Boat Blessing Ceremony 25/07/08

Friday 25^th July 2008 was a special occasion for the members of Athlunkard Boat Club. The club unveiled seven new rowing boats valued at €70,000. It is the biggest single investment in rowing equipment since the club's foundation in 1898. It is a clear indication of where the club is going at present and with approx 25 boys and girls rowing, the future looks bright for this famous parish club. This year the clubs ladies crews have kept the flag flying with nine wins at regattas throughout the country. The icing on the cake was the selection of Jessica O'Keffee to represent her country at the Home Internationals in Wales on 26^th July.

The boat naming ceremony was the culmination of a major fundraising effort undertaken by the club over the last 2 years and was presided over by Athlunkard's first lady president Patricia Lonergan who followed in the footsteps of her late father Christy Madigan, a tireless worker in the club throughout his life.

Main sponsor on the night was St.Marys Parish Credit Union, whose name sits proudly on the clubs flagship, a new racing eight, purchased in Italy at a cost of €26,000. The connection between Shannon Rugby Club and Athlunkard members over many years was recognized with the rugby clubs name on another boat. Some deceased members were also honoured, the late Jack Meehan, Ned Flanagan, Paddy O'Brien & Willie Henn were represented by their families. Also honored on the night was former Athlunkard president Archie Brown, who attended with his wife Ann and Family.

Guests on the night included Mayor John Gilligan & Minister for Defence, Willie O'Dea. The club would like to express its gratitude to the members of St.Marys Prize Band who entertained the large gathering in the club grounds and gave the occasion a real Parish feel. They later led the attendance along the Sandmall to a reception in the Absolute Hotel.

Annual General Meeting 16/04/2008

The recent Athlunkard Boat Club AGM gave the 07/08 committee a chance to highlight to the membership the activity in the club for the past year. It was noted that the investment in equipment had exceeded previous years, with approximately 70,000 being spent in the past 12 months.

The purchases included :

• 4 ergometers
• Wintech quad
• Wintech double
• 2 Wintech sculls
• Fillippi eight
• Fillippi scull.

Oars for all the above were also purchased, and another Wintech scull is due to be delivered in the coming weeks. This unprecendented investment leaves the club in a very good position with sufficient equipment to last into the forseeable future.

The rowing season recorded one 'head of the river' win and nine regatta wins. The outgoing captain, Michael Kiely noted that the season suffered a number of setbacks which left overall results below his initial expectations. One such setback was the fact that at the beginning of the season an I.A.R.U rule change, which stated that anyone registered before 2005 at any level was not eligible to row novice, caused a promising crew of 12 novices in the beginning of September 07 break up and ultimately fall away. The addition of Darrren Cunningham, a former club oarsman, to the coaching staff was seen as a very positive step forward by the captain.

The following was the elected committee and officers for 08/09:

President: Patricia Lonergan

Vice - president: Billy Meehan

Secretary: Roger Kiely

Treasurer: Patricia Lonergan

Captain: Darren Cunningham

Vice - captain: To be decided by rowing committee/coaching staff

Committee: Michael Phayer, Michael Kiely, Peter Doyle, John Shaw, Aidan Murnane, Martin O'Connor.

It was noted that Patricia Lonergan was to be the clubs first ever female president, and to follow in the footsteps of her father, former president Mr. Christy Madigan.

It was also noted that the club had lost one of its most dedicated and respected members during the year in Louie Murnane, former president, captain and all-round clubman. A minute silence was held for all deceased members of the club.

Yours in Rowing,

Roger Kiely

Secretary ABC

(kielyrowing@yahoo.co.uk)

Web site redesign

As you may have noticed the web site has been completely redesigned. This was done because the last site was difficult and time consuming to update and manage. Resulting in it not being updated as often as it should have been. And also because it just didn't work with some Internet browsers.

The new www.athlunkard.com now uses the latest Internet trends to solve these issues. It uses free bloging sites and free online photo storage to create and store the content. The best bit is anyone can instantly update it by either a simple email to the Blog or for something fancier to me.

If you would like to add photos and content email athlunkard@gmail.com

I will be tweaking it for a little while yet, but the basics are up and running.

John

New season starts...

Attention all oarspeople and prospective oarspeople!!!

Training is about to recommence after our summer break. For the winter training session a comprehensive programme will be put in place to build stamina, strength and general fitness. This coming season has a lot in store with 6 news boats ordered and due for arrival early next year. Also this year we plan to start the training programme as we intend to go on and hopefully improve our chances of success during the year.

All new members are very welcome and this would be the ideal time of year to start. The clubhouse is usually open at 7pm most week nights and 11am weekends for anyone who may be interested in joining.

Club Lotto 11/11/2006

Congratulations to Tony O'Sullivan who had the bonus number in this weekend's lotto draw. He wins 70euro.

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