This summer the White’s Cross Under 14 football team had the huge honour of competing in Féile Peil na nOg – Féile is the biggest youth sporting event taking place in Europe in 2016!! It was held across Cork, Kerry & Limerick with over 5,500 participants from over 250 clubs. The last time White’s Cross played in Féile was back in 1986!  Back then we hosted Askeaton (Limerick) and also played Tramore (Waterford) and Salthill (Galway).

 
This time around we got to host the team representing the county of Hertfordshire in the UK, with players from 6 different clubs making up their squad for Féile.  We played two matches on the Friday evening in Donoughmore, coming away with a win against the home team but losing by a considerable margin to Tullysaran from Armagh. On Saturday morning we also lost to Hertfordshire in White’s Cross, meaning that it was the shield competition rather than the cup that we qualified for.  On the Saturday evening our lads attended the Féile Parade in Kanturk, but first had to dust themselves down after two defeats on the trot and play a quarter-final of the shield.  That afternoon in Kanturk, White’s Cross defeated Ballymacelligott (Kerry) on a scoreline of 8-6 to 3-5, to qualify for a Féile semi-final the following day.

White’s Cross then travelled to Cullen early on Sunday morning for the semi-final against Tullysaran from Armagh, a team that had beaten us convincingly some 36 hours previous in Donoughmore.  However our lads exacted revenge in scintillating fashion to win out on a scoreline of 2-5 to 2-1. This qualified White’s Cross for a Féile final which was played in Rathmore early on the Sunday afternoon, and again it was daunting opposition – a Kerry team playing in their back-yard!  In the final our lads came up trumps yet again, on a scoreline of White’s Cross 2-3 Cordal / Scartaglen (Kerry) 1-4 – an historic first national title for White’s Cross GAA.  Well done to the players and mentors involved in this massive achievement.  Míle buíochas comh maith to the parents and other host families that took into their homes members of the Hertfordshire squad.  It was evident the way that the members of both squads interacted over the four days that new friendships had been forged – all part-and-parcel of the Féíle journey!

White’s Cross Féile Peil na nOg Panel: Aaron Wallace, Senan Ryan, Jacob Hurley, Brendan Quain, Harry Coughlan, Eolan Dill, Ethan Ryan, Conor Docherty, Patrick O’Hara, David O’Connell, Adrian Buckley, Jack O’Callaghan, Sean Hannon, Fionn Hickey, Stephen Whooley, Danny Linehan, Daniel Kelleher, Sean Twomey, Harry Buckley, Patrick Harrington & Luke Murphy.

 Thanks to everyone involved in our immensely successful Poc Fada on St. Stephen’s Day – while the weather made it all the more pleasurable the key ingredient of course was the company of friends and family… fun and games all afternoon long for the young and not-so-young.

We are delighted to partner with www.corkautism.ie for the event and we will be presenting a cheque to them in January.

The overall winners yesterday of the John Hickey Memorial Cup were Padraig Murnane, Dave Buckley and Brendain Murnane – John’s grandson PJ O Donovan presented the cup to our winners. Another grandson Bobby presented our juvenile winning team with their prizes- Cathal O Flynn, Colin McCarthy and Cormac O Flynn. The winning ladies team was made up of Kate Kelleher, Liz Twomey and Anna Kelleher.