Search Results for 'John Killeen'

Portumna Golf Club has won the All-Ireland Junior Cup for the first time in the club’s history. Having They won Connacht in August at Castlebar GC, they returned to the same venue for the All-Ireland finals where they overcame Ulster champions Banbridge to advance to the final against Naas. Father and son John and Sean Cleary were the heroes on the first day, both coming from a deficit position to win their respective matches. And Pat Quinlan was the toast of the club the following day after the Clearys won their respective matches. Quinlan made sure of the trophy when he hit a tremendous four iron to 10ft at the difficult par three 16th to see off David Prendergast of Naas in the fifth and final match. The team was captained by Matt Donoghue.

Galway Bay Golf Club: Captain’s Day (Denis Maher), Tom Sands 60; Donal Dooley 56; John Killeen 55; Gross Ronan Hennigan;Tom Moran; Martin Kerins; Alan Kerin;Front nine Martin Gohery; Back nine Michael Culhane; Nearest the pin John Connolly; Longest drive Brendan O'Leary. Ladies, Orla Shields (19) 41; Aoife Killeen (20) 41; Gross Mary Kelly (12) 24; Helen O'Flaherty (17) 37; Sheila Reilly (20) 37; Front nine, Patricia Melville; Back nine, Collette Kelleher; Nearest the Pin, Sheila Reilly; Longest Drive, Bridgie Hanley.

Time waits for no man, and Galway’s newest freeman of the city, John Killeen, is already setting new goals and pushing more boundaries.

John Killeen will have to sit back, fold the arms, throw back the ears and listen to a lot of compliments in the next few days. And all of it is richly deserved. Before he gets to scribble his name onto the scroll of those who have been granted the Freedom of Galway city, he’ll be made to blush a few times. He’ll hear again how his dream secured the Volvo Ocean Race for Galway, not once but twice. How he beat the odds and defied the doubters, how he managed to make the city the envy of the rest of the country’s sailing ports. John is a jolly man, whose demeanour and personality allows him to make friends and to listen to his argument. And he has used this to great effect to achieve what he has achieved in his own life, in business and in sailing.

There is no game on earth to compare with hurling, for speed, skill, artistry, movement, and athleticism. Fitness also plays a big part in the game. The Galway teams who played in the 1923 and 1924 finals spent an incredible almost 13 weeks together in Rockfield House, between Craughwell and Athenry. There, they lived like Trappist monks with a 6am reveille sounded by team manager and county board chairman, Tom Kenny, who arrived each dawn in his pony and trap from Craughwell. Out of bed and into a cold bath was the order of the day, and the first exercise was followed by a drink of cold water laced with ‘health salts’ before a solid hour’s toning up physical exercises supervised by trainer Jack Berry. Breakfast of the plainest food, with brown bread the major ingredient, followed at 10am. After an hour’s rest, the team and substitutes played and practised hurling with the free-takers perfecting their art with countless shots at goal from all distances and angles.

John Killeen and company of Let's do it Galway set a benchmark in hosting global sporting events in the city. In less than two weeks, another sporting event - albeit a European one - will be held in the city. Connacht Rugby may be the fourth and poorest province in Ireland, but the occasion of hosting a European semi-final is one of which the city, county, and province should be proud.

A proposal to give Enda Ó Coineen, John Killeen, and Eamon Conneely - the men who brought the Volvo Ocean Race to Galway - the Freedom of Galway city will be put before councillors at Monday’s city council meeting.

A report on Galway Bay and Harbour published by the House of Commons in 1838 makes for interesting reading.

The confirmation last evening of the story that we brought you first last week, that Galway is to host the final leg of the Volvo Ocean Race in 2012, brings to an end a remarkable series of negotiations that have concluded with a tremendous fillip for everyone here in the west. With the state of the economy and few lights on the horizon, the promise of this remarkable event is something that the entire region can plan around for the next two years.

Major boost, a triumph, and a fantastic day, this is just some of the praise expressed after An Taoiseach and the CEO of Volvo Ocean Race signed on the dotted line yesterday officially confirming Galway as being the host port for the grand finale in 2012.