Macra News
The Carbery round of the National Dairy Council Bowling competition took place at the Mardyke entertainment complex in Cork city last week. A large crowd were in attendance from throughout the region. Innishannon were the eventual winners while Ballinadee came in second place. The Clonakilty team finished third.
The Impromptu Public Speaking and Impromptu Debating competition took place at the Parkway Hotel Dunmanway on Friday last. The first round of the Impromptu Debating saw two teams from Clonakilty debate “That TV is desperate and it’s not just the housewives”. Padraig Griffin, John O’Leary and Ger O’Donovan were proposing the motion while Edel Ronan, Triona O’Sullivan and Norma O’Mahoney were opposing. The motion was defeated and the girls progressed to the final. In the other side of the draw, Ballinascarthy and Innishannon debated “That TD’s expenses are a resigning matter”. Innishannon qualified to the final versus the Clonakilty girls. The debate for the final was “That Lisbon is a good deal for Ireland”. Innishannon were victorious while Clonakilty’s Edel Ronan picked up the award for best Chairman. The Impromptu Public Speaking competition saw Ger O’Donovan, Padraig Griffin, John O’Leary, Edel Ronan, Norma O’Mahoney, Triona O’Sullivan and Declan McCarthy take to the stage. The Impromptu Public Speaking competition compromises of the competitors picking a topic at random and speaking about it for two minutes. Some of the topics included ‘Freedom of Speech’, ‘Aftershave’, ‘Macra na Feirme’ and ‘Balls’. The eventual winner was Edel Ronan while Kilmeen’s Suzie McCarthy was the runner-up.
Saturday night saw the celebration of Ann Murphy’s birthday. A large crowd of both past and present members of Clonakilty Macra were present. Ann has contributed greatly to the progress of Clonakilty Macra over the past ten years. In 2003 she was the Chairman of the club; this was the same year that the club went on to win the AIB Club of the Year competition at the Rally in Dundalk. She has served as President of the club and is the on-going webmaster.
Clonakilty Macra has been chosen in the top twelve Macra clubs in the country in this year’s AIB Club of the Year competition. The committee members will now travel to Abbeyleix on this Saturday for interviews. The top six will compete in the final which will take place as part of the Rally, which is to be held in the Westlodge Hotel in Bantry on the October Bank Holiday weekend, kindly sponsored by Dubliner Irish Cheese.
For all news and updates or for how to join Clonakilty Macra, check out www.clonakiltymacra.com or text Ger on 086-3985231
Submitted by Ger O'Donovan on Thursday, September 24th, 2009