*Aileen Doohan Éire Óg assistant secretary, Rory Hickey Éire Óg camogie chairperson, Ciaran Sheehan of Mutt Mitts Ireland, Mary Maloney Cahercalla fundraising manager, Jimmy Cooney Éire Óg chairperson.
THIS Saturday (May 30), Éire Óg Inis GAA club are running a fundraiser for Cahercalla Community Hospital and Hospice.
It came about after the Éire Óg committee read a Clare Echo article on how Cahercalla’s regular fundraising efforts were thwarted by the emergence of Covid-19.
“Cahercalla work very hard year in year out at fundraising and so there would be a huge deficit for them this year. Everyone has been touched by the efforts our nursing homes and care centres are making to prevent the virus from reaching their doors, and keeping our elderly relatives and friends safe. Contact was made with Cahercalla fundraising manager, Mary Maloney, who was delighted with the offer of assistance.
“In terms of Éire Óg, we are usually very active at this time of the year between training, games and our own fundraising. We thought this was a good opportunity to link in with our members and friends to do some good for our local area given the unprecedented times we are in,” said club PRO Assumpta Hehir.
Éire Óg are running a 9 to 9 challenge – a 12 hour action event open to Éire Óg members as well as anyone in the community.
They asked people to sign up for one hour of action between 9am and 9pm. The activity and location is completely up to them. The event committee have also been permitted limited supervised use of the Éire Óg grounds and Flannan’s field to facilitate the fundraising event.
“The response so far has been very heartening, we have over 130 registered to take part throughout the day. The locations range from Clonroadmore, to Abu Dhabi, Western Australia to Kilnaboy!,” Assumpta added.
There is no registration fee. The committee only ask that participants make a donation to the event’s GoFundMe page and that they share the GoFundMe link along with a photo or video of their activity on their own social media and with family and friends.
They can tag Éire Óg Inis GAA when posting and/or Whatsapp on the photo to Assumpta (085-8795475) for sharing on club social media.
Éire Óg have also been offered support from businesses including; Brendan Rochford-Rochfords Pharmacy (donating ppe to Éire Óg to help run the event); Ciaran Sheehan-Mutts Mitts Ireland (donating face masks to Cahercalla); Anthony Flynn-Johnson & Johnson (donating face shields to Cahercalla); Michael Considine-Atlantic Clinical Packaging (donating hand sanitiser to Cahercalla).
Access the Éire Óg 9 to 9 challenge GoFundMe page here.
