It was a cracking evening in St. John's Park on Thursday May 25th when one of our youngest groups the O'Loughlin Gaels hosted neighbour James Stephen's GAA. The Village colours always draws curioisity around the St. John's Park venue and the sizeable crowd that gathered were not dissappointed.  It was perfect conditions..the sun was shining..the grass was freshly cut and all players from both clubs were on top form to serve up a hurling spectacle. 
Well done to all the mentors, the parents and of course to our future young stars

Lovely Hurling.

What a day for our young stars as the U8s took full advantage of Leinster GAA's invitation to an Activity Day at Croke Park.  Over 30 of O'Loughlin Gaels best set off from St. John's Park on Tuesday afternoon accompanied by mentors, Brendan O'Leary and Brian Fox and a host of equally excited parents.  It was a day for big kids as well as small kids.

Great moments as our boys enter the arena.....

A big thanks to sponsors Liitlewoods Ireland, organisers Leinster GAA and Croke Park for a brilliant opportuity for our young players. As always thanks to our juvenie sponsors MacDonagh Junction Shopping Centre for kitting our boys out.  

​Days like this are what dreams are made of and hopefully this expereince will stand to some of our boys in the future.  Thanks to the parents who are always on hand to help when asked and a special thanks to the mentors on the day Brendan and Brian who have great energy for O'Loughlin Gaels GAA.

U8s RAID MAYNOOTH GAA & STORM CROKE PARK

Our Super U8s Traveled to Croker park to support our Kilkenny heroes at The Leinster Final. One of many juvenile groups that made the trip the boys accepted the invitation from Maynooth GAA to hot them in a series of pre-final challenge games. The challenges were fierce as is to be expected now when travelling away with every hurling club around the country putting in huge efforts in coaching young hurlers for the future. All skills were on show and some fine young hurlers spotted. Rest easyeveryone because the future is looking bright. One day we'll see a handful of these lads take centre stage themselves in Croker Park on Leinster Final day.

Hurling over it was time to raid the hospitality suite at Maynooth GAA and the boys weren't left wanting there either. The performance at the bun table was equally as ferocious as their performance on the field of play. Well done and a big thanks to everyone at Maynooth GAA for their generous hospitality .

All done back on the bus and off to Croker Park where the boys were treated to the wonder of the big stadium and a classic Kilkenny Performance.

Well done Kilkenny..well done boys and well done to all involved at U8's mentoring. Keep p the great work.

The u8s and u10s played two Gaelic Football games last night against St. Martins of Muckalee at a very pleasant St. Johns Park. Big numbers and plenty of goals entertained the supporting parents and family from both teams on what was a very enjoyable evening. Picture shows Eoin Mulhearne with a selection of our u8s & u10 stars getting a close look at 'little' Sam McGuire Cup won by Eoin and the Kilkenny Senior Football team last month. Well done to our budding footballers and thanks to Eoin for bringing along the cup.

U8s travelled to Kilmacud Crokes GAA yesterday (Sunday) and took part in their annual October Festival of Hurling. And certainly it was a hurling fest that our young lads provided. Two O'Loughlins teams played a whopping 5 matches each providing every player with plenty of game time. 12 clubs from all over the country provided 20 teams to compete. The boys as usual didn't disappoint as they fought and played hard to grind out some great results over top opposition such as Kilmacud, NaFianna, (both Dublin), Roanmore (waterford), Eire óg Nenagh and Castlecomer. The teamwork displayed, the intensity shown and the skills demonstrated were testament to the hard work they put in all year. Darragh Powell broke the opposition hearts on a number of occasions notching up a couple of long distance scores for his efforts. Eoghan O'Brien too weaved and cut through defences like a hot knife through butter causing all sorts of problems for defences all day and bagged himself a couple of scores in the process. There were huge performances too from Sean O'Neill, Sean Falsey and Sean Morrissey. Daniel McCormack showed his diversity by looking comfortable no matter what position he played. J J Mooney and Conor Murphy worked tirelessly to keep the ball moving forward.  Opposition forwards were dispersed and scattered like bowling pins by the powerful Michael Lambert as he so often drove forward and cleared ball from his lines often aided by the equally powerful Greg Kelly. David Balfour, Luke Quigley, Ryan Houlihan and Andrew Comerford were relentless in their efforts, while Daniel Byrne on more than one occasion won the 'dirty ball' for his team. Luke Hanrahan dazzled and he wasU8swarded with a good a goal as you'll see in Semple Stadium on a summers' Sunday. Cormac Wall showed plenty of spirit in midfield as his hooking and blocking smothered attacks. Mathew Howe gave 100% until he became ill putting in some hard and strong tackles. U8 Camogie star Ena Lawlor also chipped in with a wonderful hook to prevent a ball being cleared and was unlucky on a number of occasions not to score. Conor Coyne's, Harry Nolan's and Eoghan O'Callaghan's contributions were essential to the days success as was Zach Evans, who's wearing of the number 9 jersey was no coincidence as he could easily be a contender for hurler of the year...just like Kilkenny's no 9, Richie Hogan. Before the team bus departed from Dublin the boys enjoyed a post match 'banquet' thanks to the club in recognition of all their hard work.

Big thanks to Kilmacud for a fantastic day. It was brilliant to see so many parents make the trip with the boys too..your presence at every age group is encouraged and on this occasion it definitely spurred the players on to a superb final team performance of 2014. Thanks to all involved and we look forward to next spring for the throw in to a new season.


Eoin Lawlor