The 125th anniversary of the founding of the Gaelic Athletic Association held particular significance for Fingallians GAA club in Swords which was also celebrating 125 years in existence. One of the longest established clubs in Dublin, founded in 1884, it continues to be an active and progressive influence in the sporting, social and community life in the capital of Fingal.
On 28th April we had the pleasure to have the President of the GAA Christy Cooney visit Fingallians, It being the first club in the Country to meet with him as part of his Ag Eisteacht programme.
The nationwide La na gClub held on May 10th was an extremely colourful day in Swords. Hundreds of club members young and old in the club’s red and white colours were warmly applauded by people lining the streets as they paraded through the town behind the Black Raven pipe band. Our arrival at Lawless Memorial Park was followed by an afternoon and evening of events, competitions and fun for all.
Fingallians has also marked our anniversary with the further development of our facilities in Swords. We have installed state of the art floodlights which will allow the staging of night time games. Also opened this year was our new Ball Wall which is a marvellous aid to developing football and hurling skills for all our players. A running track is now in place and further work is ongoing to build new dugouts and landscape the east side of the main pitch.
In recognition of our long and distinguished history of service to Dublin GAA we have been awarded the honour of hosting the annual Dub Stars games on New Year’s Day 2010. While a tremendous effort is required from an army of volunteers to stage this prestigious event we are confident that we will be able to do so successfully and show off our facilities to a huge crowd of Dublin GAA followers.
Already this year Fingallians became an approved County Grounds by Croke Park Central Council. home venue for the Fingal hurling team which participated in Kehoe Cup, National Hurling League and Nicky Rackard Cup. So we have already hosted senior intercounty hurling games as well as Leinster Junior football championship matches.
We were proud to have representation on a number of Dublin teams this year; Paul Flynn was a member of the senior football team which won Leinster for the 5th successive year. Amy McGuinness and Nicola Hudson were on the Ladies senior team which reached the All Ireland final. We also have a number of Fins hurlers who played for Fingal hurling team.
2009 Started on a real high as our Minor footballers won the Championship by beating a very strong Clontarf team in a replayed final in Garristown on 25th January. The victory more than compensated for their heartbreaking loss to St Judes in the previous year's final, which also went to a replay.
It was a difficult year for our Senior football team who suffered a cruel litany of injuries. They retained their Senior championship status with a battling display in a relegation play off victory over Fingal Ravens. They will need to show the same resolve in remaining League games to stay in Division 1 for 2010.
Our second football team have been relegated to Division 6 for next year but our Division 7 side finished 4th. Also our Minor team are awaiting a date for their championship Final and the U21’s are progressing in their Championship.
In 2009 Fingallians GAA Club has seen its Football/Hurling Academy go from strength to strength. Current numbers are extremely encouraging with approximately 30 boys and girls training on our under 7 team, our newly formed under 6 team has between 30-40 training regularly on Saturday mornings while we also have over 40, 4 and 5 year olds training on a regular basis. Our Easter camp was a huge success with 181 boys and girls that combined football and hurling over 4 days. Over the course of the summer months the club held Camps on Football & Hurling for boys and girls aged 4 – 13 years. Again they were well attended and a special word of thanks to Paul Flynn and All Star Alan McCrabe who made the kids summer a memorable one.
In May for juveniles the club has also held Street Leagues for aged 5 – 8 years and to kick start the season the annual 7 a-side tournaments were held in football & hurling during September.
Off the pitch Fingallians is also the focus for many local groups and associations which run functions, events, classes etc in our clubhouse. Our own social highlight was the Annual Awards night held in March at which everybody had a great night at an event which was sold out weeks in advance.
In a growing town like Swords our club is an integral part of the community. We have served for 125 years. We welcome all to our facilities and we look forward to many new members enjoying even greater success with Fingallians over the next 125 years.
