20/02/2023 - The Weekly Update

This weeks 50/50 lotto results

 This week’s Ballaghaderreen GAA 50/50 draw was held at Mollys Bar.

Jackpot of €585 was won by Noel Regan Jr.
Seller: Saturday night team
Next draw will be held on Sunday night 26th February.
Your support of our weekly draw is greatly appreciated!
Tickets for the 50/50 draw can be purchased online by clicking here or directly from businesses throughout the town. Make sure to have your entries done before 9PM on Sunday 26th February to enter. 

Annual GAA 50/50 lotto ticket

An annual 50/50 ticket, giving entry into every draw for a year, is available to purchase online by clicking here. 

Wedding bells for Noel

A big congratulations to former Ballaghaderreen senior footballer Noel Touhy on tying the knot in UAE recently. We wish him and all the best on their journey through life. We are hoping someday that Noel will swap his Iron Man swimsuit with a Ballaghaderreen jersey and return to the club.... (Fat chance!) :-)  

Club membership

The membership portal for Ballaghaderreen GAA Club is now open for 2023.

We look forward to welcoming new members to join our club aswell as returning members that wish to renew their membership. 

New members can register by creating an account on https://www.foireann.ie and selecting Ballaghaderreen, Mayo as their club.

For returning members, the fastest and easiest way to renew membership is online through  https://www.foireann.ie. Your username and password are the same as last year.

We are pleased to announce we are keeping the membership rates the same as last year:

• Adult Membership - €80
• Youth - €40
• Juvenile Over 12 - €50
• Student Player - €50
• Family - €120
• Adult Gold - €220
• Family Gold - €270

For further information on membership you can visit this page by clicking here.
Thank you for your continued support.

Do you know your Premier League Soccer?

Do you think you know your premier league soccer? Ballaghaderreen seniors are starting their annual Last Man Standing Competition. Each week you will have to pick one team from the 10 premier League fixtures who you think will prevail to the next round. If your team wins you qualify until the following week. The competition proceeds until their is one person left standing. To enter text 0873693400.

McBrien stars in impressive Mayo win

For the third consecutive league game David McBrien starred for Mayo against a muchly fancied Kerry side. In the build up to the game all the talk was about the return of David Clifford and Sean OShea however their half time introductions were too little too late as Mayo came through as convincing winners. McBrien was outstanding from start to finish, again proving that he can continue the legacy of Ballaghaderreen players playing fullback in the green and red. 

Easter camp is filling fast

Ballaghaderreen GAA Clubs Easter Camp is filling quickly and we advise anyone who wishes to sign up their children to do so before it’s too late. The week long Easter Camp will be filled with lots of fun activities including Bouncy Castles, Easter Egg Hunds, Sports Day Style Events and of course some GAA Coaching.

It will also feature visits from our 3 guest coaches, two Mayo Senior footballers David McBrien and Paul Towey and Current Leitrim Senior manager and former footballer of the year, Andy Moran.

Dates: April 10th-14th
Times: 10:15-1:30 daily.
Who is it for: Catering for all children aged between 4 years old all the way up to to 13 year old.

You can sign up by clicking here.

Minors heading east

This coming Saturday Ballagh Minors will head to the capital to take on Dublin club Clanna Gael in a challenge game. The game will take place at 1PM in Clanna Gael Fontenoy GAA Club grounds. The team are also visiting Croke Park for the NFL and NHL double header that evening. We would like to wish the team all the best and hope they enjoy their day.

Quick Fire Questions Week 1: Ryan Lynch (Senior Payer and Minor Coach)

Name: Ryan Lynch
Knickname: Tank
Age: 27
Position: Midfield
Dream Date: Una Healy and Sian Osbourne
Favourite GAA ground in Mayo:  Breaffy GAA. 
Biggest Achievement playing for Ballaghaderreen: County Final 2019
Best Memory in a Ballagh shirt?: Beating Castlebar to get to the county final and kicking 4 beauties. 
Dream 5 aside club team: I’d have a fly goalie in Cian Hanley with a handsome back line of Cunniffe and Drakey (Stephen) with two Goats up top in Darragh Kelly and Andy.
Biggest influence on your career: Desmond Lynch. Also during my underage career I looked up to Mayo over 40s star Pat Fleming. His ability to drink pints and kick points at the same time was impressive. His left foot was unmatched.
If you could transfer any player to your club who would you transfer within Mayo?: Can I bring a player out of recent retirement instead? If not Ryan O’Donoghue at the minute.
Piece of advice to all underage footballers in Ballaghaderreen: Practice both feet!

