Introduction
This report aims to provide an overview of our Club’s activities and changes throughout the last year, while looking forward to the next year 2026. 
 We once again must start with acknowledging the great effort expended by all our Coaches, Team Admins and all other volunteers while not forgetting the great enjoyment we all receive from participating and spectating at all matches and watching all age groups. The Club exists for all our members and attempts to provide a Gaelic games outlet for all. 

While this report highlights the achievements and improvements throughout the year, we don’t – and in some cases, can’t – get everything right. We are fully aware of the many challenges and obstacles ahead of us, but with an ever increasing number of volunteers, we can definitely improve! We view these obstacles, both on and off the pitch, as opportunities!

   
 Update on Purchase of the grounds in Cornelscourt.
In June 2024, the Club signed a contract to purchase the Cornelscourt pitches from Foxrock Parish while guaranteeing continued access for other permitted users. As you are all no doubt aware, we await patiently the outcome of the legal action taken by St Brigid’s Rugby Club against Foxrock Parish. At the beginning of the year, our younger members gave us some great insights into how they would like the grounds to be developed via ‘designing’ their Field of Dreams.   We will look at running a similar exercise with our adult members and start the process of imagining what the shape of a revamped Cornelscourt facility could look like.
 
The process of upgrading the grounds will take a significant period of time and whilst we respect the legal process and will await its outcome, we can still use that time to consider what a new Cornelscourt might look like and what the steps to getting to it might look like. 
The Club would also like to acknowledge the support of the Foxrock parish, who are our landlords, and its volunteers with whom we continue to have an excellent working relationship.

Children’s Officer
At the most recent Committee meeting, one of the most important jobs in the Club, Children’s Officer was filled with the appointment of Michelle Cahill to this important role. Michelle will be learning about all her duties so please give her all the help you can in this essential area. 

While we could go through all the teams individually as all have a great story to tell, it would lengthen this report – and you would all skip to your own team’s section and not read the rest! We know you too well! 

 Suffice to say that from our All Stars up to the adult teams, the Club is filled with active and eager volunteers, all supporting each other. 

Well done to all our players, coaches and administrators, each and every team wears our colours with pride and we look forward to supporting them in 2026.
 
 We have selected a few teams as examples of the effort and commitment put in by Team mentors and the enjoyment that players, mentors and spectators get from our games. 
 

A stand out moment for our club was our Men’s hurling team winning the Junior G championship under lights in Abbottstown.   Our first Adult hurling team in 50 years started in 2020 and it was a major challenge to get it established.   However, led by our three super coaches, Finbarr Holland, Richard McMahon and Colm Kennedy, we have seen year on year improvements, great recruitment and great skills development. The team have not only won playing a great style of hurling but they are a very united group and displayed great teamwork and pride in their club. We have many girls and boys who aspire to play senior hurling/camogie and the men’s team are great role models for them. We have many excellent young players in Southern Gaels and we look forward to them transitioning to our senior squad in the near future. It is always good to see younger players coming through to the adult teams. 

 It was also great to see such a large support that night from our members young and old, male and female, and we certainly supported the team with great gusto.  
 
 Congratulations also to our U13 Hurlers (Southern Gaels) who finished second in their league, an excellent season for these boys!

Our U10 Girls got to Croke Park for a Blitz in July – a lifetime memory no doubt.

 Good luck to all our LGFA players attending Dublin trials and development squads. A great achievement!

Our Adult Ladies had a very busy year - 79 sessions including 24 games plus running and recovery sessions. A host (7) of our Minors helped out by playing up on occasion also!  It was a year of flux with their management as their coach at the start of the season, Dec Flood, had to step back due to work & travel commitments. Thank you, Dec, for all your efforts. Thanks to Shay, Ben, Catríona and Dave for stepping up in support. 
 The club would also like to acknowledge the work of Darren Holton, former Lead coach, who played a key role in establishing the team and who retired from the role in 2026.   

This year, 2025, was the first time ever that The Gers have fielded a LGFA Minor team, another great achievement and all thanks to devoted coaches and parents (especially the above-mentioned Darren Holton). Within a couple of years, we will have a whole group of girls – Gers Girls their whole sporting lives - playing adult football.  As mentioned above, a large group also made their senior team debuts having started in our Academy many years earlier. Well done to both of them and to their coaches and parents. Hopefully we can say the same about Camogie in a few years. 

Good luck to this team (Minor Girls) in their Shield Final on Saturday 22 November (Cornelscourt 3.00pm).

