Lalor, a long time worker at county and local level.

Announcing the winner, Ms Verona Smyth noted that Nicola has dedicated the last thirty years to Shinrone-Coolderry Community Games and has been secretary of Offaly Community Games for the last six years.

The winner was chosen by Ms Smyth and Eamon Henry of the Offaly Sports Partnership but it proved an easy task as Ms Smyth noted that she was the only nominee put forward by each area.

The award was named for the late Marion Feehan, a driving force in Ferbane Community Games from its inception in 1975 until her untimely passing in 2021. Marion had competed in Community Games in field events and hurdles at area, county and national level and continued on into coaching and adminstration.

Her husband Jude Feehan, sons Max and Deema and mother, Lucy Smith were all present fopr the ceremony and they were presented with a beautiful painting of the Feehan family.

Jude Feehan is chairman of Offaly Community Games and he spoke about the importance of volunteerism in the organisation. He praised the many volunteers who keep Community Games going in their local area and promised that they would celebrate their golden jubilee with a wide and varied programme of events.

He noted that Community Games in Offaly had initially started in Tullamore in 1970 and then went county wide in 1972.

Chairman of Offaly County Council, Frank Moran described Community Games as an “integral part of community life in Offaly” and he congratulated the recipients.

Minister of State at the Department of Agriculture, Pippa Hackett praised Community Games for their work and stated that it was great to see them honouring volunteers.

The formal part of the evening concluded with the presentation of sports packs to his area.

The following were the local area award recipients:

Banagher: Damien Keenaghan

Damien Keenaghan is the Chairperson of Banagher community games and the longest serving member of the committee, being there since 2010. He has given a huge amount of his free time to community games over those 12 years. The majority of other committee members that started with Damien left the committee in 2018 as their children had grown up and Damien agreed to stay as the new volunteers joining had no previous community games experience. Banagher community games couldn’t have continued without him and we are extremely grateful for his commitments.

Clara: Sandy Feehan

Sandy joined Community Games in 1976 and competed in the High jump and Volleyball. She coached a very successful Volleyball team in the 90’s and has been the main Badminton coach for several years. She has also been a key Area and County committee member and from 2013 to 2020 she managed to do a lot of work for Clara community games single handedly.

Her commitment and leadership ensured that boys and girls from the Clara Parish participated in several community games events at Area ,Regional and National level. No task was ever too difficult for Sandy and her energy and dedication to Clara Community games was extraordinary.

She has been an inspiration to the current Committee and is still always available to volunteer or answer any questions.

Daingean: Breda Mann

Breda has been involved with Daingean Community Games for almost 2 decades. While initially she became involved with Daingean Community Games when her own children were young and competing, she has stayed with our area long after they have finished, volunteering and giving freely of her time. Breda is an excellent manager, she is very personable and people, both parents and children alike feel safe in her hands. We are lucky to have her as our secretary. Breda can be seen actively helping out in all aspect volunteering: from marking out the field on sports day; cheering on our teams at matches; making buns and tea for our committee meetings; chasing parents for dates of birth and details needed for competition; encouraging children to try out in different events; bringing children to the athletics track to practice their start and finishes and ensuring they are familiar with their surroundings before the county final; not to mention the endless paperwork and online work. She works very hard to include children from all areas of our parish, which proves difficult at times as some townslands have strong ties - through schools or location - to other areas. Over the years, she has built up great relationships with our neighbouring areas which helps ensure children are competing for the correct area. Her involvement in local GAA and her connections through her role as a secondary school teacher ensure we can build relationships with as many children and families as possible. We are very lucky to have Breda involved in Community Games and it would be wonderful if her huge effort was recognised.

Edenderry: Frank Killrane

"Originally from a family of 11 and reared on a small farm near Mohill in Co Leitrim, Frank moved to Edenderry in the early eighties. A true reflection of Franks steady and loyal nature was reflected in his life-long employment in the ESB until his retirement at 60 in 2009. An accomplished sportsman in his youth he represented Ireland in Tug of War on the international stage. His initial involvement in the local athletic club saw his expertise being extended into the Edenderry branch of the Community Games where he often soldiered alone to ensure that the branch stayed active.

The stated aim of the Community Games organisation is "to provide opportunities for children and young people aged 6 to16 years to develop active healthy lives in a safe environment" This aim could just as easily be applied to Franks approach to life. Anyone who has worked with Frank over the years will be in no doubt that he is completely without ego and he places the participation and welfare of the juvenile athletes at the very top of his priorities. His focus is as much on the new kid at their first training session as it is on the many national champions he has coached over the years. One of the highlights of his coaching career arrived at the Community Games National finals in Carlow this year. The mixed relay team winners and discus winner both came from Edenderry and won their respective events within an hour of eachother in blistering conditions. 

Over the course of the last few decades, Frank has willingly and consistently made himself available in a variety of roles as coach, volunteer, official and steward. Practically every weekend he is on the road to a competition or training session to help out in his capable yet uniquely unassuming manner."

Ferbane: Sinead Coleman

Sinead Coleman stepped up when Ferbane Area Community Games were at a crossroads! Heavily reliant on the ever present volunteers who have made Ferbane Area a stronghold of Offaly Community Games the area needed some help to ensure it continued to strive.

