Search Results for 'Boys Club'

The rugby community in Galway is mourning the death this week of former Galwegians captain and coach and Connacht player, Billy Quinn, after a long and brave battle against illness.

When OLBC was founded in 1940, the Government provided no out of school education for young people. There was a great need for social and recreational facilities. Such activity was virtually non-existent in the working class areas of Bohermore, Shantalla, The Claddagh, and ‘The West’. The critical core of the club was (and is) its generic youth club which met (and still meets) several evenings a week. The primary aim in those days was to show the boys ways and means of securing their own destiny.

The Connacht Junior Cup was donated by a man called Senior. He was Alfred Senior, professor of chemistry in UCG from 1891 to 1918. The cup was first played for in 1905, and as Ralph O’Gorman says in his wonderful book entitled Rugby in Connacht, the event always had a unique culture, it was competitive and unpredictable, and had a wide geographical spread of participating clubs.

Our photograph today is of a 1950s soccer team representing Our Lady’s Boys Club, taken in Terryland where facilities were quite primitive at the time and, as you can see, the preferred mode of transport apart from shank’s mare was cycling. The team is, back row, left to right: Patsy Burke, Richie O’Connor, Brod Long, Brendan Dowling, Paddy Power, Tommy Carr, Paddy Beatty. In front are Danny Collins, Billy Carr, John Rushe, Steve Mannion, Gus O’Connor, and Barney Birkett.

Buccaneers throw down the gauntlet to leaders Belfast Harlequins in the Ulster Bank League when the sides clash in a Division 1B game at Dubarry Park, Athlone, on Saturday afternoon with a 2.30pm kickoff.

Mayor of Galway city Councillor Hildegarde Naughton cut the tape and officially opened the new clubhouse for Our Lady’s Boys Club at Sea Road.

Last weekend saw record crowds through the gates at Drom as the seventh annual Umbro Galway Cup tournament came to a close; with more than 20 games played over four pitches to determine each category winner. Some 1,100 players and coaches attended the four day event, which in the past has seen many young Irish hopefuls succeed all the way to international and professional level.

This photo of a happy group of Boys Club lads was taken in the mid fifties and includes Paddy O’Connell, Dominick Curran, Seanie Flaherty, Joe Walsh, --- Harty, Tommy Gannon, Dessy Fitzpatrick, Michael Burke, Tom Cunningham, Bartley Hynes, Tony Conboy (taking the shot), Sean McNamara, Gerry Ryan, Willie Golding, Colie Rushe, William McDonagh, Peter Folan, Leo Creane, Francis Walsh, Danny Collins, Jackie Molloy, Dominick Geary, and Paddy McDonagh.

Kilkenny City’s last parish hall on the Butts Green and the only one not lost to developers through the Celtic Tiger years may have been thrown a lifeline by Social Affairs minister Eamon O Cuiv who has announced 10,000 more Community Social Programme jobs are to be created by the government as an alternative to the dole.

Bad news travels fast, and when the sad news came last Monday that another ‘Butt’s’ gentleman had passed on, my thoughts immediately flashed back to the Water Barracks, Larry Dowling's (now the Black Cat), Rings – Cards – Darts – and mighty craic – Yes the late great Dixie (Seamus) Brennan was a major part of that era and how we all enjoyed those wonderful times.