NUI Galway Soccer ClubNewsletterWINTER ‘10 ISSUE NO.4

www.nuigalway.ie/soccersoccer@nuigalway.ie

Chairman’s Address (Eric Mortimer)

WINTER ‘10 ISSUE NO.4

Dear Friend/Player of NUI Galway Men’s Soccer Club,

In what has been a hectic year for the club, we hope this comprehensive newsletter brings you up to date with all that has been going on. Wishing you and yours all the very best in health and happiness for Christmas and the year ahead.

Collingwood 2010For the second year in a row Billy Clery’s squad were defeated by UCD in the Collingwood Cup Final which was played at The Brandywell, Derry city. The final loss was all the more cruel due to the fact that we lost on penalties. Hopefully we can make it third time lucky this year. Collingwood 2011 will be held in Trinity with most games being played at Santry.

Harding 2010Derek Rogers Freshers’ squad took silverware by winning the Harding Plate after exiting in the cup to, once again, our nemesis UCD! NUI Galway hosted Harding 2011 and received many commendations for a running the competition in an exemplary and professional manner.

Junior Soccer Once again the club were competitive in the local leagues with teams in the Premier Division, Division 3 and Division 4A of the Galway & District League. Great credit is due to the players in what was an exhausting campaign due to the extra cup competitions. The squads have started brightly enough this season. The interruption due to the adverse weather means a series backlog will need to be worked through after the holidays.

CoachesThe club thanks greatly the tremendous coaching efforts put in last year by Billy Clery, Derek Rogers, Steve Nash, Mark Cobey, Jason Moran and Gareth Gorman. We’re delighted to announce the recent addition of “Jumbo” Brennan to the coaching staff. “Jumbo” is a true Galweigan and hopefully can add his steely approach to all of our players.

International RecognitionFollowing on from Collingwood, NUI Galway were privileged to have nine players selected to play on the Irish Universities v the Defence Forces and Irish Colleges XI selections. Martin Conneely, Seamus Conneely, Charlie Burke, Enda Dunne, Ciaran Foley, Mikey Gillmore, Liam Grant, Alex Lee, Philip Reilly all featured in both games with Enda Dunne notching the winner v the Defence Forces.

Seamus Conneely continued his participation in the Irish U21 International squad and has recently been at Sheffield United for a trial after a successful season helping Galway United retain Premiership status in the League of Ireland. We wish “Seamie”, who has now graduated from NUI Galway, all the very best for the future.

Collingwood Reunion BanquetA very successful reunion banquet was held in the Ardilaun Hotel, Taylor’s Hill, Galway in August. The event was well attended by current and former players, friends, members for a thoroughly enjoyable night in honour of the Collingwood winning teams from 1968, 1970, 1971 and 1999. Special thanks to Ciaran Keyes for his help in making the event happen.

Annual DrawThe club is very grateful to have Liam Spillane on board once again for the annual draw – the club’s biggest fundraiser. The economic mood of the country is such at present that we greatly appreciate ANY contribution you can make.

Sponsors We are indebted also to our sponsors both past and present: www.future.ie, Alumni Office NUI Galway, Monroe’s Tavern, The Skeffington Arms Hotel, Topaz, Newcastle Road and Aran Sports. We also welcome on board our latest sponsor, G Furniture (www.gfurniture.ie) based in Northpark Retail Park, Tuam Road, Galway. Contacting UsWe are always delighted when we hear from you and now have a Facebook group and Twitter (@nuigalwaysoccer) listings with lots of photos and club updates. You can of course also drop us an email on soccer@nuigalway.ie. We love to hear where you are and what you’re up to along as few “UCG soccer club” stories....the ones you can tell of course!

All the best,

Eric

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Football Update (Eric Mortimer)

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Intervarsity Competitions & Dates

Harding 2011 NUI Maynooth Thurs Feb 10th - Sun Feb 13th

Collingwood 2011 Dublin University (Trinity) Mon Feb 21st - Thurs Feb 24th Crowley 2011 University of Ulster, Coleraine Fri Mar 25th - Sun Mar 27th

Scholarship News

Congrats to all of our scholarship recipients.

NUI Galway Scholarships (New) Ciaran Foley, Colie Colins Smyth and Evan Preston-Kelly.NUI Galway Scholarships (Existing) Martin Conneely, Mikey Creane.

The Irish Universities squad 2010: which included NUI Galway players Liam Grant (Goalkeeper, Back: fifth from left) and (Front: L to R) Martin Conneely, Charlie Burke, Seamus Conneely, Alex Lee, Enda Dunne, Mikey Gilmore, Ciaran Foley and Philip Reilly (at the end).

