Beara hope to build on a year of progress

No change on the Beara board after encouraging year

BEARA divisional chairman Jim Hanley is happy that a good year has been put down in 2018 and he is hoping that that can be built on, while accepting the challenges faced by Cork’s western-most clubs.

Last Friday night week saw the Beara convention take place, with Cork County Board chairperson Tracey Kennedy and children’s officer Des Cullinane present.

With a completely new committee having taken office this year, all were re-elected, which Hanley sees as encouraging, especially as there were tangible achievements.

‘It went very well,’ he says, ‘I was delighted to see all of the officers returned.

‘It’s probably fair to say that we all needed to bed in a year ago, it was probably February by the time we got going but there were some good things done.

‘We relaunched the Beara website, which has been a big plus, and at the AGM we put in place a new set of regulations.

‘There were a lot of bye-laws but, over the years, they had become out of date and this was a positive piece of work put in place. It mightn’t be the most glamorous of things, but it’s important to have a proper set of regulations.

‘I’d also like to thank Tracey Kennedy and Des Cullinane for making the long journey.’

Due to its location, Beara will always face a test to generate manpower on the field, but Hanley believes that there is a strong collective spirit there.

‘That’s always going to be our greatest challenge,’ he says, ‘making most out of the resources we have.

‘To be fair, as a group of six clubs we do work closely together, we leave our rivalries – and they are healthy – on the field of play.

‘When we need to work together, you do see a strong unity. You want to have players on the pitch and as well as that we have to be recruiting volunteers and hanging on to the volunteers we have.

‘We’re trying to put in place a structure where we get every drop out of every young fella on the peninsula. Obviously, it’s that much more difficult here than it is for clubs and divisions around the county but we’re hoping to strengthen links with Beara Community School to aid that.’

In county championships this year, the Beara senior team beat Avondhu in the opening round of the divisions/colleges section of the SFC before losing out to UCC while there was a 16-point defeat against Douglas in the U21.

Hanley is keen to ensure that the Beara sides taking to the field in 2019 will be well prepared. ‘This year, the divisions and colleges began just after St Patrick’s Day and it’ll be the same next year,’ he says.

‘It’s important to have the team well prepared for that and also to have the U21 ready for their championship.

The list of officers for the coming year is: president, Riobard O’Dwyer (Urhan); chairman Jim Hanley (Bere Island); vice-chairman, James O’Shea (Garnish); secretary, Shirley Murphy (Glengarriff); assistant secretary, Peter O’Leary (Castletownbere); treasurer, Aisling O’Sullivan (Castletownbere); assistant treasurer, Michael Joe O’Sullivan (Adrigole); Irish and cultural officer, Sinéad Whelan (Castletownbere); development officer, Ciarán O’Sullivan (Urhan); PRO, Joseph Blake (Adrigole).