Dear Tipperary Supporter
Nollaig Shona
Happy Christmas to all our members from the Tipperary Supporters Club and thank you for all your support during the year.
Tipperary Supporters Club AGM Report
The 36th AGM of the Tipperary Supporters Club was back to the successful online format on 5 December 2022 and again connected with a large number of members from Tipperary and beyond.
Terry O’Neill invited Joe Kennedy, Chairperson of the County Board to address the meeting at the beginning as Joe had to attend the North Board Convention later that evening. Joe thanked the Supporters Club for playing such a vital role in Tipperary Hurling. He also praised the great co-operation between the County Board and the Tipperary Supporters Club. Also present at the meeting was Jonathan Cullen, PRO, County Board.
Bryan Maher, Assistant Treasurer, presented the audited accounts for the year to 30th September 2022, which resulted in grants of over €60,000 to expenses including training camps, physiotherapy, nutrition, medical treatment, physical training and performance analysis, catering, transport and accommodation connected with the Senior Hurling panel. A contribution was also made to the expenses incurred by the Minor Hurling Panel in their successful All-Ireland campaign. It was again a difficult year for fund raising but it was great to be able to hold the usual golf classic, in Nenagh Golf Club. Great efforts were made to keep membership numbers up despite the effects of the Pandemic and expenses such as the cost of membership gifts and prizes and postage of membership packs had been kept to a minimum.
In addition to the activities of the Tipperary Supporters Club a summary of fund raising conducted by the Tipperary GAA Commercial Board were given to the meeting. The Commercial Board made a contribution of over €50,000 to Tipperary GAA during the period.
In his report to the AGM as Secretary Billy Coman summarised the highlights of the Club’s activities in 2022. He also urged Tipperary Supporters to get fully behind the team in 2023 and bring a strong vocal support to their games. His full report is available to all TSC members on request to info@tippsupportersclub.com. Billy especially thanked committee member Ed Donnelly for his work on the AGM booklet and for the arrangements for the online meeting. Terry O’Neill thanked Billy for his very comprehensive report and for all his work during the year.
In his address as Chairperson, Terry O’Neill thanked all the Tipperary Supporters including club members, sponsors, funders, committee members and fellow officers, county board officials, team management and of course the players for their generosity in supporting the fund-raising efforts of the Club. Terry commented on the ongoing co-operation with all County Board Officers including Joe Kennedy, Chair, Tim Floyd, Secretary, Tom Maher, Assistant Secretary, and Jonathan Cullen, PRO.
Following a County Board review of what was a disappointing year, a new Senior Hurling Management team has been appointed for 2023. On behalf of the Tipperary Supporters Club, Terry thanked Colm Bonnar for the service he and his management team of Tommy Dunne, Johnny Enright and Paul Curran have given to Tipperary not just in those roles but as players and selectors over the years.
In August, the whole country was rocked by the sudden and tragic passing of Dillon Quirke and Terry expressed deep sympathies to Dillon’s family and friends.
Terry also thanked Tim Floyd on the major contribution he had made to Tipperary GAA as Secretary of the County Board and wished him all the very best for the future. Terry congratulated Murtagh Brennan on his appointment as Chief Executive Officer of the County Board and wished him every success in that role.
Terry also congratulated James Woodlock and the Minor Hurling Panel on their hard work and dedication leading to the great All-Ireland Championship success. Congratulations were also extended to Liz Howard, former County Board PRO and Tipperary Supporters Club committee member on her recent Laochra Gael award and to John Tierney, who was special guest at the award ceremony.
The late Dillon Quirke, Clonoulty-Rossmore, was chosen as the 2022 Tipperary Player of The Year by vote of the Tipperary Supporters Club members. Dillon’s family would be presented with the award in the New Year. The annual trophy was again kindly sponsored by John Quirke, Jeweller, Cahir and the Tony Reddin Perpetual Cup was kindly donated by his wife Mrs Maura Reddin.
John Coman, Public Relations Officer, reported on the membership scheme and asked all members to make a special effort to encourage extra members to join up and to ask existing members to re-join using the direct debit facility. Members paying by direct debit for the first time will enjoy a special half-price membership rate of €20 for 2023. He outlined the membership benefits for 2023 including draws for €1,000 for members as well as €1,000 for their nominated Tipperary GAA Club, concert tickets, an overnight hotel stay, a signed Tipperary jersey and meet your favourite Tipperary player. Members also select the Tipperary Player of the Year by vote and can also enter a family member for the Mascot Competition. John especially thanked Membership Officer Jim Reidy and committee member Danny O’Connell for their long hours of work on the membership efforts. John also thanked Jonathan Cullen for his help with the Tipperary Supporters Club as County Board PRO.
