Bruree will have a representative in the White Collar Boxing Big Fight night at the South Court Hotel on Saturday, December 4th. Michelle Gammell will be a contestant on the night and tickets are available from Michelle (087-9488168). Tickets are €22 and proceeds of the night will go to Enable Ireland and CARI.
GAA
Munster Semi-final: Bruree had home venue for their Munster Junior A football semi-final against Tallow of Waterford on Sunday and Kilmallock was the chosen venue. It was a bright but bitterly cold day at Fitzgerald Park with little or no breeze to affect the outcome. It was an emotional day for Bruree following the funeral of Johnny Sexton the previous day. Three of Johnny’s sons – Andrew, Chris and Eamon were on Bruree’s starting fifteen and other family members were there to offer support.
Bruree started off slowly and took about fifteen minutes to settle into the game. When they did settle, they played some very effective football with players working for one another and as a team. Indeed they held Tallow scoreless from play for the opening half hour.A few soft frees gave Tallow a three point to no score lead at the quarter hour mark. Midway through the half Michael Lane scored two points from play in quick succession and from there on Bruree dominated the remainder of the half. A pointed free from Eamon Sexton was followed by a point from play from John O’Brien who picked up a short forty five from Dessie Lenihan. John added another Bruree point from a free before he was involved with Tommy O’Brien in setting up James V. O’Brien for a Bruree goal with four minutes to go. Another Eamon Sexton pointed free saw Bruree go into the break with a 1-6 to 0-3 lead.
Bruree seemed to lose concentration for some of the second half and allowed Tallow get back into the game for a period. However, Bruree managed to hold the Waterford champions scoreless from play until a disputed point in the final minutes. The opening score of the second half came from a John O’Brien free after five minutes but Bruree were not to score again until injury time. Tallow added two points from frees and that final point which was waved wide by the umpire but awarded by the referee. In injury time, John O’Brien burst forward with the ball, determination etched on his face. He was tackled and won a sideline kick which went back to John who floated the ball over the bar for the final action of the game. There were three straight red cards in the second half but it was hard to see any justification for these in what was an open sporting game.
Bruree now go on the play the Munster final on Sunday, December 12th.
The Bruree team was Gerard O’Dea, Andrew Sexton, Anthony O’Shea (Captain), Chris Sexton, Kieran O’Rourke, Dessie Lenihan, Vincent Stanton, Jimmy O’Dea, John O’Brien, Tommy O’Brien, James V. O’Brien, Gerard O’Brien, Paddy Kelly, Michael Lane, Eamon Sexton, James C. O’Brien, Brian O’Rourke, Shane Mullane, Sean Kelly, Stephen O’Halloran, Donal Deady, Niall Broderick, Patrick Deady, David Broderick. The selectors are Mike McCarthy, Charlie O’Shea and Brendan Hogan and the trainer was Paul Sexton.
AGM: The postponed Annual General Meeting of Bruree GAA will now be held on Saturday, December 4th, at Bruree Community Centre, starting at 8.30 pm sharp. All members are asked to make a special effort to attend this meeting. The meeting will go ahead on Saturday night irrespective of whether there is a quota present or not. All members and players are asked to attend. This is the most important meeting of the year and gives members a chance to look back on the past year and to look forward to 2011.
Juvenile GAA
Indoor Hurling: The indoor hurling finals will be held in Bruree Community Centre on this Thursday night, December 2nd. The presentation of prizes will take place at the Charleville Park Hotel on Sunday, November 28th.
Presentation Social: The postponed Bruree Juvenile GAA Presentation night will be held at Club D’Ville at the Charleville Park Hotel on Sunday, December 12th from 5.30 to 8.30 pm (food will be served at 6.00 pm). A limited number of tickets at €10 each are available from Gerard Sexton (086-2103751), Joan Quirke (087-7671573) or from Karen Rea. Tickets are also available at the Community Centre during the Indoor Hurling tournament. Please note that, due to health and safety reasons, a parent or guardian must accompany any child attending the social. Unaccompanied children will not be admitted. Please ensure that no child is disappointed on the night please make sure that they are accompanied on the night.