The NUI Galway team that finished runners up in Collingwood 2010. Back Row (L to R): Alex Lee, Seamus Conneely, Sean Murphy, Liam Grant, Charlie Burke, Philip Reilly, Ciaran Foley.Front Row (L to R):Conor Larkin, Martin Conneely, Enda Dunne, Ger Cheevers.

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Des Nolan presents current Club Captain, Mikey Creane with the Des Nolan Shield for top goalscorer 2010. Des also presented Mikey with a special trophy to mark the 25th anniversary of the award.

Mikey Creane in action in our Premier Squad’s 5-1 victory over Dynamo Blues earlier this season.

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Dr. James J. Browne (President, NUI Galway), John Russell, Iarfhlaith Davoren (both Sligo Rovers) and Dr. Eric Mortimer (Hon. Chairman) with the FAI and League Cups.

Dr. Eric Mortimer (Hon. Chairman), Dr. James J. Browne (President, NUI Galway), James O’Toole, Dami Adebari (Club PRO), Wesley Reilly (Hon. Secretary), Fergus McGinn (Monroe’s Tavern) and Mike McDonnell with the FAI and League Cups

Personal News (Liam Spillane)

Births

Conor and Jean Killeen had a baby girl Abbie on July 21st 2009. Harry and Nuala Costello had a baby boy Cathal born in February 2010. Harry’s brother Colm & Caroline have two sons; Eoghan aged nearly 5 and Oisin just 3.

Gordon and Trish Curley had Darragh born in January 2010.

John and Sinead Browne had Harry born earlier this year.

Kieran and Elda Foley had Eletta born early in the Summer; brother Ray is now nearly 2 years old.

Brian and Siobhan Leahy have just had their second child.

Pat and Regina Curran held Ava’s christening (born October 3rd) in Galway on February 13th 2010 in what was a big occasion for the Curran family, neighbours and friends.

Karl and Susan Mortimer had a baby boy, Ryan born September 2nd 2010; brother of Cian who is now 10. Christian and Charlotte Stafford had a baby boy Max in October.

Warmest congratulations to all the parents and may all these babies bring them great joy to their families.

Deaths and Anniversaries

Brian Leahy’s Dad, Paschal died near the end of April 2010. Paschal and Kathleen used to come to all the matches when Brian was playing with us. Paschal did great work for St.Augustines Church in Galway and for the Galway Cheshire Home.

Eamonn Kelly’s Dad, also Eamonn, died the previous month at UCHG after a long illness which the family had hoped he would recover from but that was not to be. Eamonn Snr., like Paschal, was an ESB employee and both good friends. Eamonn trained and managed the 1966 Mayo minors to all Ireland glory.

Mixie Glynn’s brother Patsy died in November 2009 and Noel Burke’s brother died very recently in New Quay, Co. Clare.

Our sincere sympathy to all the bereaved families.

A full obituary of the late Aidan Duggan (see NUI Galway Soccer Club Newsletter Winter ’09 Issue No. 3) has appeared in the Royal Irish Academy report for 2008/2009.

Wedding Bells

Very best wishes to Richie (‘Fletch’) Dunne and his bride Caoimhe for a long and happy life.

Congrats also to Luke Grant, son of Pat - former Club secretary, who was married in Cheyenne in the US.

Achievements

Paddy O’Flaherty from the mid-forties playing era celebrated his 85th birthday in May. To put this in perspective he is one of the College players that Tony Corcoran used to watch playing on his (Tony’s) way home from school! Paddy writes great letters in his copper plate handwriting with loads of news re: UCG soccer and other things from times past. All the best Paddy and we wish you numerous more years.

No less than nine of our players were selected by manager Paul Clarke to join the Irish Universities squad for matches in Dublin against the Colleges Football Association (CFAI) and the Defence Forces. This was easily a record for the Club. The universities defeated CFAI 2,1 on April 13 at the North Dublin Schoolboys grounds in Oscar Traynor road and lost 0,1 the next day to the Defence Forces at Cathal Brugha Bks. The selected players were Mikey Gilmore, Charlie Burke, Enda Dunne, Alex Lee, Seamus Conneely, Martin Conneely, Ciaran Foley, Philip Reilly and Liam Grant.

Congratulations to Collingwood player, Martin Conneely, brother of Galway United’s Seamus, who was awarded a sports scholarship by NUI, Galway earlier this year (see Ollsceala, Samhraidh 2010 and Sin – the NUI, Galway student union magazine, vol. 11, issue 11, March 29 2010) for photos.

Congrats too to another Collingwood player Mikey Gilmore who got the winner recently in the Salthill vs. Cobh Ramblers 1st division playoff (1st leg).

And still on the LOI or rather the FAI senior Cup two NUI, Galway former Collingwood players, John Russell and Iarlaith Davoren, have very recently got winners medals with Sligo Rovers when they defeated Shamrock Rovers at the Aviva Stadium. John was on the last NUI, Galway winning Harding team also. They showed off the cup in NUI, Galway recently. Well done lads.

