Celebration Night: We enjoyed a lovely evening in the clubhouse last Friday night as Austin Stacks GAA Club extended a welcome home to the club’s LGFA All Ireland heroes Aoife Dillane and Darragh Long. Andrew Morrissey superbly MC’d this very special event. The evening opened with an address by Austin Stacks LGFA Chairperson, Melissa Maguire who spoke about the contribution both Aoife & Darragh had made to the club to date and of the enormous pride we had all felt to see them going up the steps to receive the Brendan Martin Cup last August. Next up for a chat with Andrew were LGFA Club Coaching Officer Una Moynihan and former Senior Ladies trainer Johnny Dowling. Both spoke about the enormous strides the LGFA association had made with regards to access to facilities and improved coaching standards. Una shared some great memories of the early days of the Stacks Girls Academy which was founded in 2002/3 season with just 4 girls participating on day 1. Declan Quill, joint team manager of this year’s All Ireland winning team gave an insight into the work behind this year’s victory and shared anecdotes from the day of the final. Next up was 10 time All Ireland Senior Winner, Marina Barry Walsh, who thanked Austin Stacks and the many coaches involved over the years, including the late Moss Carroll and Helen Dowling, for providing girls such as herself with the opportunity to play Gaelic Football. Next up for a chat were Darragh and Aoife who both spoke glowingly about the support received from the Austin Stacks club. Aoife cites Marina Barry Walsh and Laura Rogers as her club heroes. LGFA Club President and Club Founder (1974) Noreen Power, made a presentation from the Club to both Darragh and Aoife. The evening concluded with a quick interview from the legendary Dell White and a closing address by acting Chairman, Eamon O’Reilly. Well done to everyone involved in organising what was a really lovely evening.
