As we gear up for a new playing season the fruit of our labours in 2013 will be celebrated on Saturday March 8 in the Hotel Hillgrove, Monaghan. It is hoped that this will be an occasion for all the community as we honour our U-14, U-16, Minor and Senior players, in conjunction with the Minor hurling panel.

Food will be served at 8pm sharp and tickets for the event go on sale next week.

Cork camogie start, Jennifer O Leary, winner of 5 All-Star camogie awards, 3 All-Ireland Senior Championship medals and 3 Senior National League medals will be our Guest of Honour and we look forward to gathering some tips from this truly inspirational player.

Speaking of award winners, congratulations to senior and minor camogie player, Muireann Atkinson, who had the distinction of being awarded a Kutri Sports Schools All-Star award recently. This accolade rounded off a pretty impressive 2013 in both camogie and football for Muireann, who collected provincial, county and club honours in both codes.

Congratulations also to Alana and Kealán on the birth of beautiful Baby Abbie on Tuesday last.  The news delighted all our members but in particular the senior panel, of which Alana is a member.

Big sister Michaela also continues her off-field contribution to the game when she was appointed Minutes Secretary to Monaghan Co Camogie Board recently. Well done and ‘Thank you’ Michaela.

And our County Secretary/ Club Treasurer, Marie Greenan, also showed how multi-talented she is when she scooped £500 worth of sports gear in an Ulster GAA social-media online competition recently – then capped it off later in the week by collecting her ‘Senior Player of the Year 2013’ award at the Monaghan GAA Awards night. Congratulations Marie – setting a pretty high standard for us all to follow!!!

This year Ulster will host Féile na nGael (U-14 camogie/hurling/football/handball competitions) at the end of June. At present host families are being sought for participating teams from other counties. So if any family (with camogie players at any grade) feel they could host 2 little girls on the Friday/Saturday night with 3 breakfasts and 2 evening meals, please contact me on or before Friday. An exciting inducement this year is that host clubs will be allowed to enter Féile na nGael which would be a wonderful opportunity for our U-14 players. So can I appeal to everyone to give this serious consideration.

Training continues on a weekly basis in the Community Centre with schedules as follows:

Beginners: Thurs 5pm – 6pm

Advanced up to 2^nd Year: Thurs 6.30 – 7.30pm

U-16/Minor/Senior: Thurs 8 – 9.30pm

An important entry for your diary is our Annual General Meeting on Sunday, Feb 9^th in the Community Centre from 4.00 – 5.30pm. With fund-raising already ‘sorted’ this will be a brisk, business-like meeting and I would appeal to all senior players and parents of players to come along.

The sympathy of the Club goes to playing members Sinéad, Catherine and Claudia Mohan on the death last week of their beloved Granny Bridie. Also to playing member Emily and her mum, Sinéad Madden, on the death of Sinead’s aunt, Kathleen Leonard. May their gentle souls rest in peace.

Finally, best wishes to the large cohort of our playing members who are doing pre-Junior and pre-Leaving exams at this time.