Fixtures: Saturday, March 14: Under-14 FL Division One v Scotstown (Home) at 3.15pm; Under-14 FL Division Five v St. Tiarnach Sarsfields (Home) at 2pm

Sunday, March 15: RFL Division Three v Aghabog (Away) at 12pm

Tuesday, March 17: RFL Division 1B v Tyholland (Home) at 12pm; MFL Division One v Clontibret (Away) at 12pm

 

Monaghan Harps Lotto: Numbers 1, 6, 14 and 26. Jackpot of €1,300 not won. Residual prizes: €100 Séamus Treanor c/o himself; €40 Mark McCaughey c/o Ladies Club; €40 Shane Coyle c/o Fergus Coyle; €40 Kevin Treanor c/o Séamus Treanor Jackpot for Sunday, March 15 is €1,400 and Ann and Kevin Treanor are on duty. All support for our Lotto is greatly appreciated.

 

Meetings: The club’s monthly meetings for March take place this Thursday; juvenile at 7pm, senior at 8pm. All members are asked to attend.

 

Reserves: Our O’Duffy Cup team started the RFL Division 1B campaign with a 1-14 to 1-5 win away to Aughnamullen last Saturday. We started brightly and although Aughnamullen grew into the game, points by Michael Galligan, Dean Fanning and Shane Coyle helped us lead by 0-7 to 1-2 at half-time. Dean, Conor Forde, Niall Greenan and Michael kicked fine points in the second half, while Evan Doherty flicked home our goal at the end of a well-worked move. We wish James McKenna a speedy recovery from the knock that forced him off.

Team and scorers: Ronan McGann; Mustafa Gamal, Gareth Treanor, Robbie Moyna; Conor Forde (0-1), Dónal McCarthy, Niall Treanor; James McKenna, Shane Coyle (0-1); Paul Rushe, Niall Greenan (0-3), Michael Galligan (0-3); Francis Lynch, Evan Doherty (1-1), Dean Fanning (0-5, 3f).

Subs: Thomas Bourke for McKenna (inj., 42 mins), Tiarnán Bramley for Rushe, David Carey for Fanning (both 54), Paul Smyth for Galligan (57).

In a busy few days for our reserves, our McKeown Cup team travel to Aghabog on Sunday, before the O’Duffy Cup team host Tyholland on Tuesday. Both games are due to throw in at 12 noon.

 

St. Patrick’s Day: We will once again be part of the Monaghan Town St. Patrick’s Day Parade next Tuesday afternoon, meeting at Gavan Duffy Park at 2pm, with our juveniles and mentors invited to take part. All participants are asked to wear their Harps gear. As usual, this is the big family day of the year for the club. The clubhouse will be open for the All-Ireland club finals and traditional music by our talented club members. All welcome for a great day of ceol agus craic.

 

Minors: Our minor footballers start their Division One league campaign with an away game against Clontibret on Tuesday at 12 noon. Best of luck to John Hahessy, Johnny Sherry, Gary McAleer and the players.

 

U-14: Our two Under-14 football teams start their leagues with home games this Saturday. The Division Four team get things underway against the St. Tiarnach Sarsfields amalgamation at 2pm, with the Division One team up against Scotstown at 3.15. Good luck to all involved.

 

Membership: Membership fees for 2015 are being maintained as follows: €20 per adult, €10 per child or €50 for a family of two adults and any number of children. Money can be paid in the clubhouse each Sunday night, or any time to registrar Dermot Coyle (086 0734098) Jimmy Croarkin (087 1249635), Peter Coyle (087 9700858), or in Terry’s Bar or the Cosy Bar. Players (and parents of juveniles) at all levels are reminded that they must be registered before they can play in competitions. All members must be paid up by March 31 to have voting rights at the club’s AGM.

 

Saturday-morning coaching: Our popular Saturday-morning coaching and games sessions for U-6s, U-8s & U-10s will be starting up again shortly (watch this space). Saturday-morning football for boys and girls in Gavan Duffy Park continues to go from strength to strength, with the numbers attending growing year on year. The club is very fortunate to have a pool of hardworking and dedicated individuals who look after and coach these ‘early learners’. However, we could do with additional support. Thanks to everyone who attended our open evening last Friday and we look forward to the 2015 coaching.

 

Session: We hosted a very enjoyable traditional Irish music session in the clubhouse last Friday night. Well done to all the musicians who took part and thanks to everyone who attended and you are all welcome to join us again on St. Patrick’s Day. Keep an eye on the club notes etc. for details of our next session.

 

Dates to remember: Two club events coming up are the town’s St. Patrick’s Day Parade on March 17 and the Juvenile Club’s Cake Sale in the Shopping Centre on Saturday, March 21. We are also preparing to host the second Darkness into Light Monaghan 5km walk/run in the early morning of Saturday, May 9, while our annual Juvenile Club Street Collection will take place on June 20 & 21. On the pitch, our senior footballers will start their league on Sunday, March 22 away to Donaghmoyne, with the championship deferred until August. We are due to enter the O’Duffy Cup and McKeown Cup reserve championships on May 10 and May 16 respectively. The start dates for the underage competitions are as follows: Under-16 Football League: April 9; Under-14 Football Leagues: March 14: Under-12 Spring Leagues: March 21. Provisional club fixtures for 2015 can be viewed on our website, www.monaghanharps.gaa.ie.

 

Know Your Sport: Any outstanding forms for our senior team’s Know Your Sport fundraiser must be returned as soon as possible. All support appreciated.

 

County teams: Well done to Neil McAdam and the Monaghan senior footballers, who got back to winning ways in the NFL against Donegal in Letterkenny last Sunday and good luck in this Sunday’s home game against Derry. Nine Harps hurlers – Dylan McAree, Ruairí Forde, Anthony Greenan, Cathal Power, Conor Flynn, Reece Treanor, Mark Murphy, Ciarán Cassidy and Nathan O’Donoghue – played key roles as Monaghan started their Ulster minor league with a win over Louth and they play Tyrone in Cloghan this Saturday. Good luck also to Tessa Fleming and Muireann and Eimear O’Rourke in the county ladies’ game against Mayo and to Fearghal McMahon and Kevin Loughran with the Monaghan Under-21s next Wednesday night against either Down or Derry.

 

Easter Camp: 2015 will see Gavan Duffy Park host a Monaghan GAA Easter Camp for the first time. The three-day camp, for boys and girls aged between 5 and 12, will take place on April 7, 8 and 9 from 10am to 2.30pm each day and will feature football, hurling and camogie. The camps cost €40 for the first child and €35 for other children from the same family, with each participant receiving a hoodie.

 

Pitch bookings: All pitch bookings for matches and training sessions this year must be made via 086 1957155. Training times have been allotted and any changes must be notified.

 

Clubhouse: The Monaghan Harps clubhouse is available to book for functions. Contact Jimmy Croarkin on 087 1249635 for more information.

 

Refereeing: Anyone interested in taking up refereeing at any level is asked to contact a committee member. For more information on the new ‘Put Your Whistle Where Your Mouth Is’ recruitment campaign, see the Monaghan GAA website.

 

First-aid course: A first-aid course organised by Monaghan GAA takes place in Cloghan tomorrow night (Wednesday, March 11). Any team mentors/club members interested should contact Lorcan McAdam.