Cathal Brugha’s upcoming 80th Anniversary Dinner

Top water polo club Cathal Brugha are celebrating their 80th anniversary this year with a big party in the Balmoral Hotel on Saturday 31st March.

Formed in 1932 for  teaching  recreational swimming,the club gradually moved towards competitive action in both water polo and swimming.and Jim Gilmore was their first Irish swimming champion when he won the Irish 880 yards title in 1943.A couple of years later Charlie Burns was the first member to play for Ireland at water polo.

One man who competed with  both  will be at the dinner .Ninety -one year old Rory Delargy was taking part in masters events up until fairly recently and still holds a couple of Irish records.

Swimming and water polo complimented each other  right through to the early seventies when the emphasis moved almost exclusively to water polo.Joe McAvoy at that time a top swimmer is the last person to have captained Ireland at both disciplines.

Brugha have over the years won every major title(women and mens) in Ireland and have competed in European championships.They are the current holders of the mens National League title and are looking forward to next months Irish Senior Cup tournament which they last won in 2007.

Chairman Phil Kelly a multi capped Irish international and probably the club’s finest ever player is proving to be as effective out of the water as he was in it.He along with Ciaran McGurk have guided Brugha to becoming the first water polo club in Ireland to achieving the Club Charter award.”This is  a major step forward for us as we aim to create a modern progressive organisation with a view to sporting excellence” he said last night.He added “The sports development officers at Belfast City Council have been  a huge help and we also get assistance from Sport Lisburn”

They have provided a seemingly never ending assembly line of players for Ireland teams at all levels and tomorrow Chris Hodgkinson,Johnny Donnelly,Stio McMahon and Chris Devlin fly out to Prague to play in a six nation tournament in the Czech Republic.

Families have through the years been an important part of the history and the same names keep reappearing.Brugha won the Boys Irish U.16 Cup  in 2008 and four of the team  were the sons of people who had got winners medals in the 1970s.Mark/Ruari Barr.Ronnie/Patrick McDonald,Dessie/Tiernan Monaghan and Adrian/Nathan Hanna

Many capable administrators have surfaced over the years with four past presidents of the Irish Water Polo Association,Rory Delargy,Gerry O’Neill,Wally Clarke and Gerry Hanna.Wally is of course the current president of Swim Ireland and back in 1957 Frank Murray was president of UBIASA(now Swim Ulster).

A special presentation will be made at the dinner to the history making players of the womens team who won thre Irish Senior Cups in 2002/03/05.The mystery of the missing medals will also be resolved when the winners of the 1999 U.16 Cup finally get their gongs

A small number of tickets are still available and can be got by contacting any of the committee

Amended U/14 Cup (mixed) Schedule – slight time changes – please take note

Irish under 14 Cup 2012

Updated National League Fixture List

FixturesJanApl

ISC 2012 Schedule of Games (19th, 20th & 21st April)

Men                                                                        Women

Group A                         Group B                         Group A                         Group B

Guinness                       Sandycove                     Glenalbyn                     St. Vincent’s

Half Moon                    St. Vincent’s                  Donegall Diamonds    Half Moon

Clonard                         Cathal Brugha               Cathal Brugha

Setanta                          North Dublin

Thursday 19th April

Game    Time    Group    White   Blue

1 2.30pm Men A Guinness v Half Moon

2 3.45pm Men B St. Vincent’s v Sandycove

3 5.00pm Men B Cathal Brugha v North Dublin

4 6.15pm Men A Clonard v Setanta

5 7.30pm Fem A Donegall Diamonds v Glenalbyn

Friday 20th April

Game   Time   Group   White   Blue

6 9.00am Men A Guinness v Clonard

7 9.50am Men A Half Moon v Setanta

8 11.00am Men B Sandycove v Cathal Brugha

9 12.10pm Men B St. Vincent’s v North Dublin

10 1.20pm Fem A Donegall Diamonds v Cathal Brugha

11 2.30pm Fem B St. Vincent’s v Half Moon

12 3.30pm Men A Setanta v Guinness

13 4.40pm Men A Clonard v Half Moon

14 5.50pm Men B Cathal Brugha v St. Vincent’s

15 6.50pm Men B Sandycove v North Dublin

16 8.00pm Fem A Cathal Brugha v Glenalbyn

Saturday 21st April

Womens Semi-Finals

17 9.00am SF1 Winner Group A Runner Up Group B

18 10.15am SF1 Winner Group B Runner Up Group A

Mens Semi-Finals

19 11.30am SF1 Winner Group A Runner Up Group B

20 12.45am SF1 Winner Group B Runner Up Group A

Finals

21 5.00pm Womens Final Winner SF1 Winner SF2

22 6.30pm Mens Final Winner SF1 Winner SF2

Ciaran McGurk, Cathal Brugha, awarded Junior Club – Coach of the Year at Belfast Sports Awards

Belfast Sports Awards Winner – Ciaran  McGurk

Well done to Cathal Brugha’s Director of Coaching Ciaran McGurk who was  awarded ‘Junior Club – Coach of the Year’ at last nights prestigious Belfast Sports  Awards dinner at Belfast City Hall.

 

Ciaran received this well deserved award in recognition of his work in  developing and co-ordinating all aspects of coaching within the Cathal  Brugha Club.

 

In particular, Joel Taggart (BBC Northern Ireland) who announced the award  commented upon Ciaran’s role in developing mini-water polo and specifically in  developing the inaugural Ulster Mini-Water Polo League (The Gerry O’Neill Cup)  which took place in Nov/Dec last year.

 

Ciaran’s creative approach in working with others such as Blair Taylor and  Johnny Donnelly to develop a competency/skills framework for the Clubs junior  water polo players was also recognised.

Well done Ciaran……keep up the good work.

Cathal Brugha Mini-Polo Initiative with swimming clubs

The Cathal Brugha Swimming & Water Polo Club  are running an initiative whereby swimming clubs have been invited to participate in a ‘Come &  Try It’ Mini-Water Polo event at Olympia Leisure Centre, Belfast, on Saturday  31st March 2012.  The event, open to boys & girls (aged  9-11yrs) in mixed gender teams, will run from 2pm to 4pm and entries  will be taken from a maximum of eight swimming Clubs, on a first come  basis.

This event, supported by Belfast City  Council, is designed to showcase water polo to non-water polo playing  Clubs, therefore no water polo playing experience is necessary.  Entry is  free of charge and participation certificates & refreshments will be  available for all competitors.

Further details as per the attached notification – all  necessary water polo equipment & officials e.g. water polo caps, posts,  balls, referees etc will be provided by Cathal Brugha Club

Mini Water Polo – Olympia, Swim Ulster Notice