On the 25th June, once again the Andy McGrath Charity Cup fundraising event took place in association with Fermoy Soccer Club. All proceeds this year from the event were in support of Cardiac Research Cork, Fermoy FC schoolboys/girls and Liam’s Lifts Community services.
The Andy McGrath Charity Cup took place in Fermoy Soccer Club (Carrig Park) between 12pm and 5pm; the tournament consisted of 16 teams, 160 players from Fermoy, Castletownroche, Castlelyons, Mitchelstown, Carrigaline, Midleton and even Cork, participating in an 8 a side tournament.
Also this year in conjunction with the soccer tournament, we held a very successful coffee morning on Thursday 23rd June, a massive effort also went into this under the expert guidance of Margaret McGrath, Niamh Condon, Eibhlin and Laura McGrath, delighting all who attended with their culinary pastry skills and proved to be very beneficial. Thanks to all who attended and supported.
Each team consisted of 10 players and a roll on roll off system was in operation during each game. The event was strictly for over 30s, consisting of some Fermoy FC legends and many more.
It was fantastic to see a lot of the same faces that have played consecutively over the last four years return again with the same enthusiasm and passion.
This event was not only a soccer tournament but also a fun day out for all the family and friends. There were various amenities provided on the day to interest all ages, which included, Centra barbecue, ice cream, face painting, and bean and gone coffee, dunk tank and a bouncy castle generously provided by Ian O’Brien.
The day itself was a fantastic success and the weather held out lucky enough.
At any one time there were four games taking place so trying to keep an eye on them all was challenging in itself but also offered a wide viewing variety. A total of 31 matches took place on the day.
On the day both pitches were divided into 2 and consisted of 4 individually marked playing pitches complete with all the necessary markings required, this was essential to how successful the day went and credit to the ground staff at Fermoy FC, Mr Jackie Howard, Mr Jim Corcoran, and all the FAS workers for all their hard work, which is greatly appreciated.
This year was extra special as it gave Fermoy FC an opportunity to show off their fantastic new state of the art astro turf training facility, fittingly recently named The Pats Noonan Academy, which all kids on the day had the pleasure to experience.
The group stages were very entertaining and very competitive at times, like any sporting event we of course had a few injuries on the day and thanks to the response of the medical team headed by Liam Lacey and the Fermoy Cardiac First Responder Group all were treated to the highest standard, but in general the atmosphere was that of goodwill and everyone involved always were aware that the tournament had to be played in a sporting manner with the emphasis on fundraising.
To conclude the day’s event an evening of, entertainment provided by Fermoy’s up and coming band ‘THE IV’ followed by DJ John Duggan,. Thanks to the outstanding generosity of local businesses, we also had a fantastic raffle with nearly €2,000 worth of prizes up for grabs.
We would like to thank Aidan O’Mahony, chairman of Fermoy FC and the committee for supporting this event from the start and for all their assistance.
Can we say a special thank you to Martin Duggan, Fermoy Rugby Club for generously providing us with the use of their car parking facilities on the day.
An event like this would have been impossible to organise without the help of family and friends, willing to donate their time and energy to support this event.
A big thank you to the experts who oversaw all the action on the day and by no means had an easy day of it, our referees /officials and helpers Tom Clancy, Alan O’Callaghan, Graham Lonergan, Willie Corcoran, Sean Shanahan and Nigel Brennock our 4th officials Gerry, Cian and Eoin Condon, Chris, Ryan, Aaron McGrath, Darren Byrne, Clement Geaney, Aoife and Ann Barry.
A massive thank you to Greg Byrne who once again was a driving force behind the event again this year.
Of course there can only be one winning team and this year our outstanding worthy winners were FC AFRO from Cork who had a fantastic tournament and provided us all with some brilliant football skills on the day, under the guidance of captain Michael Ugo, congratulations.
Can we say a massive thank you to our main sponsor: Alan O’ Dwyer, FTS Logistics Fermoy; Liam Barry of Fermoy Print and Design; Brian Whelan, Fermoy Medical Hall and Pat Morrissey of Fermoy Credit Union.
Can we thank all those that sponsored this event, who attended on the day to support and for the very generous donations that were received.
May we conclude by once again saying thank you to everyone that helped, supported this event. We look forward to hopefully seeing you all again next year.
A grand total of €5,000 was raised from this year’s event. So far to date The Andy McGrath Charity cup, fundraising event has raised €21,630 since this event started in 2013.
Yours thankfully,
The McGrath Family.
