*Feakle will find out their Clare SHC opponents as they prepare to defend their title. Photograph: Gerard O’Neill.
DRAWS for the 2025 Clare GAA club championships will be held next week while Clare GAA will become the first county to launch a youth committee.
Delegates gathered for a brief County Board meeting in Clareabbey on Tuesday in which was the May sitting.
Championship draws:
The Clare 2025 GAA championship draws will be made at Clareabbey on Tuesday night next May 20 at 8pm.
The senior, intermediate and junior A football groupings will be decided along with the senior, premier intermediate, intermediate and junior A hurling groups. This will be the first season with the premier intermediate and intermediate grades in hurling.
Draws for the junior B and C hurling and football grades will be made at the June county board meeting on Tuesday June 10. Clubs were informed that they must confirm to the board by Sunday June 8 if they will be taking part in either or both of the junior B and C grades, football and hurling.
Regulations:
During a short discussion on regulations for the upcoming championships, a query was raised in relation to the videoing of games. Delegates were told that permission had to be got from the CCC.
When there is a clash of colours both clubs must change unless they agree to toss.
Youth committee:
The members of the youth committee were named at this week’s May board meeting. Eoghan Hanley will be the chairman and the committee will include Colm Hanley, Hannah O’Brien (Clooney/Quin) Colm Madden (Whitegate), Brendan Bugler (Whitegate), Tomas Queally (Cooraclare), Tim Crowe (Sixmilebridge), Paddy Smyth and Vincent Delaney.
The committee will be launched in Clareabbey on Tuesday next (May 20th) at 4p.m. by GAA president Jarlath Burns.
Announcing the committee Head of Operations Deirdre Murphy said “invites have gone out to schools this week. We are lucky in Clare that Eoghan and Colm Hanley work in the Future leaders with secondary schools. All but two of the secondary schools in Clare run the Future Leaders programme now. This committee will form a youth committee who will be guided by this steering committee. It’s a progressive step for Clare. We are the first county board in a while to be launching this”.
“The whole thing is to be able to link the school with the clubs”, according to Paddy Smyth. “It is unchartered territory but it could be very good if we get it up and running”.
The committee was ratified on the proposition of Robert Frost and seconded by Joe Kelly (Wolfe Tones).
Cusack Park, Cloister and Caherlohan:
Board chairman Kieran Keating paid tribute to groundsman David Hoey and his staff in relation “to the excellent condition of Cusack Park. It was looking very well”.
He went on to express hope that “we will get planning permission in the next few weeks so that we can move on with work at Caherlohan, getting the irrigation systems in”.
Responding to Kilmihil delegate, Gerard O’Neill in relation to work on the car park at the Cloister end at Cusack Park, he said “there is a little bit of progress but it’s a bit slower that we would like. The Council have taken the project and they have a team of a few people working on it now. We couldn’t get anything done there before the Tipperary match as we needed it not so much for parking but for access to the grounds for a capacity crowd.
“There are two main parts to the tender. One of them is to remove the heap of soil which includes some knotweed and the second project is the tender for the car park. Both of those are being prepared at the moment but not out to tender yet. The Council is using Government money for the project and because of this there are a lot more hoops they have to jump through that we wouldn’t necessarily have to if we were doing it ourselves. It will be next year before we see the car park finished”
“When it rains it’s a disgrace,” O’Neill remarked.
Responding to Sixmilebridge delegate P.J. Fitzpatrick as to progress on the development of the astro turf facility at Caherlohan, the Chairman said, “We did the studies and submitted them and the decision is due on the next fortnight or so and we are waiting to go ahead. There isn’t anything we can do to speed it up. We are just waiting and hoping to get permission”.
Sympathy:
Sympathy was extended to the Brohan family Ruan, the O’Driscoll family Killimer on the death of club president Tommy O’Driscoll, the Durack family Broadford, the Clune family Crusheen, the White family in Ennis, the McKenna family Shannon and the Wiley family Bodyke.
Poc Fada:
The Clare Poc Fada finals will take place on May 31ST with the Munster finals scheduled for June 14. there will be competitions for senior and under 16’s in hurling and camogie.
Handball:
Good wishes were extended to Leah Minogue ad Sean Coughlan who will contest the intermediate and junior All-Ireland handball finals at Croke Park this weekend.
Efforts of Clare players acknowledged:
Chairman Kieran Keating “complimented and thanked to all of our players for their efforts. Apart from the under 20’s results haven’t gone our way his year. On Sunday hopefully our footballers will get their first win in the All-Ireland series and that would be a great lift for football in the county. Hopefully there will be a big home support in the park on Sunday to support our team”.
