White’s Cross GAA held its Annual General Meeting on Tuesday night 5th of December in one of the classrooms of Scoil Naomh Micheál, Upper Glanmire under the chairmanship of Seán Coughlan. The attendance on the evening was, unfortunately, quite poor. The club is, however, grateful to those that did make an effort to attend and contribute to the meeting. There was an unusual and unprecedented scenario where our club secretary Max Philpott was joining the meeting, through Zoom, from London where he is currently based while studying for his Masters Degree.
The meeting took the standard format where the outgoing officers read their individual reports. The tone of these was positive. Though there was no success for adult teams in 2023, there were new management teams put in place and they have agreed to stay in place for the next year. This stability added to another influx of players from our underage will hopefully yield some dividends. Our ladies football and camogie teams continues to flourish and there was some more silverware added in this section this year. The amalgamation with Carraig Na BhFear GAA to form the the St. Colmcilles Juvenile Club is providing a platform to our underage players to play at a higher level than they might otherwise play at if we were on our own. The relationship with Carraig is very healthy and Colmcilles have been very competitive at all grades this year; reaching many finals and being successful in quite a few. The club had another full year using our superb Astro-Turf facilities. We marked the construction of which with a very memorable official opening on October 20th. This was a very enjoyable evening. Chairman Sean Coughlan noted that the event brought out the best of the community.
A number of motions regarding membership were discussed and passed. These centered around voting rights within the club and who is allowed to apply for All-Ireland tickets in scenarios where White’s Cross GAA will be distributing. Only paid up members that are at least turning 16 on that year and who intend using the tickets for themselves will be allowed to apply.
All outgoing officers – Seán Coughlan (Chairman), Max Philpott (Secretary), Martin Kelleher (PRO) and Seán O’Donnell (Communications Officer) have agreed to stay on for another term. Senan Ryan will take up the role as assistant secretary in 2024. He will be a welcome addition to the committee.
With the passing of our former Club President, Con Delaney, earlier this year, this role has been vacant for several months. John Drummy was nominated for this role and was ratified at the AGM. This was a popular choice. John has been involved with club for a long time. He held the role of chairman for a number of years and was involved with the club’s Junior A and B football teams also for a period. He was instrumental in setting up the club lotto over 10 years ago, He has been an active committee member for the last few decades. He will be a popular choice as our new Club-President!