For those that couldn’t make it to Donegal’s senior Ulster championship win against Fermanagh yesterday, the match programme had a tribute to Brigid Harkin of Moville. Brigid is an example of one of the many volunteers across all our clubs without whose selfless work and dedication Donegal football would be immeasurably poorer and there would be no days like yesterday. Below is the text of the tribute.
If a GAA Club is the lifeblood of a community, then for many in the Moville Parish, Brigid Harkin is the lifeblood of CLG Bun an Phobail. Brigid is the ever-present welcoming face at every match, meeting, event, and almost every training session at the club – never happier than when the Club is filled with life and activity and always the first to put her hand up and put in the hard work to keep Moville GAA ticking over.
Brigid’s story with Moville GAA goes right back to the Club’s move to Carrick Field in 1996. Brigid suddenly found herself living next door to a GAA pitch. Encouraged by her friend, neighbour and then Club Chairperson, the much missed Joe McGeady, Brigid began to get involved with the Club, firstly as an avid supporter, and helper, at underage games as her children Geraldine, Aishling and Aidan all played underage for the Club.
Living so close, and seeing the enjoyment her children got from playing (Geraldine would go on to play for the County at both Underage and Senior grades), Brigid soon found herself volunteering to do more at the Club – firstly as an Assistant to Joe McGeady, then as Treasurer (a post she’s held since 2007) and much more besides.
For two decades Brigid has performed just about every voluntary role possible within the Club – as treasurer, keyholder, registrar, kit supplier, caterer, first aider, organiser, and probably our most loyal supporter across all the age grades – turning out to support hundreds of Moville teams over the years, home and away.
It is no coincidence that the Club has grown and thrived so much over those years. The kind of selfless service that Brigid has given, and the sacrifices of Terry, Geraldine, Aidan and Aishling over the years as their mammy has given so much time to others, is the bedrock of any successful Club and strong community.
Brigid has put countless voluntary hours into CLG Bun an Phobail and been an enduring presence for at least two generations of Moville Gaels. She has embodied the spirit of Moville GAA as a hub for local sporting and cultural activity and a place where the young people of the Parish can come together proudly to train and to play Gaelic Games. The decision to build our pitch next door to her house back in 1996 has undoubtedly been one of the best ones that we ever took as a Club!
A thousand thanks to you Brigid, you really are the Mammy of our brilliant Club!
Tá muid fíor bhuíoch as an iarracht atá déanta aici go dtí seo, agus tá mé cinnte go mbeidh toradh a cuid oibre le féiceal ‘sna blianta amach romhainn.
By Sinéad Breen Donegal PRO Mon 27th May
