A moment in our lives

There are moments in all our lives when we take a breath and realise that this is a moment we may never see again. When Club Chairman of 2009 John M O Donnell applied for our Club to host the All Ireland Gaelacht Competition, the date allocated of 2015 seemed a lifetime away. But more quickly than we realised the date was fast approaching. Our field development, our Floodlights, our Stand and finally our Clubhouse had to be built. But what Community spirit kicked into place to allow this dream becomes a reality and the first weekend in June saw the return of so many of our young and not so young emigrants for the weekend and we were so glad to see them all.Never in my lifetime did I see anything like the wonderful activation of the Community as we saw in Ardara on the June bank Holiday weekend. People put in endless hours of voluntary effort to make this a special weekend and a platform to highlight Ardara as a Community at its very best. We do acknowledge and thank our neighbouring clubs for all their support and goodwill over those weeks and in particular for The Gaeltacht Weekend itself.The little seemingly insignificant tasks carried out, the tasks done that we did not see meant so much and made this the special weekend it was. We sincerely thank everyone of those people who did those tasks. I often watch the Rose of Tralee competition and the Chairman always finishes his speech with the remark that we havent seen our families for weeks and I can concur with this for so many of our committee over the weeks prior to the competition.The visitors and guests to Ardara that week were in awe of the way they were treated whether in accommodation, in pubs, shops or restuarants. They felt the welcome was overwhelming and sometimes we do not appreciate the warmth of our community until it is highlighted to us as it was so often that weekend.We can never dictate the weather and we are so glad that Friday, Saturday and Sunday were fine but Monday was just too much to handle and sadly our finals were cancelled because of the heavy rain and after much debate and negociating we were so pleased to have the final on the October Bankholiday .The Reserve Final between Downings and an Arran Island Team was a great game, with Arran Islands team coming out on top. We were all pleased to welcome the County Champions Naomh Conaill who came with their full team and there usual wonderful support. Kilcar were the opposition and in an excellent game Naomh Conaill came out on top. Again, the now ususal community spirit kicked in and the weekend passed with all happy.As Club Chairman, I want to sincerely thank each and every member of our Community who did so much to make a special and well run event a special moment in our lives.