A MILTOWN MALBAY man has won a house in Ennis in a Clare GAA fundraiser which will have a profit in the region of €700,000.
Danny McAlinden of the St Joseph’s Miltown club was the winner of the much coveted house in Roslevan where he will also have the option to take a cash prize of €330,000 instead. The winning ticket (2203) was pulled out by Willie Walsh, the new President of Clare GAA and former Bishop of the Killaloe Diocese,.
Head of Operations with Clare GAA, Deirdre Murphy said the fundraiser was “a great result for Clare GAA”. She expected that clubs could walkway with €180,000 to €190,000 depending on the amount of tickets they sold.
Clare GAA fell just short of its target in selling 15,000 tickets. A total of 14,798 tickets were sold, according to the organising committee. Expenses associated with the fundraiser included daily payments of €400 to Facebook to promote the draw.
Murphy detailed that it would be “comfortable” to calculate a profit of €700,000 profit for Clare GAA. One of the driving forces of the venture, Clare GAA Chairman, Kieran Keating was absent from the draw due to the sudden death of his brother in recent days.
She admitted that the “big aim” from the funds raised is to have an Astro facility at Clare GAA’s Centre of Excellence in Caherlohan. That is dependent on securing regional sports capital funding, if they are successful here then Clare GAA will provide match funding, she confirmed. “It’s been a real success for club and county,” the Clooney/Quin woman remarked of the fundraiser.
Fidelma Hanley from Roscommon was the winner of a wedding for 100 people in Hotel Woodstock which was second prize. Donegal’s Andrew McFarland won a four night stay at the five star Trump Doonbeg.
Bernie Agnew from Kilmurry in Sixmilebridge scooped the All-Ireland hurling final weekend package while the football equivalent went to Michael Beacher from Waterford. Caroline Baker from Ennis won the weekend package in the Temple Gate Hotel where she will get to stay on a weekend that Clare’s hurlers are involved in the Munster senior hurling championship in Cusack Park.
Clare camogie captain Ciara Grogan, Clare footballer Emmet McMahon, 2018 All Star Peter Duggan and ZuCar Golden Boot winner Fidelma Marrinan were on hand to pull out the tickets and were supervised by Supt John Ryan.
An audience of 2,500 people tuned into the draw which was streamed by Clare GAA on Monday night with the draw taking place at Hotel Woodstock.
Dinny Cullinan who was part of the organising committee stated, “it’s been an outstanding success”. He added, “It was all worth it at the end, a lot of hard work went in by a lot of people and I’d like to thank them for the work they’ve put in”.
In order to encourage clubs to sell more tickets, there was an extra draw. Coolmeen won €5000 as they were the only club to sell over 150 printed tickets, Ennistymon football club won €5000, they were one of six clubs to sell more than 100 printed tickets. Clonlara were the final club to win €5000, they were included in the draw for clubs that sold more than 50 printed tickets.
Mary Considine Doherty won return tickets to Co Clare, she was one of seven overseas sellers for the fundraiser.
