Fingal Sports Office is part of the network of Sports Ireland Local Sports Partnerships. Fingal County Council Sports Office strives to support the development of sports in the Fingal area to meet the needs of Fingal’s growing community. We work together to promote a positive message of sport.The core work of the Fingal Sports Office is aligned to the objectives of the National Physical Activity Plan and includes Strategic Community Sports Development, the delivery of National Programmes, Education & Training initiatives, the Sports Inclusion Disability programme, Women in Sport Programmes, Safeguarding and general participation programmes. Led by Marion Brown as the Principal Sports Officer, the team which includes co-funded officers from Cricket Leinster, Leinster Rugby, FAI and Tennis Ireland. Caitríona Geraghty, Sports Development Officer, oversees the Women in Sport and 20×20 initiatives.
These initiatives and programmes range from our teenage girl targeted Exercise Energise, The Fingal Girls Festival of Football, Older Adult in the Swim Programme, PDP Female Only Coaching, Fingal Ladies Tennis League, Cricket for Girls and Rugby for Girls. They have also developed a Sports Conditioning Training Programme aimed at Childcare workers encouraging physical activity from a young age. Teachers from all streams are encouraged to attend our Sports Con training programme and each school is given access to an online resource learning.fingal.ie for video and tutorials. This online training resource will also be an important tool for coaches who have attended our training courses and will help support the 20×20 campaign.
The Fingal Festival of Football
More than 300 girls descended on the AUL complex in Clonshaugh on Saturday 17th August for the 17th edition of the Fingal Festival of Football, which has in recent years become a fantastic promotion for girls’ football in Fingal. This football event is also one of the Fingal’s Sports Office’s initiative in promoting the Federation of Irish Sports 20×20 campaign and many of the girls proudly “showed their stripes” on the day.
This event run by Fingal County Council Sports Office in collaboration with FAI/Fingal Development Officers Paul Keogh and Sharon Boyle, provides opportunities for some girls to put on a club jersey for the very first time and also acts as pre-season warm up for the more established teams. This year’s Festival had teams from all over Dublin, Meath, Kildare and over 89 players travelled from Donegal to take part.
Paul Keogh, FAI/Fingal County Council Development Officer, added: “We are delighted to assist Fingal’s Sports Office with this great event. It provides for a fun- filled day and helps harness the great work of the volunteers who put in hours of work to ensure girls have regular football as without them there is no girls’ football. “We have seen great growth in girls’ football over the last few years, especially in the Fingal area and events like this are encouraging clubs to provide opportunities for girls to play on teams with their peers.”
Niall McGuirk, Fingal County Council Senior Sports Officer, added: “We made a conscious effort to include girls in the Festival of Football nine years ago and it has grown from four U13 girls teams to a girl’s only event with 40 teams and over 300 players from U8-U14 taking part in 2019. We hope that this event, combined with the work being carried out by the FAI, MGL and volunteers in clubs around Fingal, encourages girls to stay involved in football for many years to come and help promote the 20 X20 campaign.”
St. Ita’s FC triumphed in the U14 Cup competition and with Bohemian FC beating Raheny Utd for the Shield. The visitors from Donegal took home three trophies in the U13 and U12 competitions.
For more info contact sports@fingal.ie or 087-120-6431 or check out Fingal Festival of Football on Facebook