End of Year Get Together

St. Joseph’s held the annual pre-Christmas get together on Saturday, 10 December, in The Shanakee, Ealing Broadway. A ‘craic-ing’ night was had by all! Many thanks to Bill Joyce and his lovely staff at The Shanakee for the food and warm hospitality extended to us; we are grateful for your support and look forward to your continued support in 2012. Many thanks also to the Social Committee for arranging the complimentary drinks, which were greatly received by players, management and supporters alike! The night capped off what has been a great year for the club.

St. Joseph’s on RTÉ Programme

St. Joseph’s featured on an episode of The Business on RTÉ One on 5 December. In the series, George Lee, economist, journalist, television and radio presenter, and former politician, explores how the 70 million people around the world who claim Irish descent could help to ease the country in its hour of financial need. Despite the recession and the turmoil in Europe, the series remains positive, optimistic and focused on solutions rather than problems. In Episode 4, George Lee interviewed Declan Flanagan and St. Joseph’s players Alan Fee and Mark McNulty about one of the oldest networks for the Irish diaspora, the GAA.The programme is available on RTÉ Player at http://www.rte.ie/player/#!v=1125382 until 26 December 2011 (St. Joseph’s feature from 0:02:25). It is definitely worth a watch. Well done to everyone, but especially to Alan and Mark.

Fundraiser for Mark McGovern

St. Joseph’s raised £2,000 for Mark McGovern at a very successful Night at the Races held on Friday, 26 August, in McCann’s, Hanwell. Mark, from Belcoo, Co. Fermanagh, suffered serious head injuries in a game in San Francisco in June. We have several players from Mark’s club in Belcoo. The money raised will go towards Mark’s medical and rehabilitation costs and was gratefully received by The Mark McGovern Rehabilitation Fundraising Committee. The club would like to extend their thanks to everyone who supported the night. Special mention to both our raffle winners, Owen McGee and the Adam and Eve pub, for generously donating back their prizes of All Ireland tickets to auction, which raised even more money on the night. Special thanks to Tom Mitchell for organising the night and managing the tote with the help of his assistant, Anthony Duffy, Alan Fee for supplying the mixture of music, and our MC for the night, Mike Cullinane. The club would like to extend their best wishes to Mark on his continuing excellent progress, he is an inspiration to us all. Pictures of the night are available in the Gallery.