Our men James O’Toole and Seamus Conneely were to the fore in the St. Stephen’s Day soccer charity match for Cope Galway (see Galway Advertiser December 23 2009, p. 99). Elsewhere there is a picture of James in a Santa rigout for a swim for Cope – but did he swim?? Whatever about swimming, Toolers can run (see Galway Advertiser August 12 p.39) and he did in the 25th Galway Streets Race - its 8 km!

Former UCG and NUI, Galway soccer club manager John Clarke had a big article on “Coaching deficiencies - the blight of Irish soccer” in the City Tribune on January 15, 2010, p. 41 and, at the bottom of the same page, another one on “League of Ireland clubs ‘flounder on success not on failure’”. John now manages one of the Salthill teams.

Dan O’Neill’s book (see NUI Galway Soccer Club Newsletter Winter ’09 Issue No. 3) ‘Divided Loyalties’ got two good plugs from Ronnie O’Gorman in the Galway Advertiser (June 10 2010, p. 100 and June 17, p. 116). Dan is the father of ex-UCG men Dan Jr., Paul and Sean. The book is available at €15 from Low Ball publishers. In the City Tribune August 20 p. 18 Dan Jr. and Dan Snr. and other members of the O’Neill family are pictured at the Club Day at Bearna GC.

Picture of Col. Andy Kilfeather with other Army men in the Galway Independent 23 June 2010 at the presentation of a cheque for a Galway Dublin charity run done by three soldiers.

Liam Reidy has organised (wait for it!!) the 2nd Californian Hurling Cup at Stanford, USA. No better man. No results to hand yet.

Mikey Creane and brother Simon got winners medals in 2010 Inter-company soccer league when the NUI, Galway NCBES team defeated Thermo King 2,1 in the final. Mikey also got the NCBES golden boot. A handy man for the goals since he also got the 25th Des Nolan Shield for being the Soccer Club’s Top Scorer for last season (see elsewhere in this Newsletter).

Nice two page piece and photos on John Clarke Jnr. in Boston Scientific’s Finger on the Pulse magazine celebrating 15 years in Galway (1994-2000) for the company.

Tom Rowan is playing away in Co. Meath and his team Rathkennny reached the QFs of the Club County championships. Presumably he is in goal –

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forgot to ask! Hope you advanced further. Also on the gaelic field another ex-Collingwood star Alan O’Donnell won an Intermediate Galway County medal with St. James. Well done.

Colm Heavey who works for IBM is currently doing a part time Ph.D. in the Enterprise research centre at UL. Fair play to him. Can’t be easy to keep the two going. In the meantime our former chairman Gerry O’Connor has picked up yet another degree here – its an MA this time.

Noel Burke won the Dr. Joe Costello Memorial golf tournament in Galway recently. Well done Noel – that’s some going.

Former UCG player, (soccer and Gaelic) Mark Butler was on the winning team at the John Joyce Memorial sevens tournament in Knocknacarra-Salthill. Three NUI, Galway players Brian Gaffney, Brian Conlon and Gary Sheedy were on the winning team at the Carlsberg Salthill Devon Fives. Others spotted out at Salthill Park were Niall Rooney who managed Barna the under 11 winners and Stephen Maguire and Brendan Meehan. Nice old photograph of the Shuttlemen from an early stage of the Fives includes Ricky O’Flaherty (see Galway Advertiser, June 3 2010, p. 140).

James Lee, Robbie’s brother, has got lots of publicity lately in the Galway Advertiser for work on Alzeimer’s disease and separately on speech verification (August 12 & Sept. 23).

Ronan Lambe, former UCG Soccer club captain had great success at the Galway Races recently with a win in the very first race (the 17.10) of the Festival with the Dermot Weld trained Force of Habit, followed by Universal Truth again in the 17.10 on Tuesday and then Endless Intrigue in the 16.45 on Wednesday. He had two second places later at the Festival. Congratulations Ronan, well done and all the best for the upcoming meetings.

Tristan Ryder such a stalwart of our premier league team is now pursuing a two year course at the Institute of Contemporary Music in London. All the best Tristan.

Jamie Moran former Collingwood player has been on Bill Cullen’s show “The Apprentice”.

Dora Gorman also from Barna and daughter of Mickey and Mary Gorman has captained the Irish under 17 soccer team to great successes in Europe (see Galway Independent June 9 and Galway Advertiser June 24, 2010) and recently in the World Cup where the Irish eventually exited to Japan. The FAI honoured the whole squad on Friday October 8 during the interval in the Ireland v. Russia match at the Aviva Stadium.

