The annual winners are honoured as long standing GAA volunteers who have served the Association with distinction over a prolonged period.

The recipients who have been chosen by Uachtarán Chumann Lúthchleas Gael Criostóir Ó Cuana have been drawn from across all strands of the Association and represent all codes and disciplines from the wider GAA family.

Martin was honoured with the award for services to Third level GAA.

Speaking at the ceremony, the GAA President Christy Cooney, paid tribute to those honoured in this year’s scheme “The GAA President’s Awards are made annually to honour excellence through volunteerism across the wide spectrum of Gaelic games “

 A lifelong member of the GAA, Martin has represented his club, Loughmore – Castleiney at all levels in football and hurling winning numerous titles including four senior football and one senior hurling championships. He represented Tipperary at all levels in football and had the distinction of captaining his native county in Centenary Year, 1984.

 Martin’s first involvement in third level GAA came as a student during his time in UCD. As a staff member at Carlow IT, he was a driving force behind the development of GAA in the Institute. He managed the hurling team over a number of years winning two Ryan Cups, 1991 & 1993, and two Division II titles, 1991 & 2001. He was involved in the appointment of the first GAA Games Administration Officer. As Head of Department of Business he was instrumental in the development of the BA in Sport & Exercise -  GAA.

 Martin has also been involved in third level games at provincial and national level. He was the first Chairman of Leinster Third Level GAA.  Over a twenty year period he has held various offices with Comhairle Ardoideachais, the National Third Level GAA executive. He was Chairman of the executive from 2002-2005 and subsequently represented Third Level on the Central Council of the GAA, 2006 -2010.  He continues his involvement through various committees including the Leinster GAA Bursaries Awards.

The Mardyke, UCC, Cork was the venue for this year’s college rugby finals and it was IT Carlow that completed a remarkable triple, winning the IRFU/CUSAI Division 1, Division 2 and Division 3 colleges rugby cups.  It is the second year in a row that IT Carlow qualified for all 3 finals and completed the first ever clean sweep at this level.

Rugby at IT Carlow has seen a turnaround in the last 4 years, since the introduction of their BA Sport & Exercise Rugby course. The course, in association with Leinster Rugby/IRFU, offers students a chance to train full time incorporating a degree in Business/Communications.

IT CARLOW 23 – ATHLONE IT 20

IT Carlow 1st xv beat a strong Athlone IT side (23-20) in the Division 1 match, in what was a great advert for the colleges game in Ireland. IT Carlow got off to the ideal start with a try from former Irish Schools winger Jurgan Quinlan in the games opening attack with a well taken try.  Athlone IT struggled with the pace of IT Carlow and 10 minutes later, Karl Miller added to the score after some great continuity work from Martin O’Neill. Bryan Croke added the extras to put IT Carlow 12-0 up.

Athlone IT came storming back into the game with former Connacht Senior players Adam Kennedy and John O’Brien pulling the strings. Kennedy’s distribution was outstanding and O’Brien made some telling breaks with the IT Carlow defence stretched at times. Kennedy added a penalty to make it 12-3. IT Carlow were reduced to 14 but went on the attack and penalties apiece from Croke and Kennedy left the scores 15-6 at half time.

IT Carlow started strongly in the second half but the turning point in the match came 10 minutes into the half when another John O’Brien break resulted in what looked like a try, but was adjudged to have been held up. O’Brien was injured in the incident and unfortunately Athlone lost their main strike threat for the remainder of the match. IT Carlow went on the attack again and Alan Kenny scored an amazing try from a quickly taken lineout, with some excellent skills from the IT Carlow backs.

However Athlone IT were not to be out done and stormed back with 2 converted tries of their own, to make it 23-20. The sin binning of Croke in the final towards the close of the game made for a nervous final few minutes for IT Carlow. However IT Carlow held on to record a fine win and made it 2 in a row of IRFU/CUSAI division 1 titles.

Earlier in the day IT Carlow 2nd XV beat a very competitive Tallaght IT team – 20-8.  IT Carlow had a red card and were reduced to 14 men after 20 minutes and were made work for their victory. The game was played at great pace and was end to end with IT Carlow taking their chances with tries from Callum Southgate, Matt Dempsey and Ariel Robles.  Tallaght IT’s try came from Greystone’s Dylan Fossett, who carried well all game and was a handful for the Carlow defence.

In the Division 3 final, National College of Ireland went into an early 7-0 lead with an 80m-intercept effort from scrumhalf Evan Lett. IT Carlow 3rd xv recovered from the shaky start to secure their first title of the day, with 2 tries from their captain Corey Carthy and one from Neil Waters.

It has been a very successful year for IT Carlow rugby, winning the JP Flannagan Pennant (c), in IT Carlow 21’s first season. It was a great achievement for the IT Carlow players and their coach, Brett Igoe, former Leinster/Scotland Performance Analyst, to make IT Carlow into a force at college’s rugby. Success was not just limited to the men’s teams as the IT Carlow woman’s team competed in the Leinster League Division 4 and won it in their first season, coached by 1st xv player Joe Bulmer. The season hasn’t stopped yet with IT Carlow 21s in the semi final of the Purcell Cup v Naas RFC and IT Carlow Fresher’s have to play the IRFU/CUSAI O’Boyle cup final v NUI Maynooth, on the 4th April.  Also IT Carlow 7s team will be looking to retain their college title from last year.

Applications for any of the sports programs in IT Carlow can be made through the CAO. Or www.itcarlow.ie

The entries were judged by staff members of IT Carlow and Carlow County Council in the middle of February and judges were very impressed with the content of the entries and standard of the presentations.  All the winners attended a prize giving ceremony with Cllr. Michael Doran, John Carley, Director of Services Carlow County Council, John Carley, Director of Services Water and Environment and Dr David Dowling, Head of the School of Science and Health.

