THOUSANDS of people turned out in Dalkey for the culmination of the Cuala GAA Academy’s 2018/19 season on Saturday, June 22.
On a beautiful summer morning, families and supporters watched nearly 500 players aged between five-and 10-years old marched along Dalkey’s Main Street to the club’s Headquarters at Hyde Park.
They were led by Artane Band and escorted by two members of the Garda Mounted Support Unit.
At Hyde Park, teams assigned to every county in the country ran off the final series of hurling and football matches of the week-long event.
Cuala GAA club was voted The Irish Times ‘Best Club in Ireland’ for 2016 and are the 2017 and 2018 All-Ireland Club Hurling Champions.
It was revaled recently that the first ever GAA club sponsorship to include education and employment incentives had been launched by the American biotechnology company, Amgen, in conjunction with Cuala.
Amgen’s support of Cuala will last for three years. It will include an annual education bursary and mentoring for the bursary recipient, a guaranteed place on their coveted eight-month paid Internship programme as well as funding the preparation of all the club’s adult football and camogie teams.
This includes five adult men’s football teams, three adult women’s football teams and three Camogie teams.
The launch was attended by the GAA President, John Horan, Amgen Vice President of Regional Manufacturing, Alan Harmon, Director of HR Amgen, Olive Casey and officials from the thriving Dun Laoghaire club.
The attendance included a host of current All-Ireland champions and inter-county stars. Dublin senior footballers, Michael Fitzsimons, Con O’Callaghan, Conor Mullaly and Peadar O’Coifigh Byrne.
They were joined by Jennifer Dunne from the Dublin Senior Ladies Football team, as well as members of the All-Ireland winning junior camogie winning team – Sinead Wylde, Hannah O’Dea, Roisin O’Grady and Sinead Murphy.
GAA President, John Horan, welcomed the new initiative, and congratulated Cuala on continuing to thrive fielding almost 100 teams.
He pointed out that Cuala have dozens of students in Third Level education, and he believes the players in Cuala will leverage the opportunities provided by Amgen to grow and develop in their careers.
He said: “This is a truly magnificent announcement which will help these young men and women continue to play the sport they love, as well as give them a wonderful professional opportunity.”
