There has been a growing deserve in years gone by to harness the success of the Juvenile Camogie section and help to grow the Adult Camogie section in the club once more on the back of this.

This year, the club decided to do just that, and have appointed Des Butler as manager of the newly reformed Junior Camogie team. The team has been setup to cater for three types of players:

1. That player that is just coming out of Juvenile, wishing to continue to play the game but are not ready for the step up to Intermediate or Senior just yet.  
2. Previous Juvenile or Adult section members/players that would like to become part of a team again but want to take it at a semi relaxed pace.
3. New starts to the game of Camogie that have always wanted to play for Erin's Isle but there hasn't been a team that suits.

If you think you'd be interested, or would like to find out more Des has requested that you contact him so he can fill you in and get you acquainted with the other girls on the team. The team have been training since the being of February and training weekly at 7pm Wednesday nights and 12.45pm Saturday afternoons.

As we start a new year, one which will hopefully be a momentous one for the club, it's worth reminding ourselves of one very important fact that was achieved back in October 2009. That is, the Senior Footballers will be playing in AFL1 for the first time in 4 years.

Anyone involved in the team or those who have watched the lads over the last couple of years will certainly agree it's where they belong for many years to come. This week last year, the same squad of players, minus one or two that have developed into Senior Football Squad members over the last 12 months, sat down to discuss their goals for the year and how they would achieve them. Top of everyones list of goals was to regain Division 1 status for the 2010 season by winning promotion from AFL2. One year on, it's a very different conversation that the lads will be having when they discuss their goals for 2010!!!

Not only did the lads win promotion from the AFL2 league, they won the competition outright in October, long before all games had finished in the league. With a total points haul of 26 and only dropping 4 points all year, they couldn't be caught. It was a magnificent achievement and one that has not been forgotten 3 months on! The importance of this promotion cannot be understated in the club and the air of confidence that this has brought to the club is palpable and all teams in the club will be looking to use the success of the Senior Footballs to achieve their own goals.

The discussions this week will no doubt be around staying in AFL1 and stepping it up a notch. Championship ambitions will likely be discussed also. Suffice to say, it's a much better position to be in then twelve months ago, but it's not the end of the journey.

Today, the 4th of January 2010, we once again congratulate all the squad and its mentors on a tremendous 2009 and wish them every luck in the onward journey to even more success in 2010. With a bit of luck and a lot of hard work and endeavor hopefully we will be writing a similar article about the Senior Hurling squad as they look to follow suit this year.

Here's to a successful 2010 for Erin's Isle GAA club! 

A former Erin's Isle Juvenile, Stephen Farrelly has this week become WWE Heavyweight Champion of the world.

Pictured here in May 2009, Stephen has long since left Erin's Isle now. However, back in the late eighties and early nineties Stephen graced the Farnham Drive pitches regularly. Current members like Paul McCluskey, Christy Mooney, Stewy Galligan (to name a few) will no doubt remember these days before Stephen gave up Gaelic Games to pursue a career in wrestling.

Clearly Stephen has gone from strength to strength in his career and will be known to wrestling fans as Sheamus - the Celtic Warrior. The sport/showbusiness of wrestling although "fake" in the minds of some is extremely demanding and requires supreme strength and fitness. The results of the WWE are staged and pre-determined but Stephen must have done something right in his short career thus far in WWE to warrant him earning the Heavyweight Champion title.

Suffice to a number of his former team mates got in touch with me to advise me of this most recent success, which you can read about here, and wanted me to publicly congratulation Stephen.

Congratulations Stephen!

All in Erin's Isle are very proud of your achievements.

After another year of celebration of the life of Fran Leonard, the dust has settled for another year. Yet again, the day was a huge success, but it wasn't helped this year by attrious weather conditions. Driving rain and high winds for over a week meant that the pitches in the club were unplayable. However, it didn't prevent the days activities going ahead.

As always, the ever accommodating O'Dwyers club agreed to play the adult game on the All Weather Pitch and it turned out very well under the circumstances.

First off was the mass of course in Our Lady of Victories Church on Ballymun Road. Jude did her usual task of ferrying members between Erin's Isle and the church on the specially commissioned bus meaning that the mass as it always has, had a big representation from the club.

Following the mass back at HQ our Under 10 Footballers challenged O'Dwyers Under 10 Footballers for the Juvenile Cup. Two separate 7-a-side outfits from each club played two 10 minutes a side halves with the overall winners (total scores) claiming the cup. I'm delighted to say that it was our own club who took the cup this year.

After the Under10 matches had finished, onto the pitch came the bigger kids!!! It was a match that was the first of its kind played on our All Weather pitch and is something that could definitely work in the future and has given some food for thought. The format was a 7-a-side game of 20 minutes a side. One Goalkeeper, 2 backs, 2 midfields and 2 forwards. The other important rules were that you could only score a goal or point within the opponents half of the pitch and also, if the ball hit the wall at each end it was deemed wide. For the purpose of continuity though, the side walls were in play. Having played in the game myself, it is very energy sapping and intense and so I can vouch that the "flexi-sub" policy that was agreed worked well also! The ended in Erin's Isle reclaiming the adult cup after a 1 year exile.

As in previous years, both clubs joined other members and the Leonard Family and friends in the clubhouse after the games for some well deserved refreshments and of course the all important presentations. Below is a nice picture of Marie Green from Cry.ie presenting the cups to our victories captains.

Of course the real importance of the day is/was to increase awareness of the importance of Cardiac Screening and Special Guest Marie Green addressed the large gathered crowd on how CRY is continuing to help save lives in Ireland every day. Marie also told us of the importance of Fund Raising to keep their organisation running. With that in mind a number of our Senior Camogie Team have committed to running the Dublin Mini Marathon next year for CRY and also members of the Intermediate Football team are hoping to do similar for CRY by taking part in a triathalon.

If you would like to help yourself please visit the CRY Website at www.cry.ie

The Leonard Family would like to thank everyone involved in making this day such a success again this year and of course the club would like to SINCERELY thank the Leonard Family for all their help. Roll on 2010!