September is All Ireland month and the roads and rail tracks from all around the country will be jammed each Saturday and Sunday as fans of hurling first, then Camogie, football and ladies football converge on successive weekends.
One of the ways in which the weekends extend beyond the 70 minute games themselves is through the hosting of club based sevens tournaments and the 2013 hurling version hosted by Kilmacud Crokes in Dublin was launched at Croke Park yesterday.
One Direct is sponsoring the event which will this year see 56 teams from around the country take part. It is the 41st year of the competition and similar events take place around the other weekends as well.
Ladies Gaelic Football is to host the Tesco All Ireland Club 7’s on 28th September in Portmarnock and Malahide and is repeating last year’s experiment of a ‘business village’ to promote products and services to the 1000 players they will have present.
Since its inception in 1973, the Kilmacud tournament has been graced by some of the greatest players and teams hurling has known. Names such as D.J. Carey, Jamesie O’Connor, Diarmuid O’Sullivan, John Leahy, Donal Og Cusack, Ollie and Joe Canning, are just a selection from the All-Star recipients that have taken part in the tournament.
Sevens Saturday is an established landmark and a gathering point for those looking to discuss the following days game and occasionally bag a last minute ticket.
The passion of hurling at grass roots level is evident even as the county teams seek the ultimate annual prize and involvement in partnership with the event delivers a good return for sponsors who would not be at the level of contribution that Liberty Insurance, Centra or Etihad Airways are able to put into the main event the following day.
“It is a great honour for One Direct to sponsor the Kilmacud Crokes All Ireland Hurling Sevens for a second year,” said One Direct Managing Director David Egan. “We are very proud to be associated with such a well-respected GAA event that encourages so many players to represent their clubs and communities at a national level with such enthusiasm and pride.”
The 2013 One Direct All-Ireland Hurling Sevens will be held on Saturday 7th September, spread over 5 venues in the Stillorgan area, including Glenalbyn, UCD, Deerpark, Silverpark and Bray Emmets, with games starting at 10.30 a.m. The final will be played in Glenalbyn at 6.30 p.m.
Sports Tourism Seminar at Croke Park (September 19th)
Sport for Business 20/20 at Ulster Bank HQ (October 8th)
The Business of Youth Sport Seminar (November 28th)