Sinead initially came on board with an interest in swimming but within days rather than weeks or months became fully immersed in the entire ethos of Community Games ensuring every single child in the area was enabled to have access to a variety of events. From handwriting to swimming, tables quiz to athletics, art to gymnastics, managing football and hurling teams and everything in between Sinead has played her part in providing opportunities to the children of Ferbane Area Community Games and for this we will be forever indebted. Sinead has also played her role in assisting at county level assisting at county events and serving as manager at national finals. Sinead epitomises what a volunteer can only aspire to be and for this reason Ferbane Area Community Games takes pleasure in nominating her for a Volunteer Recognition Award!

Killeigh: Elizabeth (Liz) McDonnell

We have nominated Elizabeth (Liz) McDonnell for the area award. She answered the call for volunteers earlier in the year when we were trying to reactivate the Killeigh area and  took on the role of pro despite an extremely busy personal and work life. She managed with great difficulty to get our lapsed Facebook page up and running and has been very active and engaged in posting information about our events and participants involvement since then. Liz demonstrated great leadership on the committee when we were organising area athletics. She also travelled to Clones for the athletics event  in July despite her own child  pulling out due to injury. We thought we were covered as we had a few parents garda vetted but unfortunately those kids were unable to attend.  Liz demonstrated great commitment and service  by travelling up herself on what was an extremely hot, bank holiday Saturday to act as area manager so our children could participate. Her co-operation is second to none and she is a pleasure to work with on the committee.  She is hugely deserving of recognition for her commitment this year.

Mucklagh Rahan The Island: Mary Browne

Mary has worked tirelessly over the past number of years to ensure that the Community Games stayed active with the MRI community.  She attends all the local and County meetings and relays the information back to the rest of the committee without delay. She always shows great leadership and attends all events even if her own children are not involved.  She is always kind to the children, very patient and helpful to parents and though she is not from the area takes great pride in ensuring that MRI is represented in events.  

Pre Covid Mary ensured that fundraising was carried out.  She also ensures the bank account is kept up to date and that the CG database was updated on time.  She also asked parents after events to get feedback for the MRI committee and also to give to the Offaly CG committee good or bad.  She is a tireless worker and we are lucky to have her as our Chairperson.

Rath Eglish Drumcullen: Colleen Spain  

Colleen is a person who is hugely involved and invested in her community. She has been involved with our local community games branch since we re-joined in 2013. She was a member of our committee and held the Child Protection Role up until 2020.

 Colleen has always been willing to help out with any event we may have been hosting and her catering and tea making skills are legendary in our community. Colleen is a mother and works fulltime, often commuting to Dublin two to three times a week. She is also heavily involved in other organisations in our parish. Despite this she has committed to supporting CG and keeping it alive. She is very approachable and personable and her personal touch has been invaluable in helping us keep our local club active.

 We feel Colleen’s commitment and hard work are an example to us all and she typifies what CG is all about: participation. We feel that she whole heartily deserves to receive the volunteer of year award.

Rhode: Margaret ( Maggie) Glennon RIP

During 2022 the Rhode area was saddened by the news of the passing of Maggie Glennon. Maggie epitomised everything that is good about community Games. She was an active member of the Rhode area committee for many years and acted as Treasurer for as long as any current members can recall. Maggie really embraced the Community Games and was always contributing by way of –

Acting as Treasurer keeping the accounts in a very professional manner
Arranging church gate collections and other fundraising activities
Meticulously looking after the Area tops used at the County events
Attending all community games events and positively encouraging children whether they came first or last in their event
Maggie will be sorely missed by the Community Games people of Rhode. There was no question among committee members that it is right and fitting that Maggie be the first recipient of the Volunteer award for Rhode.

Ar Dheis de go raibh a hanam !!

Shinrone Coolderry: Anne Franks

Anne Franks along with her husband Monty were among the founding members of the Area Community Games back in 1979 and has been actively involved since then. Over the years she held many roles on the Committee from Secretary to PRO and in more recent years she stepped up as Treasurer a role nobody ever seems to want on any committee. She did such a good job looking after the finances as Treasurer that she held this role for many years, only retiring from this position at the last AGM. Anne has always been active at ground level for the Area from day one and tends to shy away from the limelight, but if a job needed doing then you could be sure Anne would be involved and the task would be completed without delay. Anne was responsible for ensuring jerseys etc were ready for each event and we never went home a jersey short after an event. Anne can still be relied on to help out and this year she was down at the local Athletics Finals. Anne could be relied upon to take care of the many competitors on competition day and ensure that nobody missed an event or strayed too far from the group. The Committee would have been lost without her advice and dedication over the last number of years especially when volunteers were in short supply and feel she is a worthy recipient of this Area Award. We in Shinrone Coolderry thank her for her dedication and commitment and hope she enjoys her moment of Fame

Tullamore: Eimear Garvey

Eimear has given up significant time and energy to act in this role this past year. She is the backbone of the Tullamore Community Games committee, and it would not have been possible to run Community Games events in Tullamore this year without her dedication, leadership and commitment. Because of her voluntary work this year children in Tullamore have had the opportunity to compete in numerous events at local, county and national level.

Eimear has attended countless Community Games meetings throughout the year and promptly forwarded on any relevant information to the committee. Eimear has shown immense leadership skills in her role as Secretary and has organised local meetings as necessary to plan events or delegate tasks.

Eimear completed the mammoth task of entering all participants on the Community Games system. She spent countless hours ensuring that all entries were submitted on time and correctly and liaised with all relevant parties.

Eimear has helped to organise and oversee the running of Tullamore events such as Art and Handwriting, Athletics and Swimming.

Eimear also ensured that all volunteers were up to date with garda vetting as needs be. Eimear ran our Facebook page and constantly updated it to provide up to date information, photos, results and words of encouragement to the many children participating in events.