22 July 2009
Up for the Final, 17 July 2009
The weekend leading up to the Ulster SFC final on 19th July is one which will live for a lifetime in the memories of those ardent saffron followers who went en masse to Clones to support Antrim, my county, your county, our county. It was a very special day which has sown the seeds on which future success will be based.
As part of this memorable weekend Club Aontroma (CA) hosted a corporate dinner in the Wellington Park Hotel which was a huge success. As a committee we met on the Tuesday after the Cavan semi final to decide how best to capture the momentum of the moment. We decided to ‘go for broke’ and in the course of 7 working days the committee of CA organised and sold out the fundraising dinner for 20 paying tables during the prime holiday period. A hotel was booked, advertising space secured, posters designed and potential supporters contacted and re contacted until the ‘house full’ sign went up. The auctioning of a signed Antrim jersey by the current senior football team added appreciably to the financial success of the night.
The Committee of Club Aontroma would like to thank all those who made the night the success that it was and which added to the whole weekend saffron experience. That means everyone who bought a table (names and businesses at the foot of this article), our host for the evening the County’s own Mark Sidebottom and our various guests. A live broadcast was made on BBC NI Sports News on Friday evening which greatly enhanced the sense of occasion. Special mention should go to the triumvirate of past Antrim stars, Tony McAtamney who captained the last Antrim team to reach an Ulster final in 1970, Dr Sean Gibson from the successful 1946 Ulster champions and Peter O Hara from the 1951 team, the last Saffron side to win out in Ulster.
Special acknowledgement is owed too to Jarlath Burns, a friend of Antrim who has been supportive of Club Aontroma since our formation and who inspired the audience to work ever harder for long term success. Other speakers included Jane Adams, Kevin Madden, and of course, fresh from the training field, Antrim manager Liam Bradley and his backup team. There are a series of photographs from the event on the Gallery section of the Club Aontroma website. Anyone who wants to purchase a photograph please contact Brendan.mulgrew@stakeholdergroup.com
Thanks to all our supporters, long may this saffron summer continue and we send our best wishes to our minor and senior hurling teams this coming Saturday and our senior footballers who return to the field this coming Sunday in Tullamore where they will take on Kerry. Be part of the changing Antrim.
Creagh Concrete
Club Aontroma, Belfast
Club Aontroma, Dublin
MacElhatton Solicitors
Bartholomew MacElhatton Estate Agents, Dublin
Stakeholder Communications
Belfast Media Group
JC May & Company
Black Box Network Services / Philip Christie
Lagan Holdings Limited
The Sheridan Group
The GAA Store
Northern Bank
Doherty / McGrogan
John Mulholland Motors
Michael Flanigan Solicitors / Brendan Anglin
First Trust Bank
Data Dispatch
Paul Sweeney
BTW Shiels
Irish News
Premier Electrics
Lyons Architects