Our G4MO’s continues with great enthusiasm and is now 6 years in existence, Fiona Gaule has taken on the leadership of the group with Rachel Breslin taking over as Lead coach. 
 Their partners in crime, the Dads and Lads, have also had a busy year between training and local blitzes. As with the G4Mos, it’s open to all ages and skill levels. 

Our Adult men’s 1st team continued to perform and have shown that they fully deserve to be in Div. 4.  They performed well all year despite the usual injuries and absences, and while they did exit in the Championship quarter final, it was a close game against the eventual winners Fingallians - File that under ‘one that got away!’    

The Club would like to acknowledge the work of Des Tyrrell who stood down from the management team at the end of the year. It marks the end of the 20 year run for Des as a coach in the club in which he made a great impact on a number of teams.   Hopefully after a sabbatical we will see Des back on coaching duties in the near future.   

A special mention also for Dominic Rigby who is also stepping back from coaching after untold years. Dom’s background is probably closer to Shinty than Hurling but he embraced the Gers and Hurling with gusto. 

Our Div.10 team competed strongly in both league and championship and is in a good place for a strong tilt at promotion in 2026. Our good season was enhanced by the introduction of the seven minors born in 2007 and also, the arrival of Ian Mitchell (our Aussie Rules high-fielder), Jason Ellard and Geároid Hughes which more than compensated for the loss of Shane Hogan, Mark Moriarty and Ben Homes whose season was curtailed because of injury.

Suffice to say that all players on our two adult football teams are eagerly looking over their shoulders, awaiting the support of the current minors, most of whom will be eligible to ‘play up’ in 2026 

 

A great day out again on Sunday 09 November when above mentioned Minor Boys won their Championship final away at Whitehall. Never mind the victory itself, it was the top quality of football played that was equally impressive. Congratulations to all but the especially the 7 boys who are now joining the adult squads next year, and Colm Kennedy & Tom Rowley who are taking a well earned break from coaching, having brought this group all the way from Academy. We are truly grateful.  

2025 marked our third season of fielding teams in Camogie and we are pleased to say that we have skillful, competitive and highly enthusiastic teams at all 3 grades that we play in - that is u11 (1 team), u10 (3 teams) and u9 (3 teams, with u8s playing also). What is especially pleasing is that all 3 age groups have attracted additional camogie players this year. 

Looking forward, the coaches are working on some Camogie promotion events for 2026 and we are hopeful that we will have a 2018 girls team and that it is possible for all girls who come into the club in future to be ‘dual’ stars.

The club was delighted to see Rachel Donnelly represent Dublin schools in camogie in Croke park at half time in the All-Ireland Hurling semi-final.  Rachel is one of the stars of our underage sections and represented her family, school and club with both pride and distinction in Croke Park.

 In terms of teams, we had 29 teams lining out in competitions from go-games to adult men and women. 

 | Group | No of teams
| Adult Teams | 3 Football Teams (2 Male, 1 Female)
1 Hurling Team
| Juvenile Boys & Girls  | 16 Football teams from Under 8 to Minor 9 Hurling & Camogie teams from Under 8 to Under 16
| Academy | Catering for 120 kids (4- to 7-year-olds).

In addition to this, we also have the G4MOs and the Dads & Lads, so in total there were 31 active teams in the club in 2024.

The focus on upskilling and supporting our coaches is continuing with great support. As I type, a group of prospective coaches are with our own Johnny Magee in Bray Emmet's attending a coaching course. As per last year’s note, we are indebted to our local sister clubs who have facilitated our members in attending their courses also.  

The Summer Skills program has continued and grown – each week more coaches are requested to assist.  It is a very popular event in the summer months, especially when we get good weather like this year. 

Another area of growth is the level of support offered by our adult players to our younger members by attending and supporting their sessions as guest coaches. Not only are the younger kids experiencing fresh ideas but this involvement closes the gap between our teams – with Adults and Juveniles generally training and playing matches in different venues, it is sometimes forgotten that the Club has players at all ages. 
 Long may this support – as seen in Abbottstown at the Hurling Final - continue!

The Academy continues on Saturdays and Johnny just gets younger looking in their company! Again, a special thanks to our ‘coaches’ at Academy, most of whom are from our Minor & U16 Girls and Boys teams. 

 Club Finances
As detailed last year, our Club has been growing and it is getting more costly to run our activities as we require more facilities (especially all-weather/winter facilities). Our income needs to grow with our Club. With that in mind, there will be some increases in membership fees for 2026. We plan to continue our fundraising with new events planned to bring members together for 2026 to allow the Club to continue to invest in equipment and facilities as well as fundraising to purchase and develop our Cornelscourt home. 

