By: SEÁN HAHESSY INTRODUCTION

"Community Games" is an organization which has as its basic aim the fostering and encouraging of community spirit and the love of sport and culture amongst members of the community, and in particular amongst young people.

HISTORY OF THE GAMES

The first community games took place in August 1968 in Dublin when 3,000 children from 24 community Areas in Dublin participated in competitions in their respective local areas and later at the finals at the Billy Morton Stadium in Santry. Interest in the games grew substantially the following year when 5'000 children from 48 areas in Dublin took part.The first national Games were held in 1970.

THE GAMES IN CLARE

The games in Clare started in 1971, but that year was confined to athletics. 1972 witnessed the first ceremonial Clare Community Games with twenty areas taking part in an expanded programme of events. About 40 areas in the county take part annually with 12,000 young people competing in the 28 different sporting and cultural activities. The highlights of the games is the county finals, which have been held annually in Roslevan since 1977. The finals are preceded by a very colourful parade of over 2,000 area qualifiers through the town of Ennis. Team Game winners have to go through a provincial elimination, while individual County winners can go forward direct to the National Finals at Mosney.

DOORA-BAREFIELD INVOLVEMENT IN THE GAMES

On Friday 12th February, 1971 the chairman and Secretary of Dublin Community Games addressed a public meeting which was held in Assembly Hall of the Ennis Christian Brothers School, at 8.30 p.m. Mr. Lott O'Halloran, Barefield, Vice-President County Board of N.A.C.A, Mr. Seamus Conlon and Mr. Matt O'Connor, Barefield, B.L.E representatives. At the first County Athletic finals held in Cusack Park, on Saturday, 21st August 1971 Mr. Seamus Conlon along with Mr. Seán Reid had the onerous responsibility of marking the track. Barefield was among eleven parises taking part. Offcials on the day included Mr. Lott O'Halloran and Mr. Seamus Conlon.

FIRST PARISH SPORTS DAY

The first Parish Sports were held at Roslevan G.A.A. Grounds on June 13th 1971. The programme of events included races for boys and girls from 40 yards for infants to 440 yards for under 14's, High Jump, Long Puck, Past pupils race, among the novelty races were the slow Bicycle race, Egg and spoon race, Wheelbarrow race, 100 yards for men over forty and a Donkey Derby. St.Josephs Hurling club organised these sports with the help of local schools and athletic clubs.

OFFICERS IN THE SEVENTIES

Among those involved in the committee in the seventies were Fr. Meehan P.P., Gerry O' Neill and Frank Burns as well as many willing volunteers too numerous to name. The eighties brought new faces onto the committee who then generated new ideas. The arrival of even more new faces in the late eighties has ensured the continuation of the great work that begun in the early seventies.

COUNTY & NATIONAL SUCCESSES

At the first county finals at Cusack Park, Ennis, on the 21st of August, 1971, Anthony O' Halloran won silver medals in the U/8 60m and 100m. Shannon was the venue on the 15th of July, 1973, when Josephine Nugent and Carol Talty brought the first county Gold medal to the area. Josephine qualified for the National finals again in '74 she finished 4th in the final and was considered very unlucky not to be in the medals. In '75 the area had two gold medal winners in Olwen Maher and David O' Connell, others who represented the area in the late seventies and early eighties were Maire O' Halloran, Geraldine Feighery, Siobhan Hassett, Anita White, Deidre C AREY, Claire Griffin, by the mid-eighties these werejoined by Michael McLaughlin, Sinead Hassett, Caroline Keane, Fiona Mockler and more too numerous to mention.

SUCCESS AT NATIONAL COMMUNITY GAMES

In '87 Martin Brooks taking part in the U/8 60m brought the first National gold medal to the area, and in 1988 Karen Mockler received a certificate in the U/12 600m.In 1989 John Paul O'Brien competing in the U/10 200m and Martin Brooks competing in the U/10 100m both won silver medals. 1990 saw Karen Mockler taking gold in the U/14 long jump and David Courtney taking bronze in the U/10 60m hurdles. 1991 saw the area make history when our U/12 boys relay team became first Clare winners of the C.I.E. cup, members of that team were John Paul O'Brien, Martin Brooks, David Courtney, Eamon Flanagan and Gavin Gallagher. Winner of a bronze medal that year was Marty McLoughlin in the U/10 60m hurdles. 1992 saw even more success when Ann Marie Brooks took the certificate in the girls U/17 marathon and John Paul O'Brien was a member of the Clare cross country team which took bronze medals.

HURLING

In 1989 the area took part in community games hurling for the first time with Joe O'Connor as manager. Joe was no stranger to the community games as thirteen years previously in 1976, competing for Ennis, he won a bronze medal in Judo at the national finals in Mosney. Joe was also honoured by being presented with the county sports star award that year. The hurling team went on to win silver medals at the county finals in Roslevan. The following year Fergus McDonagh took over as manager from Joe who had gone to live in the United States and with coaching from Michael John Malone and Noel O'Driscoll the team won the county and provincial finals. The team was presented with the Christy Ring Cup as provincial winners. They won bronze medals at the National finals in Mosney. Brendan Bohanon was selected to receive the County sports star award for hurling that year. The area had taken part in the Community games each year since, the U/14 hurling selector taking charge of the team.

BASKETBALL

1990 saw basketball introduced, with Michael as trainer and Camel Keane as manager. At that year's county finals the boys took bronze medals and the girls finished fourth place, since then the area has entered teams at U/13 as well as U/16. In '91 the girls U/13 won silver medals and U/16 girls won 4th place certificates. In '92 the U/13 girls again received silver medals. In '93 the boys U/16 won bronze medals and in '94 the U/13 and U/16 girls teams received bronze medals. Since '93 the teams have been trained by Marian Keane and Karen Mockler. Olivia Frawley was selected in '94 to receive the basketball sports star award.

OTHER ACTIVITIES

We have taken part in football since '93, with Peadar O'Loughlin as manager. We have also taken part in rounders since '93, the boys U/13 taking bronze medals, the boys U/16 taking certificates that year. In '94 the U/16 boy's team won bronze medals. Other activities we have taken part in include Choir, Table tennis, Hardcourt tennis, Quiz and Badminton.

SWIMMING

In '88 some swimmers again expressed an interest in taking part in the County Swimming finals. These were facilitated. In '89 Ann and Martin mcLoughlin organised area swimming finals which we now hold each year. That year Orla Doolaghty swam her way to a Gold medal at the national finals at the U/8 Finals and in '91 she won a silver medal in U/10 Finals, she has also been honoured by the County by being by presented with the Swimming Sports Star award on two occasions.