On Saturday 21^st of October Castleknock Hurling and Football club were delighted to be celebrating 25 years.  This would not have been possible without the support of sponsors and the local community. The year long celebrations culminated in a Gala Ball in the Castleknock Hotel where everyone celebrated all members and their achievements without who the club would not be where it is today. Castleknock Hurling and Football Club were delighted to welcome so many guests including the founders of the club, previous chairpersons, local and national politicians and members. 

Castleknock Hurling and Football Club was founded in 1998.  Since then the club has gone from strength to strength and membership is now made up of over 4,000 members from the age of 4 upwards. 

There have been many on the field successes across all codes, including Dublin and Leinster Championships, League & Championship at all levels and All Ireland Féile Championships.  

There have also been plenty of community based successes and the club prides it’s self on their off the pitch involvements.  They live up to their club moto of Le Chéile with lots of inclusive activities including fundraising initiatives, Castleknock GAA All Stars, One Healthy Club, Gaelic4Mother & Other, The Dermot Earley Leadership Initiative for teenagers, the Irish oral classes for leaving cert students and lots more. 

The membership continues to expand and there are over 160 teams paying on a weekly basis.  Nursery runs every Saturday morning and the continued influx of new families bring great energy and ideas to the club. It caters for over 450 children weekly. New members are always welcome at the club whether they be young or old. 

The club is run entirely by volunteers. The opening of the club house in Somerton in 2018 was a huge achievement for the club.  A lot of heart and soul went into its development and it was largely finished by members using their own skills.  The club has ambitious plans and continues to fundraise to cater for its growing membership with the latest initiative being the Win 250k draw.  Tickets can be purchased at https://win250grand.com/.  The draw will fund the building of a gymnasium, upgrading of facilities and a full time director of coaching. 

Guests at the gala ball celebration enjoyed a drinks reception and three course meal with wine.  The Harleys ensured that the dance floor packed for the night and there was lots of great fun including an air guitar dance off and press up displays.  Participants shall remain nameless!!  Everyone danced well into the early hours in their yellow and blue striped socks!  The FotoMe photos are testament to the fun that was had by all.

A raffle was held and proceeds were split between St Francis Hospice and Castleknock Hurling and Football club.  Everyone is very grateful to the sponsors and those who donated prizes.  These included West Pharmaceuticals, JL Goor, Galway Tool & Mould, The Anglers Rest Cadburys, The Carpenter Pub,  Get Fresh, Gleeson Butchers, 65 Hurls, Roderic O’Gorman for the Emerald Park voucher and Emer Currie for the lunch in Lenister house.

Speaking at the event were Taoiseach Leo Varadkar,  Jack Chambers Minister of State at the Department of Transport and at the Department of Environment, Climate and Communications  and club member Lisa Kiernan.

All commented on how much of a contribution the club had made to the community over the past 25 years and how without the individual contributions of all the members this would not have happened. 

Lisa spoke of the friendships she has made through the club and the unseen heroes who put very significant work into the club every week. 

The three founders of Castleknock Hurling and Football club;  Johnny Corcoran, John Conway and Fergus Hamill spoke about how the club was originally started and received a presentation of a 25 year anniversary jersey from some younger members of the club. 

The current and previous chairpersons all spoke about their time as chairperson and the club in general.  These were Fergus Hamill, John Hillary, Mick Lynch, Niall Tutty, Charlie Spillane, Kevin O’Shaughnessy.  The only chairperson who wasn’t at the event was John Hillary and he sent a voice message from abroad.

If the energy and enthusiasm that was seen on Saturday night is anything to go by the future looks very bright for Castleknock Hurling and Football Club.

Photo credit:
Richard Sheehy Photography
info@richardsheehyphotography.com
0867369567