Feile Peil 2011 – A celebration of Juvenile GAA in Cobh.

After weeks of preparation a bus full of 25 children from Hertfordshire arrived in Cobh at 9:30 on Wednesday Night and the children were immediately dispatched to local families who had answered the call to host these children for 3 nights to make this event possible. This was the start of three great days for the visiting and local children involved. The hosting of a visiting team is a major part of the Feile event and it is intended to bond communities and forge friendships, and for visiting players (and local players) it is always a memorable aspect of the overall event. And so it was for Cobh and Hertfordshire with exceptional voluntary participation from

• the Host Families who provided food and accommodation and local transport,
  ·  The Heritage Centre who hosted the visitors for a morning,
  ·  very many GAA Club Members who helped with the event (especially the current minor team who themselves participated in the Hurling Feile in 2006),
  ·  Michael Hade (who also has a Feile Football winners medal from 1984) for Photographs,
  ·  Ted Creedon and the Red Cross who attended the festivities,
  ·  The Just Food Company and other families  who provided Soup and Sandwiches for the players and officials during the games,
  ·  the various musicians who took part in the social night, and finally
  ·  the Navy Base who provided a behind the scenes tour for almost 60 children on the final day.

It was a fantastic opportunity for 27 juveniles of our club to be involved, and the GAA club would hope that these children will carry with them the memories of having taking part in such a high profile event, and that someday these children will themselves be able to contribute to the organisation of a similar event. All 27 played in the All-Ireland U14 club championships, and participated fully in the festivities, and did themselves, their families and their town proud by the way they entertained their visitors. Hertfordshire were impressed by both the sporting and social facilities offered by our large town, but also felt they had experienced something of the community spirit of a small village as everyone they met in the town seemed to know about their visit, and wished them well with the Feile experience. From the GAA clubs point of view, the highlight of the events was the unexpected visit of GAA incoming president Liam O’Neill and Ex GAA President Joe McDonagh, and other GAA Dignitaries , who also joined in the local festivities.

For our players the excitement is over, and it is now back to training with the final stages of a football league (U13) and a football Championship (U14) before the Hurling season begins in earnest with both League and Championship to look forward to. New players always  welcome and they will find contact details on www.cobhgaaa.com

Day by Day Activities

Day 1 : On Thursday morning, the children from Hertfordshire and the host families children visited the Heritage Centre and had a walk around the town. They made their way up to the pitch for the only game that day, Cobh against Hertfordshire. Cobh started off well and had a lead of 2 points at the half-time break. But what ever was said in the Hertfordshire team talk, it did the trick, as Hertfordshire came out all gun’s blazing in the second half scoring a total of 3-5 with Jack Randall leading the way for Hertfordshire.  The final score was Cobh 1-2 Hertfordshire 3-7. Overall it had been a disappointing performance by Cobh and Cobh now had to win their remaining matches and hope that someone beat Hertfordshire for Cobh to progress. The  children  returned to homes before travelling to Cork for a colourful parade which included all 4,000 children and 181 teams participating in the Feile

Day 2 : Day 2 was mainly about football. Two more teams arrived to take part in the occasion – local rivals Bride Rovers and Clare County Champions Wolfe Tones from Shannon. The day started off with Hertfordshire against Wolfe Tones. Word had filtered through that Wolfe Tones had beaten Bride Rovers by 34 points in their first match the previous day. Overall this was a very competitive game, where both teams gave their all. Great performances came from Hertfordshire’s back-line where Eamon Kitching and Luke Myres where solid. In the forward line, substitute Jack McCool raised the green flag with an  impressive finish. The class of the Clare county shone through in the end  with a win of  5-8 to Hertfordshire’s 1-1. The score line could have been higher were it not for some excellent saves from Callum Doherty in the Hertfordshire goal. Hertfordshire’s loss did however open the door slightly for Cobh as if Cobh could win both their remaining matches they had a possibility of qualifying for the semifinals.  Next up was Cobh against Bride Rovers with Cobh needing a big win to keep their hopes of qualification alive. Cobh started poorly with Bride Rovers scoring two points to go into an early lead.  Cobh responded and delivered a good performance and built a 4 point lead by half time. Cobh eventually won out comfortably on a score line of 5-7 to 2-5 which meant that the final qualification now depended upon the final round of matches. But first it was the skills competition which was won by Liam Taylor from Hertfordshire who went on to come second in the Divisional finals in Coachford later that evening. It must have been a proud moment for his Dad who accompanied him to the finals in Coachford. In their final game Hertfordshire built up a useful lead only to see Bride Rovers draw back level early in the second half. However Hertfordshire had enough skills and energy to see this one through and won the game 3-7 to 2-1. The final game saw Cobh take on the impressive Clare county Champions. Cobh had another good performance, and whilst they were not able to stop Shannon side getting their third win of the group, the game was very competitive. The final score was 2-12 to 2-2, which  was the closest any of the  teams came to this impressive Shannon outfit. Shannon went on to reach the Division 5 final but lost to a very strong O’Loughlin Gaels (Kilkenny) side who had just won the All-Ireland Hurling Feile Division 1 Final in Galway the previous weekend. Later in the afternoon many of the Hertfordshire lads joined in with the clubs regular U12 hurling training session, and a new hurley was one of the favourite souvenirs that the Hertfordshire lads purchased in Cobh for their return to the UK. After a busy day of Football the children returned to the host families to recuperate, before returning to the GAA clubhouse  later that  evening for a night of music and banter.

Day 3 : With all the football over for both Cobh and Hertfordshire, a tour of the nearby Naval base was on the agenda. Whilst many of the Cobh children had seen the Navy base before, for many of them it was also a new experience, and the 60 or so participants had a fun and informative morning on Haulbowline. As they left Cobh at the end of an action packed few days many of the children were exhausted as were many of the organisers from Cobh and from Hertfordshire ! It was 7:30 on Sunday morning when the Hertfordshire bus returned to base having dispatched all 31 Hertfordshire visitors.