His grannie, his aunt and his father keep me informed about the soccer exploits of Robbie Benson (17), Ray’s son. The Irish Independent (May 1st 2010) tells us that “Benson hits winner “in the Ireland vs. English Schools Centenary Shield match which Ireland won 1,0 and a fuller report later in the Westmeath Independent (May 8th, 2010) gives all the details. Robbie is now a first year in UCD.

Brendan Fahy of Ballinasloe got the Roscommon Sports partnership award presented by Don Givens in February 2010. A just reward for all his work over the years. Paddy McCaul, the incoming FAI president, attended. We appreciate Brendan’s support for the NUI, Soccer club.

New Secretary

Wesley Reilly who works in the ISS Department at NUI Galway takes over the challenging role of Hon. Club Secretary. Dr. Paudie Murray, Hon. Club Secretary for many years has relocated to native Limerick where he has taken up a new role in the Institute of Technology. Paudie’s successor Dr. Eoin Moriarty moved to Dublin after completing a PhD in Chemistry to

purse a degreee in Medicine at Trinity. Everybody at the club wishes Paudie and Eoin well in their new careers and ackowledge the tremendous effort put in over the years.

More News

In his role as MD of the Galway Arts Festival John Crumlish seems to be always in the news see the Galway Advertiser May 27th 2010 when he made the front page, again the Galway Independent 23rd June 2010, p. 39 and with Michael D. Higgins, T.D., President of Galway United, in the Galway Independent 14th July, p. 22.

Eamonn Deacy’s picture with University President Jim Browne on the occasion of the conferring of his honorary degree at NUI, Galway got into the FAI’s Ireland vs. France match programme (p. 46) on Saturday November 14 2009.

Vincent Cunnane, CEO of Shannon Development, has been appointed by Minister Mary Coughlan as Chair of the Board of the Dublin Institute for Advanced Sciences.

Glen Wrafter is playing his soccer now at right back with the New York Shamrock SC and you can check them out on Facebook. They meet in the Courtyard Bar in Queens.

In the Galway United match programme for March 26 2010 at Terryland there was a good right up on NUI, Galway soccer and their links with United/Rovers and also included was a pic of the NUI, Galway Collingwood finalists from the previous month in Derry.

The Connacht Tribune celebrated their centenary of their publication with a souvenir supplement on Friday May 22nd, 2009. Articles include one by Keith Kelly on Galway United/Galway Rovers and a picture of the first team fielded in 1977 against St. Patrick’s Athletic. It includes ex-UCG guys Kieran McDaid and Jimmy Duffy and Eamonn (Chick) Deacy was captain. Another article by UCG former Club secretary Ray Burke talks about a ‘Century of Change in Oranmore’. Ray is the chief News Editor of RTE News and author of ‘Press Delete: the Decline and Fall of the Irish Press’ (Currach Press, 2005).

Tom Devane’s brother Adrian was one of six finalists in the Galway Junior Chamber Entrepreneur awards this year. His company based in Moycullen specialises in the provision of early language learning tools for toddlers and children. Congrats to Adrian he was ‘1st runner up in the contest’.

We have been giving out gear (Tshirts, kitbags, sweat tops , training tops etc.) to our regular annual draw subscribers over the last year or so. Many people have been contributing for years and we really appreciate this. So sending out some gear is just a small way of thanking them. Of course it will take quite awhile (maybe 2 to 3 years) to get to everyone bearing in mind our restricted budget and the large number of people involved some of whom have no past connection with the Club but are happy to support us.

Career Options for Graduates

Graduates can use the NUI Galway Career Development Centre’s Information Room between 9.00am and 5.00pm Monday to Thursday and 11am to 5.00pm on Fridays. Their web site is available on www.nuigalway.ie/careers. Check it regularly for job vacancies, CV and interview information and seminars, further study options etc. Career Development advisers can meet graduates (up to three years after graduation) out of term but are unable to give an advisory service to graduates during term.

Achievements...

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Attendees at the Collingwood Reunion Banquet held at The Ardilaun Hotel on August 14th 2010.

Collingwood Reunion Banquet August 2010

Ciaran Keyes, Dr. Jim McDaid, Tony Corcoran, Dr. James J. Browne, Austin Molloy and Dr. Pat Fottrell.

Dr. Eric Mortimer (Hon. Chairman), Martin Conneely, Dr. James J. Browne, Mikey Creane and Seamus Conneely.

Austin Molloy, Michael McGowan , Tony Corcoran, Kieran Foley and Dr. James McDaid.

Ger Cassidy ,Kieran Foley, Brendan Meehan, John Bracken, Rob Greal-ish, Peter Waldron, Declan Cassidy and Joe Cassidy.

NUI Galway Soccer Club Newsletter WINTER ‘10 ISSUE NO.4www.nuigalway.ie/soccer | soccer@nuigalway.ie