45 Drive
Winners of the 45 Drive last week with eight games were Tom O’Rourke and John Moloney, Katherine O’Regan and Sean Blake and John Sheehan and Mary O’Leary. Raffle prizes were won by Katherine O’Regan, Sean Healy, FintanStone and John Sheehan. The 45 Drive continues in the Community Centre every Tuesday night, starting at 8.30 pm sharp.
St. Patrick’s National School
The winners in Week 3 of the school’s Silver Circle draw were 1. Thomas Sheehan, 2. Mrs. Betty Quirke, 3. Conor Buckley, 4. Paul Bray, 5. Donie Costello, Sellers Prize Evan Sheehan Phelan.
The winners in Week 4 of the school’s Silver Circle draw were 1. Tom Sheehan, 2. Maedbh Murphy, Charleville, 3. John Paul Lynch, Ballygibba, 4. Pat Thompson, Bruree, 5. John Irwin, Feenagh, Sellers Prize John Sheehan.
Lotto
Lucky dip winners in last week’s Bruree GAA/Rockhill Rovers lotto draw were €50 Elizabeth Sheehan, Granagh, €25 James F. Fitzgerald, Hospital, Gerard O’Flaherty, €20 Pat Murphy, Nellie Carkill, Rosaleen O’Donnell, c/o Mooneys.
Nationwide
Bruree will appear on Nationwide Revisited on RTE 1 on this Thursday, December 2nd, at 7.00 pm. The footage was recorded on location in Brureea couple of months ago and features the De Valera Museum and Bruree Heritage Cantre and the De Valera cottage at Knockmore.
Sympathy
We extend our sincere sympathy to the family, relatives and friends of Johnny Sexton, Derawlin, Tommy Ryan, Charleville, Mary Naughton, Newtown, and Holly O’Keeffe, Blarney, who died recently.
Johnny Sexton RIP
Bruree lost a landmark figure with the recent untimely passing of Johnny Sexton. His sudden death, just a few short weeks after news of his serious illness broke, shocked everyone who knew him. Johnny was a man who was known to absolutely everyone in the parish and, indeed, much further afield.
The Sexton name is written large in the annals of Bruree GAA. Mick Sexton was Mr GAA in Bruree for a long number of years and Johnny, like many of his siblings, followed in his father’s footsteps. He played for many years with Bruree and even played for a period on the same Bruree team as his father. In later years, Johnny was part of his son John’s inter county refereeing umpire team
Johnny excelled as a team mentor and there are many players and former players in the parish who owe their playing careers to Johnny. He took a particular interest in promoting hurling and football at underage level in Bruree. He encouraged youngsters to come to the field and start playing and there are countless players who remember piling into Johnny’s car to travel to games. He won the respect and admiration of successive generations of youngsters to whom he was simply known as Johnny. As far as these young stars - and they were always treated as stars by him - were concerned, Johnny knew everything about hurling and football and his instructions were followed without question. There are many past and present players of both hurling and football who can trace their love of the games back to underage training sessions with Johnny. He took great pride in the blue and white jersey of Bruree and instilled that pride in all the players with whom he was involved. When he came to work at Bruree National School, he was well respected by both staff and pupils.
As an administrator, Johnny had few peers at club level. A strong advocate for doing all things properly, Johnny knew the rules of the Association back to front and used this knowledge to great effect within the club and on behalf of the club when dealing with south and county boards and committees. Johnny served as club secretary from 1993 to 1999 and, at various times, served in other positions in both the senior and juvenile club.
Johnny was a talented musician and his skills on the accordion were it great demand at rambling houses around the country.
Johnny’s popularity was evidenced by the huge crowds who visited his home on Friday evening and the attendance at his funeral mass at St. Munchin’s Church, Rockhill and his interment at Templemary.
Johnny Sexton had a number of things in his life which brought him great happiness. He took great pride in his family and their personal and sporting achievements. He also took great pride in sporting achievements of native parish, particularly on the GAA field. Music gave Johnny great pleasure and, in return, his skill on the accordion gave pleasure to many.
Words on paper are an inadequate means of conveying what Johnny Sexton meant to his family, to the people of Bruree and Rockhill and to everyone who knew him. However, all those who had the pleasure of knowing and working with Johnny will appreciate his contribution to the many aspects of parish life with which he was involved. Ar dheis Dè go raibh a anam.
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