Fixtures: Saturday, March 17: RFL Division 1B v Castleblayney (Home) at 12.30pm

Monday, March 19: RFL Division 2B v Tyholland (Away) at 2pm

 

Monaghan Harps Lotto: Numbers 1, 5, 13 and 26. Jackpot of €1,100 not won. Residual prizes: €100 F O’Connor c/o Paudge Connolly; €40 Jim Dalton (Hurling Club) c/o himself; €40 Margaret McElroy c/o Rose Donnelly; €40 Mary McRory c/o Jim Dalton (Hurling Club). Jackpot for Sunday, March 18 is €1,200 and Gráinne and Owen Connell are on duty. Lotto draw takes place in our clubhouse every Sunday night. All welcome. Thanks to everyone for their support for our Lotto, which plays a critical role in our club’s funding. We ask all club members to continue to promote our Lotto as much as possible.

 

Reserves: We started our Platinum Tanks Reserve Football League Division 1B campaign with a hard-earned win away to Emyvale last Saturday. Éimhín Morahan, John Mulligan, Remy McKenna and Thomas Croarkin got the scores that gave us a narrow lead at half-time. Éimhín continued to lead the scoring in the second half, while Remy scored the game’s only goal and Conor Forde added a point as we ran out winners on a scoreline of 1-10 to 0-8.

Team and scorers: Darragh Hannon; Jamie Shields, Aidan Burns, David Lowry; Thomas Croarkin (0-1), David Hughes (Capt.), Niall Treanor; Peter Coyle, Dylan McKenna; Shane Coyle, Éimhín Morahan (0-6, 4f), John Mulligan (0-1); Conor Duffy, Remy McKenna (1-1), Nathan O’Donoghue.

Subs: Francis Lynch for O’Donoghue, Conor Forde (0-1) for Duffy, James McKenna for D McKenna, Niall McManus for Treanor, Jason McHugh for R McKenna.

In a busy St. Patrick’s weekend, we have our first home game of 2018 against Castleblayney in Division 1B on Saturday at 12.30, while our RFL Division 2B campaign starts away to Tyholland on the bank holiday Monday at 2pm.

 

Coaching: We hosted a very well-attended Child Protection course in the clubhouse last Thursday. Thanks to Martin Sheridan for his work in organising, Conor Fadian for facilitating us and to the many of our coaches and committee members who attended.

 

Charity match: We were delighted to present a cheque for €1,800 to Monaghan Special Olympics from our New Year’s Day charity match in the clubhouse last Sunday night. Mary White and Owen Connell thanked everyone who supported the charity match, not least Terry Gilsenan for his generous donation, before members and mentors of the Special Olympics group gratefully accepted the cheque. Our own Hugh Coyle gave a quick speech: we all send Hugh special birthday wishes this week! Well done to everyone involved and good luck to the athletes in the Special Olympics Ireland Games in June.

 

St. Patrick’s Day: Our juveniles will again be taking part in the Monaghan Town St. Patrick’s Day parade this Saturday. Everyone is welcome to join us for an evening of ceol agus craic in the clubhouse afterwards. Club members are asked to support in any way they can: any adult members available to help steward the parade can contact Dónal Sherry on 086 2336159. Beannachtaí na Féile Pádraig oraibh go léir!

 

County: Good luck to Neil McAdam and the Monaghan senior footballers in their Allianz NFL game against Donegal in Clones on Sunday. Well done to Brendan Óg Ó Dufaigh, Lochlainn Power and the county minor footballers on their winning start to the Ulster league and good luck against Cavan this Friday.

 

Colleges: Hard luck to Éimhín Morahan, who played in the third-level Intermediate Final with UCD against DCU last week.

 

Membership: Registration fees for 2018 are now due and can be paid to club registrar Kevin Treanor or in the clubhouse. Fees are €20 for players up to and including U-11; €30 for all other players and members and €60 for a family membership. Please note that all players must be paid-up members to be insured for 2018.

 

Dates to remember: The Senior Football League is now scheduled to start on Saturday, March 31 (at home to Latton), with our minors due to begin their campaign on Tuesday, March 27. Our Saturday-morning coaching for juveniles will kick off in late March. The juvenile club’s annual Cake Sale is set for April 28. Darkness into Light will take place for a fifth time in Monaghan on May 12, 2018.

 

Sponsor a Seat: To celebrate and promote the continued development of our facilities at Gavan Duffy Park, we are offering the unique opportunity to sponsor/dedicate a seat in our stand at a cost of €50. See our club website (monaghanharps.gaa.ie) or contact Club Secretary Val Forde (secretary.monaghanharps.monaghan@gaa.ie) or any committee member for more details.

 

Notes: Anyone who has news for inclusion in the club notes can send an email to pro.monaghanharps.monaghan@gaa.ie by Tuesday morning.

 

Gavan Duffy Park: The Monaghan Harps clubhouse is available to book for functions. Contact Jimmy Croarkin on 087 1249635 or Pádraig Callan on 087 2543511 for more information. Anyone looking to book the clubhouse for meetings, functions, etc. is asked to please give a week’s notice for convenience.