Lord Mayor Launches the John Gildea sponsored walk   15/04/2015

Lord Mayor Cllr Mary Shields Launches the John Gildea sponsored walk for St Finbarr’s GAA & Pieta House

Our esteemed club member Cllr Mary Shields, Lord Mayor of Cork, today in City Hall, officially launched the John Gildea sponsored walk, with a variety of club members and guests present. Special guests were John’s parents Bridie and John, while Pat Duffy represented Pieta House, our charity partners for the event. Representatives of all our playing sections in hurling, football and camogie were in attendance, in addition to members of the club executive, including chairman Michael Comyns and our club President Pat Lougheed.

The Lord Mayor had a special word of welcome for Bridie and John Gildea, who are long time personal friends, and she noted that her son Hugh had played many times with John in successful Barr’s underage and minor teams. She also lauded the outstanding work of Pieta House and was pleased that the Barr’s club had adopted the organisation as a partner charity. The Lord Mayor thanked the club and its many mentors who had supported her own family members in their sporting and social development over the years. Mr. Pat Duffy acknowledged the support of the Gildea family for their outstanding fund-raising to date for the charity, in particular the substantial contribution which Abtran (John’s former employers) made last Christmas to support new developments in the Bishopstown head-quarters of Pieta House.

Mr. Duffy praised the Barrs for their continued support for the charity through the annual sponsored walk and also noted the excellent work done by the club, as the lead provider nationally in the GAA Health Club Initiative. Club Executive chairman Michael Comyns formally thanked the Lord Mayor for the kindness and generosity which she had shown to our club over many years and thanked her for hosting the launch of the sponsored walk. He also played due tribute to the outstanding contribution which John Gildea had made to St Finbarr’s both as player and administrator. He was indeed a true Blue! In her final remarks Bridie Gildea acknowledged the valuable work which Pieta House was doing and her wish was that all of our youth would come to know that a problem shared was a problem solved.

 

To conclude, Michael Comyns advised all present that the revised club website was now live and that it was providing a great service to members both near and far, sharing updates on club activities, both on and off the pitch. Full details of the family fun day and sponsored walk on Saturday next 18th are available on Twitter and Face book via the club website. (see stfinbarrsnhf.ie)