THE NORTHERN REGIONAL BOARD was launched in Letterkenny last night with plenty of club colours on show at Arena 7.
Chairman Eddie Harkin made no secret the idea was taken from the counterparts in the south of the county, who have got their seasons up in recent years with a launch.
There were representations from the vast chunk of the 24 clubs in the northern region and Harkin gave the reasons for having the launch, the first of its kind in north Donegal.
“The reason we are having to launch is to highlight the fantastic work being done in all 24 clubs in the Northern Regional Board in promoting our games,” he said. “It takes administrators, referees, sponsors, and of course coaches and players for us to have games.
“We are very fortunate to have had extremely hard working committee in place in the past, and I want to thank everyone who assisted in my taking on the Chairman’s role for 2016. Special thanks to previous Chair people especially Lawrence Hegarty and Brid Gallagher. Like to thank recent committee members Liam McConigley, Gerard McGinley and current Children’s board secretary Jim Quinn for all they have done in recent years.
“I want to thank the current Northern Regional Board executive for their hard work so far especially Conor Mc Dermott and Peter Maloney the Treasure and Secretary. A special thanks to Lawrence Hegarty Pat Mc Laughlin and Gerard Callaghan for their work in the Inishowen side of the County.”
The 2016 Northern Regional Board will be made up of Eddie Harkin, Sharon McGinty, Peter Maloney, Martin McKinley, Conor Mc Dermot, Hugh O’Donnell, Damian Dowds and Denis Doohan.
“We are deeply indebted to all the referees who officiate at our games through out the year,” Harkin added. “Liam McConigley has been a very pro-active Ass Secretary and has highlighted the need to recruit more referees if we are to ensure that our games can survive. Northern Regional Board provided referees for 388 games in 2015
“Thanks to Martin McKinley for taking on the role of Assistant secretary and therefore appointing the referee for each of our games. Again in Inishowen thanks to Shaun McLaughlin for carrying out these duties.”
Sponsor Name Competition Address Contact Name Peter McFadden Gala U-8, U-10 & U-12 Go Games Brenagh, Co. Donegal Peter McFadden Marley Coach Hire Ltd. U-13 Competitions Gortness, Cloghan, Ballyboefy Francis Marley Crawford Trophies U-14 Competitions Glynford Lifford Gwen Crawford Kelly’s Furniture U-16 Competitions Falcarragh, Co.Donegal Joe Kelly Arena 7 Minor Competitions Letterkenny Enda Nichols
Harkin also thanked the local media in the county and encouraged them to continue to support underage Gaelic games.
“We hope that the Media in north Donegal will give as much coverage as possible to the teams, led by the hard working coaches who invest so much time on behalf of their clubs in developing young players in all levels of league and Championship competitions,” he said.
“Our young players are now being coached by educated coaches with a modern outlook and a focus not just on results but on their long term development. We are still all operating under the influence of the positivity and modern approach of the Jim McGuinness era in Donegal GAA and it is up to every club to make the most of this golden era, and thankfully the majority of clubs in the Northern Regional Board are doing that
“I want to take this opportunity to wish all the players in each age group in all 24 Northern Regional Board clubs the best of luck in 2016.”
Website
Ed Byrne, PRO of the Donegal County Board, was present in Letterkenny to explain the workings of the official Donegal GAA website, which featured tabs on both the Southern Regional Board and Northern Regional Board.
“At peak times, on average we have 100,000 hits on the site a week and it’s proving to be a great resource for both people at home and especially those away from home,” Byrne said. “We’d encourage all club to engage in social media on Facebook and Twitter.
“We will have fixtures every week being distributed at 10:45am on Tuesdays and then all the results will go out by 10pm on a Sunday.”
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