Author: CelticDCH Athletic Club

Celtic athletes had a great day at the Irish schools in Clongowes today. In the minor girls race Libby Peppard had a great run and was on the scoring team for the winning St Dominics College team. In the senior girls race Cliona Murphy had a fantastic run in her last schools cross country race and just lost out on 6th place on the final run in. Great consolation however for Cliona later on when we got the team results. Down the field Aoife Corr and Ellen Byrne had fought for every place and the girls were rewarded with a bronze team medal for St Dominics on countback. Every one of those places were so vital. Aoife Donaghy also finished for the team in her first All Ireland. Great credit to Cliona, Aoife and Ellen. They worked so hard this past few weeks towards that bronze medal. After the senior race Cliona had to rush off to Nenagh to help her St Dominics Camogie team win their final. Busy girl.

Ella Mae had a tough day in the minor race, she looked in control for the first half of the race but towards the end ran out of legs and finished 16th in a National which will disappoint her but is still a very good result. Alison Armstrong ran a solid race in the senior girls race finishing 16th.

In the intervarsity championships Niamh Donnelly and Clare Brennan finished in the top 20 with Sinead Cronin and Aislinn Moorehouse not far behind. Well done to all and thank you to all the parents and supporters.

We were delighted to see the Parkside Schools Race Day get a mention on RTE2’s News2Day this afternoon! Big thanks to Jack O’Flatharta and Jack Reardon from DCU MPS (Media Production Society) who kindly gave up their time to film the footage! Check it out in the video below at around 4.40 or watch the full episode here!

Dont forget to watch the European Indoor athletics this weekend. On RTE, BBC and Eurosport. Also watch the All Ireland schools cross country on aertv on the internet.

Sat 7th Mar Brians group and older middle distance group Santry at 11am sharp No training for younger athletes on Sat

Best of luck to all our girls running in the All Ireland schools and intervarsity championships in Clongowes College today.

Sun 8th Mar All younger athletes out to Santry today for 10.15. Competition starts at 11am and will be very quick. This meeting is a fun, no pressure one with athletes from Clonliffe, Lusk, Skerries, Portmarnock. Races are under 9/11/13/15/17 and athletes in even age groups move up one age group. We expect all athletes who come training to race on Sunday.Wear club singlets and check you have track spikes in your shoes.

Sun 8th Mar Hole in the Wall 11am everyone else

Tue 10th Mar Hole in the Wall 7pm -everyone
Bogies at 4pm for anyone whos free

Wed 11th Mar High jump in the Hall 6pm

Thur 12th Mar Brians group gym at 7
Everyone else School Hall at 7

Record numbers of participants lined out in spring sunshine for Schools Race Day in aid of Focus Ireland. In close partnership with Celtic DCH Athletic Club and Dublin City Council, this years event saw over 1000 school children, teachers and parents turn out for a fine day of racing in the glorious sunshine!

The race day, which took place on March 4th in John Paul Park in Cabra, got underway at 11.30am. The Sports Accessories Ireland Race 1 started off the programme, through to Race 5 which was sponsored by Dualway Coaches. Following the primary schools programme was the inaugural 1st Year Cross-Country Relay, the first of its kind in Ireland, in which 50 teams competed for the title with each team member completing a 500m relay leg.

This year, the Parkside team spearheaded by Mary McKenna (Celtic DCH), Maz O’Reilly (Dublin City Council Sports Development Officer and Irish Women’s Rugby team), and Catherine McManus (DCU), teamed up with charity partner Focus Ireland.

Working together to tackle homelessness, the team’s objective is to raise €4,000 for Focus Ireland. It only takes €2 to provide a hot meal for homeless person, which was the take home message for the children from the day.  ‘We want to provide as many meals as possible – that’s our overall goal,’ according to Catherine McManus of the DCU Events team. ‘For those who couldn’t make it on the day, we have set up a text line to make your €2 donation – text MEAL to 50300 – it is that easy!’. Media spokeswoman for the event Sinead Kelly (DCU) said ‘We want to spread the word, create awareness of our campaign and encourage people to text with their donation. So far we have had an amazing response online. It is really great to see so many people getting behind such a worthy cause’.

Mary McKenna of Celtic DCH remarked on the record breaking turnout “It is really fantastic to see so many schools supporting young people’s athletics.We were delighted to have so many schools from all over Dublin involved in Parkside today. A huge thanks must go out to all our volunteers, the transition year group from St Dominics Cabra, to Dublin City Council Sports Development officer Maz Reilly and of course all the Parkside Sports Centre staff. The event could not have happened without their hard work and support”.

The racing did not disappoint with 31 schools travelling from all over Dublin. The big winners on the day were St. Colmcilles in the Boys and Loreto Foxrock in the Girls 1st Year Relay events, with Mary Help of Christians on the Navan Road and St. Brigids Castleknock sweeping up many of the individual titles. The best overall school award was given to  St.John Boscos from the Navan Road who had the highest number of athletes in the top 20 of each race.

A massive thanks must go to each the individual race sponsors – Dualway Coaches, John’s DIY, Sampson Physio, Dunnes Stores, and Sports Accessories Ireland, who contributed so generously to the event. Nudiefoods provided free fruit and Glenisk provided free yoghurt for all the children present. Having secured local sponsors and prize donations, the DCU team hosted a raffle on the day with some fantastic prizes for all involved such as a Cadburys Hamper, Premium Level Dublin match tickets and  Runways sports shop vouchers to name but a few. A full list of contributors can be found here.

All proceeds from this fantastic event will be donated to Focus Ireland in helping to support those who are homeless and those at risk of losing their home in Ireland. You can continue to donate to the Parkside campaign online here.

Photos from the day can be found on our Facebook page!

Primary Schools Results

1st Year Relay Results