St. Laurence O’Toole’s GAC Statement re: Eamonn Fennell. 3rd February 2010

O’Toole’s Football Pedigree

Our club has the longest continuous Senior Football status of any club in Dublin and is second in the role of honour of Senior Championships won (11).  Our internal structures for football and hurling are exactly the same and we place equal focus on both codes. Our facilities are acknowledged as among the best in the county and we have invested heavily in our community in terms of physical infrastructure and voluntary effort in an area which suffers from much social disadvantage.

Current Situation

We face an important football relegation match this Sunday 7th February and unfortunately Eamonn, one of our best players, has refused to line out for the club he has played with for more than fifteen years from Under 10 level upwards.

Eamonn made his inter-county break through with Dublin almost five years ago and had the honour of winning a Leinster Under 21 football medal as an O’Toole’s player. Throughout the current episode we have not sought to prevent him from playing with Dublin.  We are glad to see his inter-county career progress and our current position on playing for Dublin remains.  Our juvenile players look up to Eamonn as a role model and we need to retain all our players to sustain the growth and well being of our club.  

Wider Issue

The issues raised by Eamonn’s transfer request has much wider implications for the GAA on a National level and threaten to undermine the core values of the GAA – allegiance to parish, club and local community.  These values are enshrined in the official GAA guide and Dublin County Board bye-laws which were adopted by an overwhelming majority at a special convention of the Dublin County Board late last year.

Summary

O’Toole’s wish to retain the services of one of our key players and have decided that while we continue to vigorously oppose Eamonn’s transfer request to St. Vincent’s we will place no obstacle in the way of his county career in 2010.  Eamonn is free to play for the county as a registered member of O’Toole’s and we hope that in time he will return to play for his club in the community where he grew up and where he lives. 

Clubhouse Special Offer

We wish to remind all our patrons that the clubhouse special offer has been extended. All pints, all bottled beers, all shorts  are €3.00 drinks from 7.00pm to 9.00pm seven nights a week.

Nursery

 The nursery will resume on 13th February 2010

Boys and girls between 5 and 7 are welcome to come along to the nursery each Saturday morning. The nursery starts at 10.00 sharp and runs until 11.30. The nursery is run by a band of volunteers headed by John Synnott and aided by our Games Promotions Officer (GPO) Niall Williams.

For further details contact Niall at 087 9136374