by Stephen Glennon, Connacht Tribune, 18/8/2021

Galway Camogie Chairman Brian Griffin says that their current fundraiser, with its top prize of a Nissan Qashqai, is looking to generate enough funds to not only meet the short-term needs of their inter-county teams, but also to create a long-term vision for sports locally.

The Galway Camogie €20 ticket draw was launched recently (or 3 tickets for €50 or 7 for €100) and, along with their top prize, also on offer is a second prize of €3,000 and a third prize of a weekend break away at any of the Só Hotels, owned by Pat and Una McDonagh.

“The draw takes place after the county finals in November”, says Griffin. “So, it is running for the next four months and you can buy tickets online at www.galwaycamogie.ie/win-a-qashqai/ . Tickets are also available in all the clubs.”

With the range of attractive prizes, Galway Camogie will hope the draw will generate plenty of interest – and money, particularly given they currently have 10 teams left at the business end of competitions.

“It is unbelievable,” says Griffin. “Obviously, we have three in All-Ireland semi-finals – Seniors, Intermediate and Minors – and they are out in the next couple of weeks. So, we have a lot of teams on the move.

“It is an expensive thing to keep on the road so we need the support of everyone to reach and maintain the standards we aspire to. If you want to win All-Irelands, nothing comes from nothing anymore. If you want to be the best, you have to put in the resources to achieve.”

As well as meeting the short-term needs of Galway Camogie, he says it is pivotal that a portion of the finance generated also be used to secure the long-term development of the sport in the county.

“It is not just about the here and now. This is to create a long-term vision for Galway Camogie and, maybe, down the line we will look at developing our own facilities within the county. Somewhere that we can call our own home going forward.

“As it stands, you are relying on the goodwill again of the (GAA) clubs and, to be fair to the clubs, they have always backed us that way. It would be nice, though, for a county team if they had a home to go to where they could train and set out their plan weeks in advance. “

Indeed, he says often their inter-county managers find themselves “bouncing around the county looking for a pitch”, adding that this “brings a lot of added pressures and difficulties”.

“We cannot continue to just live day-to-day or year-to-year. We have to start to put together a plan to have something ourselves going forward. So, this is for the long-term investment of Galway Camogie as well as everything else,” he concludes.

The number of entries to the draw is limited to 15,000.

Win a Qashqai draw: galwaycamogie.ie/win-a-qashqai/