FORTY BENEFACTORS have come forward with contributions of £5,000 (€5,500) each for Tyrone’s new centre of excellence.
The €220,000 boost for the Garvaghy Project has been hailed by Club Tyrone chairman Hugh McAleer as a huge step towards realising the completion of the €7.3 million centre, the biggest single GAA project ever undertaken in Ulster.
“Raising that kind of money isn’t easy but in Tyrone we’re blessed with GAA people who believe in what we’re doing and who don’t shirk challenges,” said McAleer. “Our funding strategy, which we launched last week, includes a Garvaghy Patrons scheme where people contribute £5,000 to the project. Less than a week after that launch we have over 40 patrons on board.”
Meanwhile, Galway’s Pádraic Joyce and Michael Donnellan will be on the line in Tuam Stadium on Saturday with a star-studded team. They have assembled a team from the Galway teams that won All-Ireland titles in 1998 and 2001 along with players from other counties. The team put together by Joyce and Donnellan will take on the current Galway team in a charity match which will raise funds for Valerie Dolan, a young Galway woman who has a rare eye condition, Bilateral Optic Neuritis. The game will start at 3pm and admission is just €10.
The Meath SFC final scheduled for Sunday has been postponed after Navan O’Mahonys lodged an objection against Wolfe Tones playing Stephen Corrigan in Sunday’s semi-final replay which they won 0-11 to 0-8. Corrigan was sent off on a straight red card at the end of the first clash. Tones successfully appealed to the county hearings committee, claiming extra-time should not been played.
O’Mahonys fielded for the replay under protest and it is no surprise they are objecting to the overturning of the red card. The consequences are Meath may not be represented in the Leinster Club SFC. The Meath winners are due to meet Portlaoise or Mattock Rangers of Louth in the provincial championship on November 8th.
Finally, former Louth player Peter Fitzpatrick has been appointed as the county’s football manager, while Meath native Paddy Kelly will lead the hurlers.
The GAA have announced details of their National Bursaries scheme for students attending Higher Education colleges as part of its ongoing commitment to player welfare.
Now in its third year, the scheme is open to members of the association who are attending a full-time Higher Education course, except those who hold another GAA-related or college scholarship/bursary, and who are active participants in their Higher Education GAA club.
Bursaries will be administered by the respective provincial councils and applications for the scheme will be considered by a sub-committee in each province.
Each bursary granted will be for €1,000/£800 and payment will be made annually in two instalments of €500/£400.
Further information and application forms for this year’s scheme are available to download from www.gaa.ie, the various GAA provincial council websites and offices and from the Higher Education Colleges website http://he.gaa.ie.
All completed forms should be returned to the relevant provincial council and the closing date for application will be November 1st.
For the first time, there will also be a research element to the scheme with the GAA making four research bursaries of €4,500 available to students for projects that can be considered to be of benefit in the general area of player welfare.
