Shanahan elected first North Board Chairperson from Portroe

By Shane Brophy

Brendan Shanahan was elected the first chairperson of the North Tipperary Senior GAA Board from Portroe at its annual convention held at The Hibernian, Nenagh on Monday night.

The outgoing vice-chairperson was elected unopposed to replace Michael Tierney who completed his three-year term as chairperson.

Shanahan said it was a huge honour to be the first person from Portroe to be in the prestigious role with the club previously having vice-chairpersons in the form of Brendan Murnane in 1957 and Jim Donnellan from 1979-1981.

Outgoing chairperson Michael Tierney thanked everyone for their help and support over the last three years, recounting how he stepped into the position in a cold hall in Borrisoleigh looking into a camera in late 2020 when that meeting was held online due to Covid.

He highlighted that they were three very successful years, with North clubs “to the forefront of elite competitions” with senior hurling titles won by Kilruane MacDonaghs and Kiladangan in 2022 and 2023 while Roscrea, Lorrha, and Ballina also won marquee county titles in that time.

“As a division, we are punching with the best of them and it is great to see every club putting their shoulder to the wheel,” he added.

He thanked the members of the CCC over the past three years, particularly referees chief Ciaran Timmons and urged greater understanding and support for referees as “for all the criticism they get, there would be no games without them,” he said.

He also complimented the work of fellow Borris-Ileigh clubman Philip Delaney who in his secretary’s report recounted a successful season with all adult divisional competitions completed in the calendar year with 169 games played from March 5th and the start of the junior football championships to December 3rd and the final of the under 21 ‘B’ hurling championship.

However, he did issue some concern about the number of competitions squeezed into the second part of the year, and with the retention of the grades from under 13 through under 21, he said: “although it is great to see clubs looking to keep the number of competitions going, the reality is our division needs proper infrastructure to cater for games from the month of October.

“As we have witnessed, the weather is getting wetter, and it is harder to get venues. We don’t have any full-sized Astro or sand-based pitches in our division to cater for hurling and football, juvenile, camogie or senior games. Nenagh Eire Og are in the process of developing a sand-based pitch and with Nenagh being a central venue to our division I would hope both the Nenagh Eire Og club and the North Bord would be able to work together going forward and hopefully be able to bring a solution to our winter fixtures.”

There was one contest at convention for the vice-chairperson of the board with Mikie Ryan (Nenagh Eire Og) edging out Colm Maher (Silvermines) 36-32 after Toomevara’s Patsy Hanley was eliminated after the first count.

In terms of the divisions finances, treasurer John Delaney and board accountant Kevin O’Brien presented a healthy set of accounts with a surplus of €19,221 for the financial year up to the end of September 2023. Income rose by just over €5000 to €94k, largely to a rise in income from gate receipts of €3.5k to €76,970. An additional €1,500 came from online streaming through Clubber.ie with the North Board starting a three-year deal which continues to the end of 2025.

Expenditure fell sharply from €89k in 2022 to €75k in 2023, although much of this is due to an accounting change in relation to referees and gate-checkers expenses relating to North Coiste na nOg which will be included in their accounts.

Commenting on the figure, board treasurer John Delaney said it was a “very good year” and paid particular thanks to the sponsors of the various competitions who provided €5,100 over the past year.

In terms of gate-receipts from club games, Delaney revealed that just 8% of monies collected is now in the form of cash as spectators move towards cashless payment, either by tap & go or buying tickets in advance.

North Tipperary GAA Board 2024: President – Matt Hassett (Toomevara); Vice-President – Donie Nealon (Burgess); Chairperson – Brendan Shanahan (Portroe); Vice-Chairperson – Mikey Ryan (Nenagh Eire Og); Secretary – Philip Delaney (Borris-Ileigh); Treasurer – John Delaney (Newport); Assistant Secretary – Michael Kennedy (Lorrha); Assistant Treasurer – Pat Murray (Moneygall); PRO – Michael Quinn (Kiladangan); Children’s Officer – Cora Moroney (Newport); Irish Language & Cultural Officer – Ronan Kenny (Roscrea); Coaching Officers – Paudie Malone (Portroe) & Paudie Carey (Templederry Kenyons); Club reps on CCC: Doloras McKenna (Portroe), Brid Morris (Borrisokane) plus one more to be elected at the Adjourned Convention.