A Saturday past saw the newly decorated Oisin Suite in The Whistledown Hotel packed to capacity for our Annual Reunion which saw members and supporters of the club come together to celebrate the year gone by.
Fear-a- Tí for the evening was the very capable and articulate Brendan Rice, who welcomed County Chairman Sean Rooney and his Wife Mairead whom Brendan congratulated on her recent Camogie Volunteers Award, Down County Secretary Sean Og McAteer and his wife Teresa and Canon Kearney. Brendan sent his best wishes to Club President Barney Carr who could not attend the evening. The evening got underway with episode three of Warrenpoint GAA TV, a new fortnightly initiative from our communications and PR committee which gives an overview of club events, this ‘Annual Reunion Special Edition’ saw the Operation Transformation Phoenix Park 5K as the main focus and the humorous edition got the crowd laughing from the offset.
Sean Rooney opened was the first of our special guests to address the crowd and he spoke of his admiration for Warrenpoint Club in their participation in all areas of Gaelic Games and activities and their forward thinking when it comes to member participations, community participation and fundraising. He made particular mention to the Health and Well Being section and the Operation Transformation Programme which was the first of its kind in the county. Sean also thanks Warrenpoint for their continued support and assistance to the county in their many different roles on teams, committees and management roles. Sean Og spoke with passion about the roles clubs played in the County and asked for that to continue, highlighting the recent successful Club Draw which benefited Warrenpoint GAA in the region of £32,000. Sean finished by thanking the club for the invitation and wishing them all the best for the upcoming season.
In a wide ranging and comprehensive address, Club Chairman Eugene Gallagher stated that he we should look back on the past twelve months with much pride, as we continue on our forward journey, of having fun and operating as TEAM Cumann Pheadair Naofa, Warrenpoint, at the heart of the local community for whole of family, for the whole of life.
Eugene spoke passionately about all sections of club and also touched on aspects of the club which still require development. Eugene highlighted the great Club Maith success and thanked Development Officer Feargal McCormack for his work on this area. Eugene continued by highlighting our core mission statement for the club and, “The emphasis being on volunteerism, community participation, games development and people development.” He appealed for people to continue to get involved in the club, that there was a role for everyone. Eugene paid special recognition to our senior set and ceili teams who will represent the club in the Ulster Scor Semi Final.
Eugene thanked the main club sponsor, The Whistledown Hotel for their cooperation and assistance in the preparation of the Annual Reunion and expressed gratitude to Aisling McGivern, Paul McKibben and all involved in the coordination of the Annual Reunion.
An excellent souvenir programme for the event was edited and produced by Mícheál Moore which illustrated in words and photographs the breadth of activities organised by Cumann Pheadair Naofa over the past 12 months and highlighting the successes both on and off the field.
Donal McCormack was a very popular recipient of the Chairman’s Club Person of the Year Award for his outstanding contribution to the Club with particular reference to his dedicated role as firstly Club Treasurer and also his invaluable role as Down Club Draw’s Co-ordinator and Player Injury Scheme. Eugene described Donal as an, “dedicated, highly knowledgeable gael who worked tirelessly for the club. I am proud to call Donal a great friend.”
Club stalwart John Campbell received a Lifetime Achievement Award for his services to Cumann Pheadair Naofa for many years especially within the Cultural Section. In his many years as a member of Warrenpoint John was involved across many different section, including coaching underage football however his main efforts in the life of the club in recent years has been in the culture and dancing side of things. Incidentally he first got involved in the dancing when his daughter Maeve danced as a child and later went on to represent the club in scór sinsear. John still helps out with the coaching of the junior and senior dancing teams, opening up the hall for practice, giving constructive criticism and generally supporting all areas of the section. John has also been known to help with overseas coaching where he helped son Eoin coach the Lugdunum team a couple of times when he has been over here so he’s doing his bit to spread the GAA gospel overseas too! A long serving committee member and a volunteer of exceptional commitment to Cumann Pheadair Naofa.
Special Leadership and Recognition Awards were made to Club officers whose work made a unique difference to the delivery of Club activities and the successful functioning of the club:
Katrina Kernan was a deserving recipient of a Special Recognition Leadership Award for her leading role in running the Health and Wellbeing Section within the club. More so Eugene sincerely thanked Katrina for her invaluable role in leading the current Operation Transformation Programme within the club and many more events. Noreen Kelly was the next deserving recipient of a Special recognition Award for her role as ladies football co-ordinator and more recently for her role in securing the first ever senior ladies team within the club as well as her sterling work within St Dallan’s in promotion the club. The final recipient of the leadership awards and picking up his third award of the night was Senior Football Captain Ryan Boyle. Ryan was chosen by Chairman Eugene Gallagher for his role as senior football spokesperson, his commitment to the development of football within the club as well as his vital contribution to the Football Focus Group.
Following a very successful year in maintaining division one, club senior football captain Ryan Boyle picked up the Senior Footballer of the Year Award and was back up immediately afterwards along with team mate Ryan Magee to jointly lift the Senior Football Players’ Player of the Year Award. Young Adam Lynch was the deserving recipient of the Reserve Football Player of the Year Award. Thomas O’Hare won The Patrick Dinsmore Minor Footballer of the Year Award. Peter McCreesh was the recipient of the Minor Hurler of the Year while Jason Gray did the double and was the worthy recipient of the Senior Hurling Player of the Year and also Players Player of the Year. In their first outing at the Annual Reunion, the girls were out in style and Niamh Rice was the popular recipient of the Minor Player of the Year award.
In a break from tradition the large crowd in large crowd in attendance was somewhat due to the Operation Transformation group who glammed up to eagerly await the winners of the six week programme. Brendan Rice invited Katrina Kernan and Ross McGarry, the group trainer to the stage to present the awards. Ross spoke of his genuine amazement at the dedication and commitment of the 64 people who attended and said how proud he was of how far everyone had come and encouraged them to ‘keep going.’ The first awards, voted for by the programme participants saw Mr and Mrs Motivator being announced, Brendan announced the runners up as Annett Elmore and Conrad Madden and finally called up Mrs Motivator, Aisling McGivern and Mr Motivator John Daly to collect their awards, both were welcomed by a rapturous applause from their fellow members. Next saw Aine and Conrad Madden crowned as best couple of the programme and praised for their team work and complete commitment to the programme in losing 32lbs between them. Finally, and to a standing ovation, Brendan announced the biggest exercise of the programme and Michael Trainor, the oldest member of the programme was the popular recipient of this.
The last awards of the night saw the team awards and those everyone had been working hard towards, Katrina announced WOT biggest movers as the green team who exercised an average of 2 hours per day per person over the six week and Fiona, Carmel, Marie, Rachel, Christine, Joanne, Angela and Ann jumped to their feet in excitement at the announcement. Finally Michael Walsh from Walsh’s Pharmacy came onstage to announce the WOT Biggest Losers, he informed the captivated audience that the programme had saw an amazing 35 stone lost in six weeks, with the eventual winners being the blue team of Eugene, Eva, Feargal, Anne, Michael, Eamonn, Sean and Gabey. The night ended with Aisling McGivern making a special presentation to Brendan, Ross and Martin for their help, support and guidance throughout the programme.
