Cork club camogie is thriving with 18,074 registered members across 68 clubs

ANOTHER busy camogie season drew to its conclusion recently and Cork camogie can reflect on another hugely successful season on and off the pitch at all levels.

As the county board look ahead to 2024, it is pleasing to note that for the first time in several years, they will have a full officer board at the helm following the election of a new vice-chairman and PRO to roles that were not filled in 2023 and in total, three new officers will be at the top table when the board sits for the 2024 season.

Chairwoman Mairead Donovan from the Ballincollig club continues in the role and she will be joined by a new vice-chairman as Padraig Treacy from the Nemo Rangers club taking on the role. A well-known figure in GAA circles Treacy is an experienced official, having served as chairman of Nemo Rangers hurling and football club.

He also held various roles within the club and is the first male vice chairman of the Cork camogie board.

Darina Foley from the Midleton club who was the outgoing registrar takes on the secretary’s role as she follows in the footsteps of Tracy Sheehan who has given tremendous service to the board over a long number of years.

Mary McSweeney from the Bandon club continues in the role of treasurer while Eileen O’Brien from the Sliabh Rua club comes in as the new board registrar — a position she held a few season ago with the juvenile board.

Mairead Lynch continues in the role of development offices whilst there were two candidates for the PRO position with David Harris from Carrigtwohill defeating Brian O’Regan from Douglas for the position. Norrie Cotter-Lynch from the Cloughduv club continues in the child welfare officer role.

The officers will be joined by the general purpose committee which consists of Marian McCarthy, St Finbarr’s; Sheila Golden, Inniscarra; and Orla O’Regan, Ballincollig, with Cork’s delegate to Munster council Lillian Zinkant, Sarsfields.

Outgoing registrar Darina Foley reported that the game is continuing to spread and in 2023 there were 18,074 registered members across 68 clubs in Cork.

This was an increase of 776 members from the 2022 registration figures across all membership categories.

This is an increase of 4.49% from 2022 and something that augurs well for the game.

UPGRADE

The wonderful facility that is Castle Road continues to be improved and through 2023 the board did a lot of work on developing the facility further.

Delegates were advised that this year a major upgrade was carried out on the pitch at a significant cost of in excess of €58,000. This included supplementing the existing primary drainage system with secondary drains, installed at 1.5 metres, the length of the pitch and the pitch totally upgraded.

This investment was necessary to restore the playing surface to its original state and one only had to be in attendance recently at the minor final in early December to see that this work has already paid huge dividends.

Work continued on dressing rooms three and four which are now near completion with plumbing completed, cubicles and vanity units installed and seating to be installed in early 2024, this will complete the dressing room work.

The plan is now in place for the next project — the upgrading of the car park, which will include levelling the surface drainage tarmacadam and lighting.

This will again be a huge cost to the board as will the plan to install floodlighting but the development committee under chairman Joe McCarthy, secretary Marian McCarthy, Sheila Golden, Mary McSweeney, and Ollie Hallahan will continue to push ahead to make Castle Road the success story it is.

BEST

Wishing everyone a very happy Christmas and I hope to see all camogie followers in Reardens Bar for the All-Star awards night on December 29 at 7pm when we honour the cream of the Cork championships, both male and female.

A great way to end the year.