Ballaghaderreen had a very successful start to the year in Community Games. Despite a global recession there was plenty of Gold & Silver coming to the Ballaghaderreen area. So far, the area has participated in the Adult Quiz, Junior Quiz, Indoor Soccer

(U13 & U-15 Boys & Girls), Basketball (U13 & U16 Boys & Girls), Table Tennis (U13 & U16 Boys), Chess, Cross-Country Relay, Choir, Projects, Talent Competition and Handball. The local Art & Handwriting competitions were also held and qualifiers will attend the County Finals later in April.

Adult Quiz: Seamus Curley, Michael Gallagher, Donnacha Egan & James Mulligan (Gold at County Finals, National Final on 25th April)

Junior Quiz: Stephen Frain, Tara Phillips, Kalvin Curley & Evan Phillips.

U-13 Boys Indoor Soccer: Darragh Dunne, Conor O’Donnell, Matthew Towey, Shairoze Akram, Emmett O’Brien, Stephen Towey, Darragh Kelly.

U-15 Boys Indoor Soccer: Zohaib Haider, Josh Gallagher, David Caldwell, Aaron Lynch, Ryan Lynch, Thomas Carmody, Cian Hanley and Keith O’Donnell.

U-13 Girls Indoor Soccer: Caoimhe Hanley, Tara Phillips, Aoibheann Durkin, Catriona McDermott, Shauna Golden, Laura McHugh, Kieva Tansey & Shona Hunt

U-15 Girls Indoor Soccer: Ailish Egan, Maeve Coleman, Saoirse Cunniffe, Leanne Foley, Rachel Dowling, Amy Kelly, Sonia Waldron & Sharon Towey. (Silver in the County Finals)

U-13 Boys Table Tennis: Stephen Frain, Mark Gallagher & Conor O’Donnell (Gold in the County Final, Gold in the Connaught Final. National Finals on 23/24 May)

U-15 Mixed Badminton: Sarah Coleman, Saoirse Cunniffe, Leanne Foley, Sonia Waldron, Vicky McGowan, Aaron Lynch, Ryan Lynch, Seamus Cunniffe, Cian Hanley, Josh Gallagher (Gold in the County Final, Gold in the Connaught Final. National Finals on 23/24 May)

U-13 Choir Success: Kieva Tansey, Rebecca Mullen, Pooja Puri, Caoimhe Hanley, Dearbhla McCormack, Rianne McElroy, Sarah Moloney, Kayleigh McDonnell, Riona Quinlan, Stephanie Cronin, Caoimhe O’Sullivan, Arianna Viana, Kalvin Curley, Brandon Connolly & Nadine Henderson (Silver in the County Final)

U-12 Cross-Country Relay: Luke O’Grady (Gold in the County Final. National Finals 23/24 May)

U-11 Mixed Project: Aoife Coyle, David McHugh, Patrick O’Grady & Rachel Regan (Silver in County Finals)

U-13 Mixed Project: Leanne Lynch, Laura McHugh & Aoibheann Durkin (Bronze in County Finals)

Talent Competition – U-14 Solo Singing: Paul McLoughlin

U-13 Girls Handball: Aoibheann Durkin, AnnMarie Coleman, Lauren Feeney, Dearbhla McCormack, Caoimhe Towey (Silver in County Finals)

U-13 Boys, U-13 Girls & U-16 Girls Basketball teams have qualified for the County finals later in April.

Badminton Success: Congratulations to the Ballaghaderreen U-15 Mixed Badminton team, who won Gold at the Community Games Connaught finals on 4 April. Ballaghaderreen came up against Killanin (Galway) in the semi-final where they had a convincing win of 5 sets to nil. In the Connaught final they went on to meet Burrishoole (Mayo). After a tightly contested match, the Ballaghaderreen team were victorious with a final score of 3 sets to 2 sets. They now go forward to the Community Games National finals on 23 May in Athlone.

Table Tennis Success: Congratulations to the Ballaghaderreen U-13 Boys Table Tennis team, who also won Gold at the Community Games Connaught finals on 4 April. The Ballaghaderreen team came up against Swinford (Mayo) in the Connaught Final. Swinford were no match for the Ballaghaderreen team, who won all games in each set to take the Connaught title on a final score of 4 sets to nil.

Please note the following dates for upcoming Community Games events: (1) Basketball County Finals take place in Castlerea Community School on Sunday, 19 April. (2) Art County competition will take place in the Hyde Centre in Roscommon on Saturday, 25 April (10am: U8, U10 & U12. 2pm: U14 & U16). (3) Handwriting will take place in Kilbride Community Centre on Tuesday, 5 May at 7pm. (4) Ballaghaderreen local Athletics will take place in the Community Park on Sunday morning, 10 May at 11am. (5) National Finals Weekend # 1 will take place over the weekend of 23 & 24 May in Athlone. (6) The County Athletics will take place in St. Faithleach’s GAA pitch in Ballyleague on Saturday/Sunday, 30 & 31 May. (7) The County Field events will take place in Taughmaconnell on Friday, 5 June. (8) The County Swimming competitions will take place on 6 & 7 June in Roscommon Pool. A date for the local swimming competition will be arranged pending numbers interested.