For peats sake: local players foot turf for a good cause

An act of kindness goes a very long way and that’s certainly the case for St Rynagh’s GAA Club.                          

Last month the club raffled off the unusual prize of offering up the services of the senior hurling team to foot the turf for one lucky winner. 

That turned out to be Marie Dooley who was picked from the draw held on June 19.

The one fly in the ointment however was that Marie’s turf was located in Mullagh in county Galway. This did not deter the St Rynagh’s boys however, who instead decided to organise a team building exercise in the form of a night out in Galway city to watch the Offaly Wexford match, and squeeze in a night at the dogs while they were at it!

Despite arguments over how best to foot the turf, in an Offaly v Galway method, with all that man power, the Rynagh’s lads had time to spare while waiting on their bus driver to arrive. And so, to fill the time, they spotted another woman in need of their turf footing skills, one Helen Donoghue from Ballinasloe.

In no time at all, they Ryanagh boys had a second turf job complete. So delighted with the act of kindness that Helen who also had help from her two children, offered them plenty of refreshments of the non-alcoholic type to say thank you.

The night out to Galway turned out to be a great one. The team even met up with team captain Sean Dolan and sidekick Joe Carroll, who despite having become lost while following the bus, took a wrong turn, and were “conveniently” found at the top of the road, once all the hard work had been done! 

Such was the success of the day that Ciáran Butler, a senior member of the St Ryanagh’s panel, got in touch with JOE.ie to tell the nation of the good deeds carried out by the team.

“Ciaran was motivated to write in because he felt that young people get some negative press nowadays and that this episode was a true reflection of what the GAA is all about; teamwork, community spirit and development of young people,” read the article.

And there’s already plans to run a bigger and better version of the same raffle this time next year.

The club plan on running a bigger and better version of the same raffle again next year. Fair play to all involved!