Aine O’Neill, IT Carlow Lecturer, Dept. of Science & Health who judged the competition:  “IT Carlow’s Department of Science and Health have worked closely with the Carlow County Council over a number of years.   We were delighted to be involved in the first County Council Environmental Awareness Awards.  The standard of the competition entries were extremely high and the enthusiasm of the students was very impressive.  This competition allowed our students to apply their academic knowledge to very practical environmental issues.”

“Carlow Local Authorities are delighted to work once again with IT Carlow. We have very close ties with the IT and over the years we have been delighted to welcome into our ranks a number of high quality graduates,” John Carley, Director of Services Water and Environment enthused. 

Winners
First Place: Richard Lally & Sarah Jane Griffin
Joint second place: Silvia Valera & Sheila Gargan, Alison Kilbane & Emily Breen
Third place: Aoife Crone & Patricia Moore

Anne Lennon, Manager of AIB Business Banking in the South East explains that the new facility allows fledgling companies to continue fostering strategic links with the expertise at the Institute of Technology Carlow and avail of their wider networks while further establishing their product or service.  In addition, start-ups can benefit from the financial advice and access to funding at AIB bank.

Brian Ogilvie, Enterprise Development Manager at IT Carlow said “We are delighted to be working in partnership with AIB Bank. We believe that this new initiative will be greatly beneficial to our on-campus fledgling companies. IT Carlow see this as the start of an ongoing collaboration to help the growth of indigenous enterprises and the future creation of local jobs.”

Gerry Murtagh, Branch Manager, AIB Carlow said: “We recently organised a one day workshop with funding specialists from Enterprise Equity Venture Capital.  They visited IT Carlow where they advised start-up companies on how to succeed in securing investment.  We’re delighted to be in a position to bring these specialists together with our customers and believe that they found the workshop invaluable.”

ENDS

For further information please contact:
Paula Butler, Communications Officer, IT Carlow
t: 059 9175083

1. Towards a Future Higher Education Landscape
2. Process and Criteria for Designation as a Technological University
3. Guidelines on Regional Clusters

The roadmap provided by these papers now gives higher education institutions an unprecedented opportunity to review their mission and present their strategic intentions to the HEA within 6 months. 

 ‘It is well established that the overall strategic intent of the two Institutes of Technology in the South East at Carlow and Waterford is to partner with each other to create a multi-campus Technological University for the South-East. Both institutes have consistently supported the creation of a new type of entrepreneurial Technological University for the region based on the overwhelming evidence to support the case’ says Mr. John Moore, Chairman of the Governing Body of Institute of Technology Carlow (ITC) “ITC looks forward to the exciting work with WIT leading to the establishment of the Technological University of the South East to serve and enhance the region, its industry and community.”

‘Both Institutes of Technology in the South East at Waterford and Carlow when seeking a multi campus Technological University for the region will present a strong case to the HEA outlining their complementary missions, their strong national and international alliances, their distinctive research activities, their unrivaled commitment to lifelong learning and their proven agility and responsiveness to business and community needs’ says Dr Donal Ormonde, Chairman of the Governing Body of Waterford Institute of Technology (WIT) ‘The creation of a University for the South East will be an important driver of sustainable economic development and WIT look forward to a productive partnership with ITC in this process’

The two South East Institutes of Technology welcome publication of the process and criteria for designation of Technological Universities and look forward to demonstrating their collective capacity and performance in meeting the criteria as part of the designation process.  Both institutions have been engaged in high level discussions geared towards implementing the Programme for Government commitment to exploring the establishment of a Technological University in the South East which is clearly differentiated from existing Irish Universities.  In relation to future steps in the process the institutes look forward to the drafting and early preparation of the appropriate legislation which will enable the establishment of a Technological University and implementation of the criteria and associated process.

The two South East Institutes of Technology have established a strategic planning group to lead and co-ordinate activities associated with the establishment of a new multi-campus Technological University.  The group comprises the Chairpersons of Governing Bodies, Presidents of institutions, as well as Professor John Davies (Professor Emeritus of Anglia Ruskin University), Mr Michael McGrath (former CEO of the Irish Universities Association) and Professor Patrick Fottrell (President Emeritus, NUIG) who Chairs the group.

“The three lectures were very well attended and included a follow-up opportunity for questions-answers with the speakers and offered a valuable real-world adjunct to college education,” said Joseph Collins, Head of Department of Humanities, IT Carlow.

PJ Rudden, President of Engineers Ireland recently visited IT Carlow’s Engineering Department.  PJ wrote about his visit in his blog at http://apresidentsblogbypjrudden.blogspot.com/2012/02/civic-welcome-to-carlow.html

In his blog, PJ Rudden writes "We then proceeded to Carlow IT to be greeted by the Head of Engineering David Denieffe who conducted a tour of the school assisted by Edwin Landzaad Head of Built Environment Department and Eugene Carbery Head of Electronic, Mechanical and Aerospace Department which included a visit to the Aeronautical Research Centre. The Student Centre also houses an extremely impressive range of sporting and leisure facilities for students. Carlow IT is hoping to join with Waterford IT to form a South East Technological University. It was the first IT in Ireland to get accreditation of its Engineering course from Engineers Ireland."

Photo:  In the Aerospace Department of IT Carlow, David Denieffe Head of Engineering IT Carlow, Roddy McNamee Lecturer in Aviation, John Carley Director of Carlow County Council, PJ Rudden President of Engineers Ireland and Damien Owens Registrar Engineers Ireland.