On a historic night for Tralee Parnells Hurling & Camogie Club, the club hosted its inaugural social in The Rose Hotel last Saturday night. Guests of honour were the County and All-Ireland U15 Féile winning team, who were presented with their medals by Kerry Senior Hurling Manager, Stephen Molumphy. Over 180 people took their seats in the function room of the hotel, bedecked in the club colours. Master of Ceremonies, Seamus Cadogan kept the festivities moving along at a brisk pace and introduced the various special guest speakers throughout the night. The club was joined by Liam Lynch, Vice-Chairman of Kerry GAA, Liam Ross, Hurling Officer of Kerry GAA and Joe Walsh, Chairman of the North Kerry Hurling Board. Each of the special guests congratulated Parnells on the occasion of their first social and of all their achievements over the past 10 years.
Áine Lambe, co-chairperson of the Tralee Parnells Camogie said she was honoured to be involved with the club and paid tribute the dedication of people like Carmel Maloney and Suzanne Chute for getting establishing camogie in Tralee and she looked forward to seeing the camogie side of the club go from strength to strength with numbers growing every year.
In his address, Club Chairman Stephen Buttimer paid tribute to all the founder members of the club before reflecting on the achievements of the club in 2022. He congratulated the Feile team and Management as well as everyone that had been involved in coaching the boys over the past 10 years. He outlined the ambition of the Senior side of the club to win the Intermediate Championship and to graduate to Senior status in Kerry hurling. He congratulated all players, hurling and camogie, that had worn the green and gold with distinction to date and looked forward to seeing many more into the future. As well as all the on-field triumphs, he reflected on a number of other firsts that were achieved throughout the year, including the granting of a licence by Kerry GAA to use the pitch at Tralee Sports Complex, now known as Parc na Darach, for our Academy teams, which should be ready for use by April this year. While acknowledging the help and support the club has received from Kerry GAA in using Caherslee over the last 10 years, he said that the priority for Tralee Parnells over the next 10 years and beyond was to now find a home of its own which would require dedication not to mention a strong fundraising effort. In conclusion, he thanked the Social Night organising committee – Agnes Sheehy, Tara Cullinane, Eileen Brick, Lynda Harris, Caroline Somers, David Brick and Seamus Cadogan – without whom the night wouldn’t have happened.
As the presentation of the various awards got underway, first up was Suzanne Chute, who reflected on the achievement of the U12s Camogie team on winning both divisions of the U12 County Championship and presented a plaque to some members of the winning teams.
Liam Lynch then presented medals to the members of the victorious Minor team that won Div II of the County Hurling League in 2022.
Andrew Morrissey introduced the members of the winning North Kerry U21 Championship winning team that were present on the night and Joe Walsh presented them with their medals.
Mark Ryall then introduced each of the victorious U15 panel as they came forward to receive their Feile medals from Stephen Molumphy.
The players themselves made a special presentation to each of the Management team: Mark Ryall, Brian Shanahan, Andrew Morrissey, Diarmuid Brennan and Morgan Madden.
Stephen Molumphy then addressed the gathering and while he congratulated the club on its achievements to date, he emphasised that the club and the players should constantly strive for better and not rest on its laurels.
Hurling Player of the Year was presented by Stephen Buttimer to Cathal Dunne.
Camogie Player of the Year was presented by co-chairperson Linda Harris to Chloe Sweeney
and Players Player of the year was presented by Linda to Roise O’Donnell.
A special surprise presentation was made by Stephen Buttimer to David Brick for his dedication to the club since its launch in 2012 for which he received a standing ovation.
The speeches were concluded by Juvenile Chairman, Dermot Reen who reflected on all that had gone before and how we have all been privileged to be involved in spreading the hurling gospel to everyone in the club and how it was incumbent on everyone in Kerry to fight for hurling to be played across the county, not just in Tralee and North Kerry. He was especially looking forward to attending the 20th, 30th and 40th anniversaries of the club, he said.
On Dermot’s prompting, everyone sang Happy Birthday to the club, before Big Jim kicked off the disco and everyone danced the night away.
Finally, a big thank you to Eamon Costello Kerry LTD who kindly sponsored the event.
