CARRIGALINE MACRA

The National Conferance -Rally 2007 Clonmel

Over 2000 Macra members visited Clonmel two weeks ago for activities held as part of Macra's annual conference (Rally). On Friday night, the annual conference was officially opened by Professor Gerry Boyle, director of Teagasc. The Know Your Agriculture Quiz, sponsored by The Irish Farmers Journal also took place on Friday evening and this was won by a team from Newmarket-on-Fergus club in Clare. Unfortunately Carrigaline did'nt do as well as we hoped. On Saturday morning, delegates departed for a number of tours such as visiting Coolmore Stud and the local Bulmers Plant in Clonmel town. The Coolmore stud is an absolutely amazing place with 2,500 acres, also with about 4,000 cattle and sheep and over 350 people employed there to look after the top 200 racing horses in the country. Everyone that went on this trip truly enjoyed themselves. Saturday's activities at the hotel revolved around the national final of the AIB Club of the Year Competition .The AIB Club of the Year competition recognises excellence in Macra clubs throughout the country. Clubs are assessed on the planning and execution of development strategy, involvement in the club's local community, and good participation of club members in a variety of activities at club, county and national level in all of the organisation's programme areas. Dr Anne Finnegan, of sponsors AIB, said that the bank was delighted to be associated once again with the Macra na Feirme Club of the Year competition, and congratulated both the winning club and the five other clubs who had made it through to the final round. The winning Mountmellick club received a cheque for EUR1750, while the two runner-up clubs - Ballinascarthy, Carbery, Co. Cork and Carrigaline, Seandun, Co. Cork - received EUR850 each. Our club was delighted that we were one of the runners - up in this competition because we have once again proved that our club is one of the best clubs in the country, and that we are a club that is going from strength to strength. 'Rally 2007' concluded on Sunday night with the Banquet dinner, which was addressed by special guest speaker John Lonergan from Mountjoy Jail. We are going to celebrate our success from the Rally at our annual dinner dance this year, which is going to take place on the 16 th of November in the Rochestown Park Hotel. Tickets are on sale now at 35.00 euros and they can be booked by contacting Alan Jagoe (Chairperson) on 087-9641383 or Ollie Cronin (P.R.O) on 086-8974388.

Know your Neighbour weekend

Carrigaline Macra along with the Ballygarvan Community Association came together for the ESB Know Your Neighbour weekend on July 14th and 15th. A range of activities were organised for saturday including a puc fada, a tresure hunt, 7 aside football and tug 'o' war, these set the weekend up for its highlight and what many locals love to see every year our "field day".

A large attendance with favourable weather gathered to enjoy an action and fun packed day. The Garda Traffic Core gave a display of their equipment and kept a close eye on our president!!! A signed Sunderland jersey was up for grabs in the Irish Guide Dogs raffle, Weather young or old there was plenty to entertain with Bouncy Castles, sumo suits, bungee run, long puck, picking the ducks with a digger, children's races etc.. Also we would like to thank Ballygarvan National School for taking part in an art competition which was on diplay in the club house. All proceeds were donated to the Irish Guide dogs, 1200 euro was raised over the weekend. Once again many thanks to all our sponsors, Ballygarvan GAA club, the many helpers and the Ballygarvan Community Association.

NEWS AND UPCOMING EVENTS

Last Friday night we had our annual dinner dance in the Rochestown Park Hotel and once again it was a huge success. There was a hundred and thirty people sat down and had the meal and a few more people came to the afters. The guest speaker for the night was the County Mayor of Cork Mr Tommy Sheehan and he was also ex-president of Macra Na Feirme from 1973-1975. He congratulated our club on our recent success of coming runners up in the Aib Club of the Year competition recently. He also went on and told us that a lot has changed in Macra since he was joined such as opening membership to non farming backgrounds and also opening it up to females also. He also told us that he was delighted that he gave a civic reception to President of Macra Na Feirme Catherine Buckley for becoming the first ever female president of the organisation since it was founded recently. Every year the club presents a wedding gift to each couple who got married during the year. Mr Sheehan presented gifts to two couples and these were to Frank and Catriona o'Mahony who got married in September and Timmy and Catherine Lombard who got married in October and he wish them many of happy years to come. Our Chairperson Alan Jagoe also nominated two club members to receive a presentation on the night for there contribution they brought to the club during the year. The club members were Donal Sweeney, president of the club. He received this for his contribution in helping the club get runners up in the club of the year final in Clonmel recently. The other club member was Ollie Cronin, P.R.O of the club. He received this for representing the club in the Aib best new member competition in Clonmel recently and also for his contribution to Know Your Neighbour weekend in association with the Ballygarvan Community Association and An Garda Siochana. These were also presented by Mr Sheehan. After all the prentation we had a dj to the early hours of the morning and everyone had a fantastic night. On the Sunday night Cork County Macra organised a Capers final for Carbery and Carrigaline clubs in Inishannon hall. The competition is designed for clubs wishing to gain experience in producing and performing a light entertainment variety show, with casts of up to fifteen members and performances ranging from singing and dancing to comedy and drama. On the night we came runners up and Carbery came first but both clubs gave a very good nights entertainment for the audience. But both clubs will be battling it out again next Saturday night 24 th Nov in Mountmellick Macra Hall in Laois for the national semi final. congrads to Robert Bouse for wining the Seandun round of the welding competition recently in C.I.T and he will be representing the region in the national final on the 30 th Nov in C.I.T, Cork. We wish Robert and the fifteen members taking part in Capers the very best of luck! Finally we wish the men's indoor soccer team good luck next Sunday night 25 th Nov; they will be playing Glanmire in Whitechurch hall.