Tipperary Supporters Club Mascot Ronan O’Meara, Moyle Rovers, pictured with captains Conor McCann and Ronan Maher and referee Rory McGann before the Tipperary v Antrim Allianz League match in Semple Stadium.
The following officers were appointed: Terry O’Neill, Chairperson; Billy Coman, Secretary; Michael Power, Treasurer (automatic re-appointment); Bryan Maher, Assistant Treasurer; John Coman, PRO; and Jim Reidy, Membership Officer.
Tom Sherlock, President, Tipperary Association Dublin congratulated the Club and assured it of every support from the Tipperary Association, Dublin.
That ended the formal business of the AGM and Chairperson Terry O’Neill warmly welcomed Liam Cahill, Senior Team Bainisteoir, and wished him every success in his efforts along with Michael Bevans as coach and Declan Laffan, Padraic Maher and TJ Ryan as selectors. The Tipperary Supporters Club look forward to giving them every possible support.
Liam Cahill thanked the Tipperary Supporters Club and commented on how delighted he was to be preparing for the 2023 Season. Terry and Liam then had a very enjoyable question and answer session in which Liam gave many interesting insights in to the level of work needed to have the Senior Panel ready for the challenges ahead in what would be a condensed competitive season.
Following the question and answer session, Terry O’Neill thanked Liam Cahill for taking part and brought the proceedings to a close and wished all those at the meeting a Happy Christmas.
Munster GAA Awards
From Tipperary GAA Scene by Jonathan Cullen, County Board PRO
Clonmel’s Hotel Minella was the location for the 2022 Munster GAA awards which took place last Saturday evening. On the night Tipperary was very well represented, picking up a total of 6 awards.
The first recipient was Tim Floyd who picked up the distinguished service award. Tim Floyd has been an ever present in Tipperary GAA administration for 35 years and has set standards that many other counties have aspired to achieve. Tim first became involved in Tipperary GAA back in 1987 as county board draw administrator a role he continued in until his elevation to county secretary in 2006. Tim was also the driving force behind the opening of the Tipperary GAA shop in Lar Na Pairce which proved to be a major success. During Tim’s tenure as Tipperary GAA secretary, he worked with six County Chairmen, three County Treasurers, four County PRO’s as well as being the main link between the various County Management Committees and many other Sub Committees. During his time as secretary, Tipperary won provincial and national titles in every grade in hurling as well as some very memorable provincial and national titles in football. Tim has always had the ability to work productively with all those he came in contact with and as he leaves his role, Tipperary GAA is in a very good place.
The next award winner was Nicholas English who received the Hall of Fame award. Nicholas English first played competitive Gaelic games during his school days at the Abbey CBS in Tipperary Town. He arrived on the inter-county scene at the age of seventeen when he first linked up with the Tipperary minor teams as a dual player, before later joining the under-21 sides. He made his senior hurling debut during the 1982 championship. Nicholas went on to play a key part for almost fifteen years. Nicholas contributed a total of 20 goals and 117 points during his senior inter county career which makes him one of his county’s highest scorers of all time. His trophy cabinet boasts an impressive array of achievements including, two All-Ireland medals, five Munster medals and two National Hurling League medals, Munster and All Ireland Minor and under 21 medals, five Fitzgibbon cup medals, two Railway Cup medals, six all stars along with Junior and Intermediate hurling and Intermediate football county titles with his beloved Lattin Cullen. Nicholas also proved himself to be a top class coach and team manager as he guided the premier county to All Ireland success over Galway in 2001.
The next Tipperary award winner was Martin Spain who was awarded Handball Person of the Year. Martin Spain is a member of Lahorna handball club in North Tipperary, a traditional 60 x 30 handball club. A long serving club secretary, he is also chairman of the North Tipperary Handball Board, a member of the Tipperary Juvenile Committee, and Tipperary delegate to the Munster Handball Council. Martin has been involved with Munster Juvenile Handball teams in 60 x 30 and 40 x 20 with great success. He has also been a selector for the ladies Provincial teams for many years. As well as refereeing many games at all levels Martin is involved with coaching club players and can be found many evenings in the local Loch Eorna or Nenagh Handball Club. Martin has also enjoyed success on the handball court and in 2010 he won a Silver Masters 60 x 30 doubles All Ireland title with his clubmate Paul Maher. Martin is passionate about the promotion of handball and is currently involved with the club development of building a new 40 x 20 handball court with viewing area, toilets, dressing room and meeting room, with the help of Sports Capital Funding and local fundraising.
