A Chairde,

What a week we have all had! One that nobody could have predicted for sure, and it is certain everyone around the country knows where Aghada is now! While we wait for what will hopefully be a speedy resolution to the current blockade in Whitegate, we have a bumper newsletter to get your teeth into while you relax at home. A special thanks to Juvenile GAA PRO Helen Walsh, Camogie PRO Deirdre Haughey and LGFA PRO Lauren McAllister for preparing comprehensive reports for each of their respective sections of the club. The women are doing trojan work every day of the week to promote all our teams matches and activities on social media and deserve mighty credit for their efforts. 

Rebels Bounty sales have now closed for 2026 and we are delighted to announce we have a record number of supporters this year. A huge 464 people purchased a Rebels Bounty ticket which will greatly help support Aghada GAA Club in 2026. Thank you to every single person who purchased a ticket in the draw. Your support does not go unnoticed and is really appreciated. Thank you also to Aghada Rebels Bounty draw coordinator John Motherway and his Rebels Bounty committee of Pa O’Connor, Conor Counihan, Jimmy O’Leary, John O’Neill, Una Cashman, Joy O’Neill, Sara O’Neill, Helena Connolly, Aileen Rooney, Deirdre Haughey, Richard Good & Tim Barry. A special mention must go here to Pa O’Connor who did huge work along with John Motherway to ensure we reached a record total for 2026! Thanks again to everyone who purchased a ticket. Best of luck to all in each of the monthly draws. Hopefully we have some big winners throughout the year. Congratulations to Mickey Lewis who won €500 in the January draw. 

The Cork Senior Ladies Footballers face Galway at 5pm in the Division 1 National League Final today in the TUS Gaelic Grounds. The team have had an impressive campaign so far by reaching the final after only getting promoted from Division 2 last year. They lost out to Galway in the Division 2 decider last year so will be hoping to turn the tide this evening! Best wishes to all involved, especially Aghada players Rachel Leahy, Abigail Ring, Katie O’Farrell and Aoife Healy. Up the Rebels!

It was great to see the Imokilly Senior Footballers back in action on Tuesday night. The team had an impressive win over MTU Cork in Carrigtwohill in front of a big crowd. Well done to all the Aghada players involved (Tim Hartnett, Kyle O’Shea, Diarmuid Phelan, Cian Hegarty, Donagh Collins, Diarmuid Byrne, Conall Rooney, Ronan Murphy), physio Lauren McAllister and Joint Manager John O’Connor. Hopefully they can build on this victory as they head to the next round of the Premier Senior Football Championship in a few weeks. 

Cork will have an U20 Ladies Football team in 2026 and we are delighted to have 3 Aghada representatives on the panel. Congratulations to Bríanna Smith, Maisie McRae and Amelia Cooper who have been selected for the panel. Best of luck in the upcoming championship games ladies!

Huge congratulations to Charlie Terry who won the Junior All Ireland Hurling Championship with MTU Cork recently. This was Charlie's second All Ireland title in a row with MTU Cork. A great achievement and it is wonderful to have another All Ireland medal coming back to the parish. Well done also to Diarmuid Cotter who was part of the MTU Cork management team! 

McKeever has opened up a club shop order portal online for a 2 week period. There is some lovely official club gear available including nice retro style tops.

Click on the following link to view: https://eur.mckeeverteamwear.com/collections/aghada-20772 

Remember, our regular club gear is available 24/7 online at the following link: https://www.mckeeversports.ie/collections/aghada 

Thanks to Jacqui Murphy for all her hard work in the club shop and organising these special online order portals. Go get some gear and be decked out for the upcoming championship campaigns! 

Our club recently had a pop up shop where people donated unwanted sport gear. This gear was put on sale in our clubhouse which allowed people to give the unwanted gear a new home and a second life! Huge credit must go to Helen Walsh and Sarah Walsh for all their hard work on this initiative. Well done ladies!

Our club will once again host a Cúl Camp this summer between the 13th & 17th of July and we currently need more coaches who are aged 18 or over. If you are over 18 and are interested in coaching for this year's Cúl Camp, please contact Helena Connolly and Sinéad O’Connor on 087 665 4191.

Our club café, The Sideline Café, is looking for volunteers. The café is a wonderful amenity in our grounds which gives parents a great place to meet, have a cup of coffee and a chat while their kids enjoy their training and matches. Volunteering in the café can be very enjoyable as you meet new people and have a bit of craic along the way. There is no huge commitment needed, give as little or as much time as you can, everything helps! No experience is needed. Contact Helen Walsh on 087 308 5376 for more details or just pop into the café at any time!

At the end of last year, the club had an issue with the generator used for the quarry pitch floodlights when the radiator developed a leak. The club would like to thank James Guard for his assistance in repairing the issue and servicing the generator for the club. Thanks James. 

Three years ago, the club planted over 300 trees, which are being kindly nurtured by the Men’s Shed. With the help of Kevin Alcock, who has kindly levelled another area by the sea, we will be able to finish off this area and plant more trees in the coming weeks, completing this section of our grounds.

A big shout-out to John Terry and Mike O’Neill from the men's shed for leading the planting operation. A special mention also goes to Conor Day for the use of equipment. Conor has supported the club on many occasions by providing his machinery, and we are extremely grateful to him for this.

A few weeks ago, our Healthy Club committee organised mental health talks for our U16 boys and girls teams. The talk was part of the ‘Ahead of the game’ programme organised by the GAA & GPA. The mental health chat was delivered by Cork Camogie stars Saoirse McCarthy and Julie White along with Mary Ryan from Tipperary. Well done to all who attend and thanks to our Healthy Club committee for facilitating the event. 

