Barry Coffey overwhelmed by response to the golf classic for Féile and confirms another new initiative 

This April, the GAA community of Cork and Kerry will unite in a display of solidarity.

Kenmare Golf Club is the venue for a very important event. More than 100 teams are expected to tee off in the Stand for Féile Golf Classic, supporting the ongoing recovery of Féile O’Sullivan, a courageous teenager from Allihies in West Cork.

It was due to be a two-day event on April 17 and April 18, but another day has been added recently, April 16. A three-day event where rivalries will be put to one side.

Last summer, Féile’s life changed forever when she suffered devastating injuries in a farming accident.

One of the key drivers behind this golf classic is former Cork footballer Barry Coffey, who has been overwhelmed by the interest.

“At the time of talking, we have 114 teams registered for the event,” he says.

“We’ve about 20 slots left on Thursday. We have six slots left on Friday, and we are totally booked out on the Saturday. The response has been brilliant.

“I have been surprised, to be fair. I think the response has been phenomenal. Anyone we’ve asked, we haven’t got a refusal. I have been overwhelmed. 

“I suppose we have a couple of other things happening in conjunction with the golf classic.

“We plan to do a raffle on the Saturday night of the actual event. We’ve asked various companies for donations. We’ll take prizes, no matter what they are, but the response again, even for that, has been incredible.

“We plan, obviously, to do a raffle for €20 a ticket. Some of the prizes that we’ve got to date have been wonderful. I mean, a meal for four in various restaurants.

“I got a call today from Brookfield Leisure Club, one year’s membership. The response from the general public has been fantastic."

There is another new initiative to support the recovery of Féile. A jersey day will take place on March 20 in secondary and primary schools in Cork and Kerry.

“I got the jersey day idea from a very good friend of mine, Helen O’Brien, she is based in Kildare,” Coffey said.

“She’s an SNA in a school in Kildare and she rang me to put a team into the golf classic. She said she had cajoled her school to basically do a jersey day. When she told me what the formula was, I suppose the penny dropped with me, pardon the pun, that there was an opportunity to do a lot of fundraising.

“We canvassed a number of schools to see what level of interest there was. No school has turned us down to date.

“So we put a group of people together to basically drive that initiative separate to the golf classic.

“We designated Friday, March 20 for the jersey day. 

“It's just before Easter and it gives us enough time to do whatever work we need to do to canvas schools. I suppose just linking the two events basically was what we had in our head.

“We’ve eight sets of jerseys between the two counties that we’ll raffle. We’ll put the names of the schools in a drum.

“So eight schools across Cork and Kerry will benefit from the actual event itself. We’re not the first to do a jersey day, but I think that the principle basically is that kids bring in €2 and donate it towards the cause.

“Also, the Ring of Kerry is taking place on July 4 and money from that event will also go towards Féile’s recovery. To be fair to the Cork and Kerry community, there’s a primary steering group that has done a hell of a lot of work for Féile already. I think there’s upwards of three quarters of a million already raised by that group."