South West Antrim Referee’s held a ‘thank you’ Dinner in the Dunsilly hotel on Thursday night in recognition of the service given to the GAA Association in the county by their referees.
South West Antrim are and have always been very proud of their Referee’s. and have a long history of supplying referees for games in their own Divisional board, as well as for the County, Ulster and National.
Over the last 50 Years, referee`s like Raymond Graffin, Jarlath O Donnell and Raymond Doone were the 1st referees to go from the SW to represent their clubs on the Ulster and National Panels, others followed, Gregory Walsh Sean Laverty, Karol Docherty, Eammon McAughy and the late Paul McKeever. They still have Kevin Parke on the National Referee Hurling panel and Richie Leahy on the Ulster Ladies panel.
At the dinner, South West referee’s secretary Gregory Walsh congratulated Paul McNally on being asked to participate on the Ulster Referees academy. “I hope this leads to bigger opportunities in the future” he concluded.
Gregory continued “I would like to thank you who continue to referee day in day out, week in week out for the SW and for the county. It’s a cliché but without you we would not have games. I think this year we had only 3 games not refereed by a neutral Ref in nearly 150 games. This is low but we will continue to try and push it to all games refereed and this is where we have to work together”.
He continued “This year we had about 15 people from the SW clubs who took a new Referees course, from that we had 9 referees who took charge of their 1st games. Having heard about, and watch some of the games we could have some good referees on the way up. To do your 1st game is a step, I hope many of you feel that you are up for the challenge, and continue to referee next year”.
South West Chairman, Stephen Graham then presented tops to Oran Loughran Glenavy, Damien Mulholland Glenavy, Patrick O Boyle Portglenone, Dominc Walsh Aghagallon and Dean Boyle Cloughmills.
Missing from the awards were Shane Hasson Rasharkin and Jack Melarkey Moneyglass, Cian Bell Aldergrove and Paddy McLaughlin Rasharkin.
“This year we have tried to highlight our Referees. On facebook we have put our referees Pics on before the Finals, which we hope will give you a bit more profile. We also wanted to recognise any ref who did a final” said the Aghagallon official
Karol Doherty then presented awards to U-14 Plate referee, Dominic Walsh Aghagallon who was in charge of the Glenavy V Glenravel final won by Glenavy
U-14 Shield referee, John Moran Aldergrove, who refereed Creggan V Cargin won by Cargin from Karol Doherty
U-14 Cup Hurling John Moran who officiated in the Tir na Nog V St Enda’s final where the winners were St Enda’s
Breslin Sheild referee, Marty Quinn who was in charge of the St Endas Creggan V Glenavy Winners Creggan from Sean McAtamney
Laverty Cup Colin Mallon Aghagallon from Sean McAleese St Endas V Portglenone Winners Portglenone
Abbey Sheild Paul O Neill from Stephen Graham, Creggan Rasharkin V Glenravel Winners Glenravel
Laverty shield Paul McNally from Sean McAleese Creggan, Moneyglass v Tir na nog Winners Moneyglass
Mc Cormick Cup Ritchie Leahey Aghagallon V Aldergrove Winners Aghagallon from Stephen Graham
Breslin Cup Paul Burns, St Congalls Aldergrove V Dunloy Winners Dunloy (Not in attendance)
McCormick Cup, Cathal McDermott (Not in attendance)