While the membership did approve a change of financial year (to September), we have been advised to remain with our December year end in preparation for any lending support required, if and when the purchase of Cornelscourt reaches a conclusion. In 2024, the Club had a small surplus of €6k and we estimate that the Club will likely breakeven at the end of 2025.

The club would like to, as always, acknowledge the support of its many sponsors without whom our club could not function as well as the many members who have successfully raised funds for the Club throughout the year.

Club Facilities
In 2025 the Club had access to pitches in Cornelscourt, Ballyogan and Meadowvale to play home matches. In addition, we had winter (floodlit) training facilities in Loreto, Ballyogan, Stepaside, Beckett Park and St Laurence’s.   As always, the club would like to express our thanks to all the above Facility providers but especially Loreto College, Foxrock – without the use of Loreto facilities, the majority of juvenile teams would be lacking winter facilities. 

In Cornelscourt, we have recently received delivery of new Juvenile goalposts, hopefully making it easier for all teams to ‘set up’ pitches.  
 Our neighbours Dunnes Stores organised improvements to the area behind the goals at that end, by removing the scrub bushes etc and levelling that area. Not only will It save a fortune in lost sliotars, but it opens up that end of the field and highlights the benefit of having the use of a pitch in such a built up and heavily populated area. 

As advised last year, the request to DLR to install dressing rooms/toilets in Ballyogan is a slow burner and little progress has been made in this area.  Hopefully some progress will be made in 2026. 

Many thanks to David Gilsenan and his team at Hilton’s Pharmacy for the donation of a Defibrillator for Ballyogan. As this is a DLR facility, we are required to liaise with DLR to establish best & safest position etc. This liaison is ongoing. 

Social Events
The Christmas Party this year is on Saturday 29 November 2024. We always have a great night and encourage all our adult members and players to attend – a great night with your fellow members!  As mentioned last year, it’s not all about what happens on the pitch! 
We had Summer Barbeques and numerous social meetings over the year. As we don’t have a Clubhouse to call our own, we are indebted to our friends in KERB, Foxrock for either hosting or allowing us the use of their premises. They are very happy to support our Club so if you have any ideas for social events etc or need a venue, please do contact them. 
Our Club is an integral part of the community but we do feel that we are missing out on more social activities/events for our members and a greater effort must be made in 2026. These events help to generate the Club atmosphere required to sustain our Club. Volunteers to help run social events are very welcome to assist.  

Remembering our Past members and friends.
The Club expresses their condolences to all our members who have lost loved ones during the year. It is always difficult and especially as we approach the Christmas period, so our thoughts are with them all.

Club Challenges and opportunities. 
As per last year’s report, our club faces many challenges and opportunities, largely as a result of our growth and our ambition. They cover a range of topics from recruitment and retention of players, access to facilities, growing our structures to support the growth in the club, growing our revenues, extending our reach into the community etc.  We will be asking the incoming committee to address the structure of the Club with regard to increasing active sub committees to manage each important area, and will be in touch with members to seek your support.

Committee
As our AGM approaches, 3 members of your Executive Committee are stepping back. Thank you to Anna Martin, Eoin MacMaoilir & Declan Flood for their input and support during their time on Committee. 
Eoin and Dec have and will continue to play a key role in the development of coaching standards in the club and Anna will thankfully continue to manage and organise our All Stars players – a very valuable part of our club. 

Thanks.
So where do we start? We would not have a Club and not be offering Gaelic Games as a great outlet for our members, both sports wise and socially, without all the people who help us run our great club -our players, referees, parents, coaches, administrators and supporters.  Without your support we would not function. 
A special mention – as always - to our Games Development officer Johnny Magee who once again is the glue that holds us all together.

We would also like to acknowledge the support we receive from Parnell Park (Dublin Co. Board), Leinster Council and the central team in Croke Park for the GAA side of our club and from the staff and administrators in both LGFA & Camogie for that side of our Club. We dislike saying ‘that side of our club’ and we look forward to supporting, in full, the planned merger of the 3 organisations, hopefully in 2027. 

Thank you also to St Brigid’s Boys School for the use of their School Hall when required. We hope to see you all there at the AGM on Friday 21 November 2025. 

It is normal in GAA circles for there to be both a secretary’s report and a chairperson’s report. However, we very much operate as a team and as there was so much crossover that we took the decision to write a joint report.  

Thank you for reading it

Up The GERS!

 

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 John McCabe                                                                       Ger Moffatt
 Secretary                                                                              Chairperson
 Geraldines P. Moran CLG                                                 Geraldines P. Moran CLG