Cheesy Joke of the week

“What do you call a huge Irish spider? A Paddy-long-legs.”

Blast from the past

Here's a question for quiz buffs: which team won the Mayo Senior Football Championship less than six months after they had taken the Intermediate crown? The answer is Ballaghaderreen, and 40 years ago yesterday (Monday), the late Seán McGoldrick (goalkeeper and captain) lifted the Moclair Cup.

Ballagh’ only captured the 1971 Mayo Intermediate Championship title in April 1972, beating Westport in a delayed final. Yet just over five months later, they landed the big one.

“We had come out of nowhere,” reflects Seán Kilbride, who played at midfield in both finals. “I remember being a young fella in Ballaghaderreen [and] we couldn’t win the East Mayo Junior Championship … I don’t think any of us started off the [1972 season] expecting to win it.  It seemed an impossible ambition … We got to the final against all expectations, really – including our own.”

Ballaghaderreen actually lost their first two games of that 1972 championship, going down by a point to Garrymore before being crushed by Claremorris. But as the early stages of the competition were played on a league basis, they weren’t out of contention yet. A draw with Ballina Stephenites was followed by their first win, over Westport.

Then came a big test against a high-flying Ballyhaunis side which included Ted Webb. Defeat would have meant elimination from the competition, and Ballagh’ trailed by seven points before coming back to win by two.

“We suddenly began to click,” says Seán Kilbride. “Beating Ballyhaunis in that play-off game … that was the turning point, really. I think we suddenly realised, probably without talking about it too much, that we were capable of beating other senior teams.”

They went on a winning streak, beating Castlebar Mitchels, Aghamore and Garrymore (by a point). When the south Mayo side’s subsequent objection proved unsuccessful, Ballagh’ were into the county semi-final – against Ballyhaunis.

“Having to meet Ballyhaunis a second time wouldn’t have scared us, because we had beaten them before,” says Kilbride, and they had six points to spare. Ballagh’ went into the final against Claremorris as underdogs but’ were “cool, methodical [and] efficient”, Christy Loftus noted in his Mayo News match report, while the reigning champions lost Pat Navin, Des Griffith and Tom Keane to injury. It finished 1-11 to 0-9, with full-forward John Morley scoring 1-5.

“We would have won nothing without John Morley,” says Kilbride, who was also a Mayo team-mate of the Garda murdered in July 1980 by bank raiders. “John was the key figure in that whole era of Ballaghaderreen football. He inspired everybody in the club to have ambitions. His arrival in the town was the reason we ended up winning those three championships.”

The first of those county gongs came at junior level in 1968, ending a 27-year hiatus. By the end of 1972, they had added the under-21 title to their bulging trophy cabinet. Five youngsters saw action in all three finals played during that eight-month period – future Mayo manager John O’Mahony, Dan O’Mahony, Christy McCann, Con Moynihan and Gerry Coleman.

Jim Fleming played in the intermediate decider but a car accident sidelined him for the summer. He remained influential, however – “an inspirational character … that we all looked up to”, says Kilbride.

Allianz Football league results round 3

Division 1:
Mayo 2-14, Kerry 1-10.
Roscommon 1-12, Armagh 0-12.
Galway 0-16, Tyrone 0-13.
Monaghan 1-20, Donegal 0-15.

Division 2:
Derry 2-15, Meath 1-7.
Kildare 0-16, Clare 0-15.
Louth 1-15, Limerick 1-13.
Cork 2-10, Dublin 0-18.

Division 3:
Westmeath 2-12, Offaly 0-12.
Cavan 1-19, Longford 0-11.
Fermanagh 2-14, Down 3-10.
Tipperary 0-14, Antrim 1-19.

Division 4:
Sligo 0-21, Waterford 0-12.
Carlow 2-8, Laois 1-17.
Wexford 0-19,Leitrim 0-15.
Wicklow 1-16, London 1-9.

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