Denis Irwin returns to his Everton roots for club fundraiser

FORMER Manchester United and Republic of Ireland international Denis Irwin was back in Cork on Monday to launch a fundraiser for Everton, the club with whom he played all of his schoolboy football.

An Evening With Denis Irwin, a fundraiser for the Togher-based club, will take place at the International Hotel on Thursday, December 1, and the former Man Utd defender was at the Cork hotel last Monday to launch the event.

Also at the launch were members of Everton’s committee, including chairman Stephen Crowley and the club’s academy co-ordinator Tony O’Regan, a former Everton team-mate of Irwin, as well as Peter Loughnane and Edel Kavanagh of the International Hotel, who are one of Everton’s sponsors.

Trevor Welch of 96fm was also present and will be on MC duties for the December event which will form part of a fundraising push by the club.

“We were thrilled to have Denis come on board for this event which we hope will raise much-needed funds towards improving facilities at the club,” Crowley explained.

“We are also delighted to have the International Hotel involved; they have given us fantastic support for many years.”

An Evening With Denis Irwin will be a question and answer session with Welch, while those in attendance will also have the opportunity to ask questions about Irwin’s trophy-laden career.

“Denis has been involved in similar events around the country, but this is the first time that he is doing one in Cork,” Crowley added.

“Those other events were very successful and we hope that this will be too. Tickets cost €30, are now on sale, and can be booked through Eventbrite, and we are looking forward to what will be a good night.”

Everton is a very progressive club, both on and off the pitch; in recent years they re-laid their second pitch while on the playing side, their academy, named after Irwin, has seen numbers increase over the last few years.

Everton are hoping to increase the number of girls attending their academy; the girls had been training with the boys for the past couple of years, but in recent weeks, the girls' group, aged 5-11, have been training in their own academy at St Finbarr’s GAA club’s all-weather pitch (Tuesdays 6-7pm); new members are welcome.
“The Denis Irwin Academy caters for boys and girls, with the girls now having their own training time and venue.
“We will continue to recruit boys and girls for the academy and we have been around to the local girls' national schools to let them know about the academy.
“Hopefully, when numbers grow we will organise games with teams in similar positions to ourselves."

• Tickets for An Audience With Denis Irwin are now on sale at Eventbrite at https://www.eventbrite.ie/e/an-evening-with-denis-irwin-tickets-439786341787?aff=ebdshpsearchautocomplete