The Minor hurler of the year also went to a Tipperary player as Cahir’s Tom Delaney was the very deserving winner. 2022 was most certainly a landmark year for Tom as he played a major role in the Munster and All Ireland success enjoyed by the Tipperary minor hurling team. As part of a very formidable full forward line, Tom contributed a total of 2-23 throughout the 2022 championship which included a massive 1-12 in his teams Munster championship win over Waterford. Tom’s performances in 2022 saw him receive numerous awards and he was also named on the Electric Ireland Minor Hurling team of the year.
On the night Tipperary referees Michael Kennedy and Conor Doyle also received referees awards in recognition of the fact that they refereed provincial finals and we congratulate both men on their achievements and the progress they have made in their refereeing career to date.
Health and Wellbeing
Christmas is a wonderful time of the year bringing families and friends together to celebrate and of course children eagerly look forward to Santa visiting with presents. However for some it can prove to be a difficult and lonely time. If you or someone you care about are finding this time of the year difficult to cope with, remember it is always good to talk and tell someone how you feel. People can contact the Samaritans free from any phone 24 hours a day 365 days of the year to talk about what is troubling them no matter how large or small the issue feels. The free Samaritans helpline is 116 123
The Dillon Quirke Foundation
The Dillon Quirke Foundation was officially launch last weekend and the Quirke family would appreciate your help in promoting this vital initiative. This foundation was set up in honour of the late Dillon Quirke who collapsed and died of SADS on the 5th of August 2022 in Semple Stadium Thurles. He was playing hurling for his club Clonoulty-Rossmore in the Tipperary championship. Sudden adult death syndrome (SADS) takes 100 young lives in Ireland every year. Our aim is to raise awareness and save lives by screening every GAA player both male and female from the age of 12 upwards. If you would like to make a donation to the foundation, you can do so via the following link: https://gofund.me/3fdea384
Tipperary GAA Yearbook
The Tipperary GAA annual is now on the shelves of the county. Packed full of details from 2022 this eagerly sought after publication is a must for all Tipperary GAA supporters. We thank the yearbook committee for their work in compiling the book which is a big task done with great enthusiasm every year.
Native tree sapling offer
In association with the GAA Green Club Programme, GAA, Camogie and LGFA, clubs are being offered the opportunity to apply for up to 1000 Native Tree Saplings for planting next Spring.
A request for between 100 and 1000 saplings can be made by filling out the short form at this link as soon as possible and at latest by February 1st – https://forms.office.com/e/acGHw3VXww Orders will be considered and successful projects will be contacted directly by the Tree nurseries providing the saplings before National Tree Week in March. Currently, we are not charging for the supply or delivery of saplings thanks to the generosity of our sponsors who have made them available for the project. The offer is in collaboration with, the Easy Treesie – Crann Project (www.easytreesie.com) supported by Coillte (www.coillte.ie) and has provided approximately 50,000 native tree saplings. An additional 10,000 saplings sourced with funding from the Dept of Agriculture, Food and the Marine through the Woodlands Support Scheme have already been requested by Clubs.
The saplings will be used to create shelter belts, planted along walkways and to generally enhance the natural landscape and biodiversity of Club grounds. Planting trees is included in the 5 ways to make clubs biodiversity-friendly as identified in the guidelines on pollinator-friendly management of sports clubs by the National Biodiversity Datacentre and included in the recently launched GAA Green Club Toolkit at https://learning.gaa.ie/greenclub
The Easy Treesie Project aims to plant one million trees with Ireland’s one million school children and their communities by 2023 joining the UNESCO-backed Plant-for-the-planet’s www.trilliontreecampaign.org challenge, reducing global heating by 1° during the UN Decade of Ecosystem Restoration, 2021-31.
Seasons Greetings
On behalf of Tipperary GAA I would like to wish you all a very happy Christmas and the very best for 2023. Thank you most sincerely for all your support during 2022 and we look forward to what will hopefully be a very successful year. Tipperary GAA Scene takes a break next week and will be back in the new year.
Ar aghaidh le Tiobraid Árann
John Coman
Public Relations Officer
Tipperary Supporters Club
Supporting Tipperary Hurling