Our club lotto currently has a tasty €8,500 jackpot. Wouldn’t that be a lovely amount of money to win heading into the summer. Tickets are available online at https://bit.ly/3bWAiqD and in all the usual local outlets. The next lotto draw takes place on Thursday at 9:30pm live on our Facebook page. 

Our Juvenile teams are in full flow out on the fields now that the evenings are longer and Rostellan is a hive of activity every week night. Juvenile GAA PRO Helen Walsh is doing a great job at keeping everyone up to date when it comes to juvenile matches and events. Thanks again to Helen who has prepared a comprehensive juvenile GAA update the the following link: https://aghadagaa.com/articles/183099 

Our Camogie section of our club is also back in full swing with history made last Friday night when our club fielded our first ever second adult camogie team. Our juvenile camogie teams are currently training hard and Camogie PRO Deirdre Haughey is kept fierce busy each week with all their fixtures. Thanks to Deirdre for putting together the following juvenile camogie update which is available at the following link: https://aghadagaa.com/articles/183100 

Our Ladies Football section of the club is a hive of activity since the start of the season with numerous teams busy training each week. Ladies Football PRO Lauren McAllister is certainly kept busy with all the matches and provides us with a detailed overview of what's happening here at the following link: https://aghadagaa.com/articles/183101

Our adult teams are all currently busy in league action with the hope of promotion the goal for most of our teams. 

Senior Ladies Football - Cork Credit Unions Division 1 League

Our Senior Ladies Footballers have made an impressive start to their defense of their division 1 title. The ladies have won their opening two games against Naomh Abán and Mourneabbey. The ladies face St. Vals in their next league outing, this Sunday at 4pm in Rostellan. 

Junior Ladies Football - Cork Credit Unions Junior Division 2A League

Our Junior Ladies Football team began their league campaign with an away trip to Ovens to face Éire Óg. Unfortunately, our girls lost out narrowly but performed well. They were due to face a long trip to Castlehaven last week but this game was canceled as Castlehaven conceded. Up next is a home tie against Glanmire on Tuesday night at 7:45pm. 

Intermediate A Hurling - RED FM Division 6 League

Our Intermediate A hurlers have made a good start to their league campaign. The lads had a good win against Diarmuid O’Mathuna’s in their opening league match with a number of young Aghada players shining on the day which was great to see. Unfortunately, we lost out to Mayfield in round two but bounced back well in round three as we defeated Kinsale in Rostellan last Saturday. The lads played some nice hurling against Kinsale in what was a very tricky day for hurling in a wind swept Rostellan. The team face a trip to Caherlag in their next game when they face Erin’s Own on Saturday, 18th April at 1pm. 

Junior B Hurling - ROCA Sports Junior Division 3 League

Our Junior B Hurlers have made an impressive start to their league campaign. They have won their opening two matches against Russell Rovers and Lisgoold. They face Erin’s Own in their next game on the 3rd of May in Rostellan. The game is currently scheduled to throw in at 2:30pm. 

Premier Junior Camogie League

Our Premier Junior camogie team have played two games so far in their league. The ladies had a challenging outing against Carrigaline in their first game of the season but recovered well in their second game of the season. They won a great game of camogie against Castlelyons on Monday night in Rostellan. The team face Blarney in their next league game on Monday night. The game throws in at 7:30pm in Blarney. 

Junior Camogie - Lily Grant League

Our club had a piece of history last week as we fielded a second camogie team for the first time. Our ladies travelled to Ballinascarthy to face Ballinascarthy. Unfortunately, the result didn’t go our way but there’s no doubt our ladies will build on this game moving forward. 

Premier Intermediate Football - McCarthy Insurance Group Division 4 League

Our Premier Intermediate Footballers have had a disappointing start to their league campaign. They have lost out to Nemo Rangers, Adrigole and Macroom. However, these games have been close fought affairs and hopefully over the next few weeks, we will start to get the rub of the green and turn narrow defeats into wins! On the bright side, similar to our intermediate hurlers, a lot of young players have got game time in the league campaign so far which is a great sign for the future. The lads face Glanmire in their next game on Sunday in Glanmire at 11:30am. 

Junior A Football - ROCA Sports Junior Division 2 League

Our Junior A Footballers have made a decent start to their league campaign. The lads lost out narrowly to Dungourney in their first league match of the year in poor weather conditions. The lads recovered well and had a great win away to Cobh two weeks ago. They were due to face Mildeton on Friday night but this game was called off due to the traffic chaos in the East Cork area. 

Junior C Football - ROCA Sports Junior Division 3 League

Our Junior C Footballers have had an impressive opening to their league campaign with maximum points taken from their first four games. The lads have had good wins against Carrigtwohill, Ballinacurra, Glenville and Midleton. They face Carraig na bhFear in their next game away from home at 11am on Sunday. 

Club membership is still open. If you need any assistance with your membership, please contact club registrar Anne Marie McAllister on 086 168 7463 who will help you with any queries you might have. Anne Marie was even providing membership assistance from holidays in Tenerife last week so there's no doubt she will solve any problem you are having from wherever in the world she is!

Remember, a limited number of life memberships for Aghada GAA Club are also currently available. More details will be provided in the next newsletter on this but if you would like to purchase this membership type, contact club treasurer John O’Neill on 087 907 4602 or alternatively click on the following link for more details: https://aghadagaa.com/categories/fundraising/products 

That’s it for this newsletter. Plenty of action will be coming upon us over the next few months as the summer approaches and I’m sure everyone is the same as myself, we cannot wait! 

As the Easter holidays finish up for schools this weekend, and everyone returns to normal routines next week (hopefully!), I look forward to seeing everyone return to Páirc Liam Uí Riain next week for training and matches. 

Please keep an eye on our club social media pages over the next few days for updates or potential changes to fixtures due to the fuel protests. 

Have a great weekend.

Vince