Clare Community Games

The final (third) weekend of the HSE Community Games National Finals took place on 21/22 August in Athlone Institute of Technology.  A large number of competitors from Co. Clare took part in Athletics, Futsal, Rounders and Tag Rugby events and the participants returned home to County Clare with a total of 73 medals (8 gold, 27 silver, 24 bronze & 14 4th place), many happy memories and a little bit of tiredness...

Gold Medal Winners

• Girls Under 13 Walk, Angharad Loughnane - Kilkishen O'Callaghans Mills/Oatfield.
• Girls Marathon Team Event (Niamh Markham, Laura Egan, Shauna Harvey, Ailish Brew).
• Girls Under 16 1500m, Jean Clancy - Doonbeg.
• Boys Under 14 Shot Putt, Eoin Hanrahan - Doora/Barefield.
• Girls Under 14 Shot Putt, Deirbhile Ryan - Clonlara.

Silver Medal Winners

• Futsal Boys Under 13 team, Ennis St.Johns, were narrowly beaten by Carlow in a penalty shoot out after extra time (Gerard Kennedy, Cathal Lynch, William Twumasi, Ronan Kerin, Barry Woods, James Coakley, Patrick McDaid).
• Rounders Boys Under 15 team, Sixmilebridge/Kilmurry, defeated Mayo in the semi finals but were defeated in the final by a team from Cavan (Kevin Kelly, Jonathan Fawl, Alex Morey, Gavin Whyte, Eoghan Maxwell, Shane McInerney, Robert Halpin, Robbie Corry, Eoin Flynn, Stephen Mulready, Niall Hogan, Dean Costelloe).
• Boys Under 8 60m, Sultan Akinwale - Ennis St.John.
• Girls Under 8 80m, Niamh Conlon - Cooraclare/Cree.
• Boys Under 12 Relay, Ennis St.Johns (Seah Doherty, Tony Odubote, Cathal O'Brien, Nzube Okoye, Gavin Carr, Moses Iwalewa).

Bronze Medal Winners

• Mixed Under 13 Relay, Ennis St.Johns (Brian Devitt, Cathal Lynch, Niamh O'Brien, Sarah-Jane O'Connell, Temidayo Adeyinka, Kaderi Karimu).
• Mixed Under 10 Relay, Ennis St.Johns (Chibikem Okoye, Christina Njewke, Elizabeth Adesiyan, Gabriel Kehinde, Manus Doherty, Nadia Buczek).
• Tag Rugby Mixed Under 11, Clarecastle/Ballyea (Killian McDermott, Rachell Hartigan, Sean Dolan, Luke McDermot, Lorcan Clancy, Ronan Donnelly, Niall Galvin, Ellen Barry, Aoibhin Donnelly, Barry Neylon, Eamon Breen, Eoin Mangan).

4th Place Medal Winners

• Boys Under 10 100m, Chibikem Okoye - Ennis St.Johns.
• Girls Under 10 200m, Alex O'Neill - Quin/Clooney.
• Girls Under 16 High Jump, Rachel Clancy - Carrigaholt/Cross.
• Rounders Girls Under 13, Clarecastle/Ballyea (Niamh Healy, Sarah Maloney, Doireann Murphy, Nanci Page, Lauren Tuohy, Michaela McNamara, Lauren Kelly, Rebecca Breen-McDonnell, Erin Walshe, Lauren Healy, Rianne Donnellan).

Well done to all our competitors and the youth and adult volunteers without whom Community Games would not be possible. Be sure to get this week's copies of the Clare People and the Clare Champion to get further reports and photos.  Full results can be found on the National HSE Community Games website. Anybody with their own good photos of the action from Athlone can email them to This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it for inclusion on the website.

The second weekend of the HSE Community Games National Finals took place last weekend in Athlone Institute of Technology.  A total of 74 competitors from Co. Clare took part.  By all accounts a great weekend of competition, fun and entertainment was had by all participants and their families, county managers and youth volunteers. There were some notable successes: -

• The Ennis St. John's U16 Hardcourt Tennis team won Gold (Eoin Power, Michael McMahon, Liam Mullins, Ciarán O’Brien, Alice Twomey, Alison Brogan, Olena Ochinnikova and Laura McGann).
• Lauren McConway from Quin/Clooney also secured a Gold medal in the U14 Cycling event.
• Jennifer O'Neill, also from Quin/Clooney returned home with a Bronze medal in the U12 Cycling event.
• In the Gymnastics competition Ben Harnett (U8, Ennis St. John's) and Rachel Tone (U12, Inch/Connolly/Kilmaley) both got Bronze medals and Jane Taylor (U14, Quin/Clooney) secured a Fourth place medal.
• Ciara Cahill from Ennis St. John's returned home with a Bronze medal in the U16 Judo event.
• And the Variety team from Sixmilebridge/Kilmurry won the Rita Farrelly trophy for best cultural content in the Variety contest (Kelly Finnegan, Rachel Scanlan, Áine Freeman, Sheilagh Larkin, James Connor, Aisling Hassett, Caroline Hogan, Claire Corbett, Aoife Corbett, Niamh O’Dea, Gerard O’Dea, Fiona Murphy, Colette Donnellan and Marie Ryan).

Well done to all our competitors. The Clare People had a pull out supplement on the Community Games Finals, in association with Golden Vale Fresh Milk, with some interesting articles and excellent colour photos. Anybody with their own good photos of the action from Athlone can email them to This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it for inclusion on the website.

The next County Meeting will be held at the West County Hotel, Ennis, on Tuesday 7th September at 9.00 p.m.   All Area delegates should attend the monthly meetings as their input is important to the running of the games.  We are hoping to have the National Development Officer attend this meeting as a follow up to the Area Development workshop which took place in June.

All areas should be making arrangements to hold their AGM as Area  AGM's should be held before the end of September this year.

A social evening with Pitch & Putt and BBQ is arranged for Friday 3rd September at the Half Way/Clare Road, Ennis @ 6pm.  It is hoped that all areas will come along & join in the fun.  Cost is €20 each.  Please forward names & fee to County Secretary by Friday 27th August.

The County executive would like to thank all the youth we helped at the County Athletics
Their help is greatly appreciated.

Success for Clare in Athlone

The Golden Vale Milk Clare Community Games were represented by 177 children from all over the County in both sporting and cultural events at the National Finals weekend 1 in Athlone I.T. over the weekend (28-30th May).  We had some fantastic results in Handball, Model Making, Cross Country, Talent, Badminton, Culture Corner, Draughts, Chess, Art and Projects, bringing home a total of 40 Gold, 20 Silver, 11 Bronze and 10 fourth place medals a grand total of 81. Make sure to get a copy of this week's Clare Champion or Clare People newspapers which also contain full results and some fine photos.

John O'Sullivan has kindly provided a list of the medals and certificates won by Clare Community Games athletes at the National Finals weekends down through the years from 1971 to date. Click on the year of competition link to see more details.