Éire Óg Greystones
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Weekly Notes - 13th February 2008

Adult Teams

There is an e-mail doing the rounds saying “Four acres to let. Suitable for hay or silage. Apply to Frank Murphy, Páirc Uí Chaoimh”. There is no fear that Éire Óg is likely to be in a position to post such an ad, as even on this the 2nd Sunday in February, the mettle of the field’s sod was being tested by a myriad of delving, gouging cogs. First the footballers faced their counterparts from Thomas Davis of Tallaght to be followed by a junior/minor hurling session. The football match, a pre-season challenge, proved to be quite useful to the players whose reactions and decision making and strategic awareness are in sore need of honing. A game quite high in entertainment – Davises play a nice brand of rapid exchange, no nonsense football and our lads combined well and took some excellent scores. Yet there was much in our play to draw utterings of doom from the pessimistic among the supporters – crowding, lack of understanding between players, misdirected passes etc. On the other hand the optimists saw the faults as eminently curable.

Meanwhile the hurlers were gathering for their training – in excess of twenty eventually togged out – while our two county panellists Stephen “Chester” Kelly and Billy Cuddihy, who later in the day were to tog out for the county, stood by and watched. A very encouraging scene. Their management is nothing if not ambitious and has entered the team in the Leinster junior league which has them grouped with teams from Laois, Wexford and Dublin. Go n-eirí go geal leo.

The Intermediates and others leave Greystones on Friday 29th to spend a week-end in Galway. The bus departs at 2.00pm, they play a local team on Saturday 1st and they return on Sunday. If you would like to join them contact Gerry Walsh or a committee member.

Hurling Academy

There was a great turnout on Friday last for the 1st session (6.30 to 7.30pm) of 2008. Hurling is at once the fastest field game in the world and the one which incorporates the widest range of skills. This makes it synergic with all the “bat” sports. The complete hurler requires the batting skills of the baseball, cricket and tennis player, the fielding skills of cricket and baseball, the pitching skills – controlled stroke and judgement of distance – of the golfer. The introduction of the helmet has made it a very safe sport. All of this, plus the social advantages of a team sport. Why wouldn’t you consider it as a sport for your child? Christy Ring, while on a hurling trip to America, was taken by his host to see a baseball game. A fielder made a particularly spectacular catch. The host turned to Christy speaking of the wonder of the player’s effort. Christy sat unmoved replying “What was so great? Shure boy, there was no one on him”

History

Peter Byrne one of those erstwhile “impecunious teenagers” who founded the Éire Óg juvenile club, and now resident in Castleknock, in a communication to the Guestbook on www.greystonesgaa.com informs us the club’s first footballs were purchased with Green Shield stamps. (What? If you admit to remembering them you are definitely not in the bloom of your youth). Plus ça change, plus c’est la même chose (the more things change, the more they remain the same) – Felicity Keane the juvenile Rúnaí was showing me recently the Tesco stamp catalogue from which she had chosen bits and pieces for the academies. Peter also tells us that the players travelled on a scheduled C.I.E. bus to play Éire Óg’s very first game which was against St. Kevin’s (now also a distant memory) in Bray. Further he states that Séamus Whooley was not correct in assuming that the Byrne brothers had no background in Gaelic games. In pre-Éire Óg days they, in common with all the juvenile players in the Greystones area, played in the Green and Gold of Kilcoole and with whom, under the mentorship of the late Ned Coughlan, they won a number of underage championships. Peter and his brother Paddy also represented Wicklow at U-14 and U-16. It was the founders’ desire to see Greystones represented in its own right in district and county competitions and this was their motivation in the setting up of Éire Óg.