CLUB AGM (JUNIOR): The club’s juvenile section AGM will take place in Páirc Uí Chonghaile on Monday next, 9th January, at 7.15pm. Everybody welcome and we extend a special welcome to the parents/guardians of our young players.
SCÓR na nÓG: Feel free to be part of Scór na nÓg ’23? Items: solo singing, a five-person (boys or girls) ballad group, a grúpa ceoil, a four-person table quiz team, a figure dance, a set, a recitation/dán/scéal. Think about it! Now is the chance to become great! Singers, quiz buffs, actors, musicians, dancers, etc, required to represent The Rock!
COLÁISTÍ….ROCK PLAYERS IN COLLEGE GAMES: (i) The Mercy Mounthawk U19 senior boys will play Clonakilty Community College in the quarter-final of the Corn Uí Mhuirí competition at 1.30pm on Wednesday 18th January. All Kerry GAA followers are hoping for a Tralee success in this very important encounter! Tá foireann an-mhaith ag Cnoc an tSeabhaic! Good luck to The Rock boys on the Mounthawk panel: Michael Tansley, Jack Murphy, Ben Murphy, Daniel Kirby, Cillian Litchfield, Paddy Lane, Noah Townsend, Liam Carmody.
(ii) In the quarter-final of the Corn Sheáin Uí Mhurchú U19 C football competition the Gaelcholáiste boys will take on Coláiste Éamann Rís, Inis, at 12.30pm on Wednesday 18thJanuary. Tá Ruairí Ó Loingsigh and Gavin Ó Cathasaigh i measc imreoirí an Ghaelcholáiste.
(iii) Good luck to the Tralee CBS (Faoi 16½) boys who will face Coláiste Bhréanainn in the final of the Dunloe Cup (Kerry colleges) competition. The date, time and venue have yet to be decided. Our good wishes to Ryan Ó Drisceoil, Rónán Ó Cearúil, FionánÓ Riain and Donnacha Horgan in their preparations.
PEIL FAOI 21: An enjoyable celebration was held in our Connolly Park clubhouse last week. A reunion of all the young men who had won The Rock’s one and only U21 county title in 2002 took place. Our champions of 2002: Martin Moriarty, Brendan Smith, David Leonard, Nessan Crean, Conor Carroll, Alex Donovan, Timmy Lynch, Pádraig Sugrue, Jonathon Conway, Mike Finn (captaen), Kieran Donaghy, Dara Ó Lúing, TJ Hogan, Keith Greensmith, David Hennebery, St.John Hegarty, Anthony Morrison, Finbarr Smith, Mikey Collins, Brian Phelan, Martin Courtney, Brian Dennehy, Mark Bracker O’Regan, Alan Sheehan, Andy McAllen (RIP). Bainisteoir: John Joe Sugrue.
CLUB LOTTO: Thanks to all who continually support and promote our club lotto: (i) Paudie Commane’s Bookshop, Rock Street, (ii) The Burger Shack, Monavalley, (iii) O’Flynn Interiors (Malachy Nagle), Lower Rock Street, (iv) Brogue Inn Uí Chiarba, Lower Rock Street, (v) Deli Uí hEosa, Prince’s Quay, (vi) Carmel Uí Néill and others, (vii) Maguires’ Butcher Shop, Caherslee, (viii) Ollmhargadh de Barra, Upper Rock Street, (ix) www.austinstacks.ie (x) and/or on https://play.clubforce.com/play_newa.asp?ll_id=X529#Anchor
CLUB AGM (SENIOR): The club’s AGM (senior section) will take place on Sunday 15th January at 1.30pm in Connolly Park. Everybody welcome. Nominations for positions and motions for discussion should be emailed to the secretary before 5pm on Thursday 5th January. Is maith an aire an fhógairt!
SIOPA AN CHLUB: Our Club shop is open seacht lá na seachtaine. The latest official Austin Stack Club merchandise is only available to order on www.oneills.com
DID YOU KNOW? (i) Former Kerry footballer, James ‘Mixie’ Palmer, who was born in Sneem in 1927 and who lived in Tralee, recently passed to his eternal reward. ‘Mixie’ wore the green‘n’gold of Kerry from 1950 to 1955. He was part of The Kingdom’s panel in 5 Munster finals; he was on the victorious side on 4 occasions v Cork but lost v ‘The Rebels’ in 1952. He played in 3 All-Ireland finals; he was on the winning teams of 1953 v the Orchard County’ and 1955 v ‘The Dubs’ but lost to the ‘Royal County’ in 1954. He played mostly as a wing back but also at corner back, at centre-forward and at full forward. Imreoir ildánach, gan aon agó! Beannacht Dé lena anam. (ii) Wexford was the 1st county to win 4 All-Ireland football titles in-a-row….1915 to 1918. Aidan Doyle was part of those teams. He was only a teenager when he won his first medal in ’15 against Dick Fitzgerald’s Kerry (2-4 to 2-1); he even scored a goal that day. That final was said, at the time, to have been ‘the grandest exhibition of football that was ever played since the inception of the Association.’ In his later years Aidan donated two of those precious medals, as well as two other medals, to the Augustinian Friary (where he regularly attended Mass) in his home town of New Ross. The medals were fixed to the base of ‘the best and most valuable chalice in the Friary.’ Another great GAA player to donate an All-Ireland medal to another Augustinian Friary (in 1954) was Cork’s Christy Ring. He donated his 8th All-Ireland medal to the Friary in Washington Street, Cork, and that medal was also fixed to a chalice. Author Siobhán Doyle tells us that ‘in donating these medals to the Augustinians to be repurposed in this way, Aidan Doyle and Christy Ring reinforced their personal identities as successful record-setting GAA players and deeply devout religious people.’
ÁDH MÓR: Best wishes to the K-O’R footballers in their All-Ireland semi-final match next weekend.