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03rd Jul 2016

PICS: Offaly GAA team go to Galway for team night out, stop to turn turf for two separate women on the way

Conor Heneghan

You expect all sorts to happen on a GAA team trip away, but you don’t necessarily expect this.

Last month, you may have spotted an article about a unique raffle prize being offered up by St. Ryanagh’s GAA Club in Offaly, namely the services of their senior hurling team to foot the turf of the lucky winner.

The lucky winner was drawn on 19 June and it turned out to be a local woman by the name of Marie Doorley. The only problem was, while Marie might be a local, her turf wasn’t located in the locality but in Mullagh in Galway, a good half hour or so away.

Where others might have spotted a problem, the St. Ryanagh’s boys instead spotted an opportunity.

They decided to organise a team night out around footing the turf in Galway, with a plan to head to Galway city afterwards to watch Offaly v Wexford and get in a night at the dogs while they were at it.

Ciarán Butler, a senior member of the St. Rynagh’s panel, wrote to JOE to tell us about the experience, which turned out to be even more eventful than they thought.

Despite arguments over the Galway v Offaly method of footing turf, thanks to so much manpower the lads had the turf footed in about half an hour, leaving them with time to spare before the bus driver returned.

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They then spotted another woman, Helen Donoghue from Ballinasloe (pictured below), footing turf with her two kids nearby and decided to give her a dig out as well.

It was an act of kindness that was greatly appreciated by Helen, who rewarded her labourers with beverages (of the non-alcoholic variety, says Ciarán).

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They then went onto Galway and had a great night out, meeting up with team captain Sean Dolan and his sidekick Joe Carroll, who had got lost despite driving behind the team bus and were found at the top of the road, conveniently, when all the hard work was done.

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Ciaran was motivated to write in because he felt that young people get some negative press nowadays and that this episode was a true reflection of what the GAA is all about; teamwork, community spirit and development of young people.

The club plan on running a bigger and better version of the same raffle next year and will no doubt be open to travelling again, especially if someone needs their turf footed in the barren plains of Las Vegas.

A lovely GAA story, fair play to everyone involved.

Cheers to Ciarán Butler for sending this our way. Got a story for JOE? Hit us up on Facebook or Twitter, send it to our WhatsApp number 087-4001102 or mail [email protected].

Topics:

GAA,Galway,Offaly