Secretaries Report for 2014

What a fantastic year it has been to be involved with Liverpool Wolfe Tones!

From appearing on RTE’s Nationwide to forming an underage team and hosting our first blitz, winning 2 All Britain titles, hosting the Liverpool Irish festival, reaching 11 finals, winning 7 titles, the development of a camogie team and so on. There has been a huge effort both on and off the pitch from all committee members, management and players which has reflected on our success this year.

The men’s footballers started the winning trend as they won the Wolfe Tone cup followed by the division 2 Pennine league. They were also on form in both the Lancashire Junior league and Championship reaching both finals. Unfortunately they narrowly lost out on both, but reaching 4 finals and winning 2 titles will breed success for the season to come.

The ladies footballers added a total of 4 titles to the haul winning the Northern Junior Britain Championship, the Junior All-Britain Championship, Junior Lancashire league and the Roswick cup. They were also unfortunate to lose out in the Senior Lancashire league Final. This was an amazing year for the ladies, starting bright defeating Oisins and then John Mitchels seniors for the first time to earn their right to contest their first Lancashire senior league. Also for the first time we entered a Junior team into the league a great accomplishment to have 2 teams in the Lancashire competition and win the junior and reach the final of the senior shows the great depth pf players within the panel. It was also a first for the Tones as the ladies represented the club in the All Ireland.

The hurling has grown from strength to strength attracting a number of new players this year. For the first time they reached the Lancashire Final narrowly losing out to Fullen Gaels on the day. The hurlers also entered into the All Britain Shield competition winning the group stages and eventually progressed through to the final. History was made last Saturday as they lifted the inaugural All Britain Shield a great achievement for a team formed 18 months ago.

There has also been a lot of interest for the club to set up a Camogie team, current players have been organising and taking training sessions for the last 6 months and hopefully today will see them formally welcomed into the Club.

I would like to congratulate and thank the management and players and all those involved in their success on the field this year. There is a phenomenal effort that goes into winning titles and especially over the very long season that occurs in Britain. I would like to particularly congratulate Richie and the hurlers, Tony, Ryan, Jonny and the ladies footballers for bringing prestige to the club on winning both their respective All Britain titles, a very rare occurrence in Britain GAA to hold two provincial titles! I would also especially like to thank the management of both the men and ladies football teams Cathal and Tony as they step down from their current positions. You have all helped to create history within the club and I hope you continue to be involved.

I would also like to thank the support at each team’s games both and home and those that travelled to away games it’s very much appreciated from all players to have the vocal support on the side-line.

An underage team was successfully set up this year and I would like to thank our underage officer Peter who has successfully set up and developed an underage team also organising and hosting our first ever Club blitz. There was a lot of work to develop this structure away from home and there was many Saturday mornings spent coaching the kids, so thank you to all those club members who also got involved and helped coach and look after our underage team, its greatly appreciated.

I would like to thank the Dinner Dance committee of Gabe, Laura, Maura and Oriel who organised a fantastic night here in the Irish Centre. Also congratulations to all members who received awards and presentations on the night. Our upcoming Dinner Dance should be even better with a hugely impressive trophy haul and to deservedly celebrate the success of 2014 season.

I would also like to thank all those involved with organising and running the fundraisers this year and the time and effort they went to. These included the ‘Ryan’s’ Irish music night and our annual Fundraiser battle of the Counties/the cube, which were both great successes.

2014 saw the welcome sponsorship again from Capital Reinforcement I would like to thank them for again sponsoring the club for the second year running and for their continued support. I would also like to thank St Michaels and the rugby club for hosting our events.

Finally I would like to thank the Committee for their hard work behind the scenes in the day-to-day running of the club. There is a massive amount of unseen work put in by all members and those who don’t have positions but still put in a great amount of work. We met numerous times throughout the year and I would like to thank all those for their dedication and commitment throughout.

On a personal note I would like to thank all those that have helped me throughout the past 3 ½ years as ladies and then Club secretary. It has great to be so involved with the Club and I wish my successor the very best. I also look forward to what success 2015 will bring for the club.

Laura Farrell