Tipperary GAA Scene

By Jonathan Cullen PRO

Munster GAA Awards

Clonmel’s Hotel Minella was the location for the 2022 Munster GAA awards which took place last Saturday evening. Tipperary was very well represented, picking up a total of six awards.

The first recipient was outgoing county secretary Tim Floyd who picked up the distinguished service award. Tim 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 bPairce, which proved to be a major success. During Tim’s tenure as Tipperary 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, 2 All-Ireland medals, 5 Munster medals and 2 National Hurling League medals, Munster & All Ireland Minor and Under 21 medals, 5 Fitzgibbon Cup medals with UCC, 2 Railway Cup medals with Munster, 6 All-Star awards, 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, a traditional 60x30 handball club. A long serving club secretary, he is also chairperson 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 60x30 and 40x20 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 Lahorna or Nenagh Handball Clubs. Martin has also enjoyed success on the handball court and in 2010 he won a Silver Masters 60x30 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 40x20 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 & 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.

Also, Tipperary referees Michael Kennedy and Conor Doyle also received 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.

THE DILLON QUIRKE FOUNDATION

The Dillon Quirke Foundation was officially launched 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 5th August 2022 in Semple Stadium, Thurles.

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 donate 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.

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

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 five 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.

Season’s 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. If there is anything you feel should feature in this column going forward, feel free to forward it to pro.tipperary@gaa.ie