Banteer Festival Weekend

Banteer Festival took place from last Friday to Monday inclusive and opened on Friday evening with an exciting encounter in the U10 hurling final between Banteer and Kanturk, which was played at a great pace.   Banteer played well in the first half to put pressure on Kanturk and lead at half time.    However, Kanturk emerged victorious in the second half due to a number of well-taken goals.

Medals were presented to the winning Kanturk team by Patrick Buckley MCC.   The official opening of the newly constructed Childrens Playground took place also on Friday night, and despite very poor weather conditions a large crowd turned up.

Speakers on the night  included Dermot McCarthy Chairman, Denis Withers Secretary, Maura Walsh IRD Duhallow and Patrick Buckley Cork County Council.

All speakers commended the efforts and support from the local community in completing this project which is a state of the art design and enhances the facilities already at the location. .   The playground project was co-funded by IRD Duhallow and Cork County Council and with support also from Kanturk Credit Union,Bank of Ireland and Eamon Tarrant and Sons Skoda Dealers Banteer as well as other local businesses.

The tape cutting ceremony was performed jointly by Maura Walsh and Patrick Buckley to much applause.

A local juvenile soccer World Cup tournament run by Banteer Under age Soccer club took place on Saturday and winners were as follows:

U10 Winners England,2^nd Spain,3^rd Ireland

U12 Winners Spain 2^nd Mexico

U16 Winners England runners up Ireland

Saturday evening saw the under 12 football tournament final with Banteer playing Dromtarriffe.

This was an exciting game with some fine individual performances on the night.   Banteer seemed to have the upper hand early in the game but Dromtarriffe  kept up the pressure and were only 3 points behind at half time on a scoreline of 3-5 to 3-2.

On the resumption, Banteer continued to make inroads and eventually pulled away to win 5-9  to 5-3.   Medals were presented to the winners by Pat Murphy Secretary, Duhallow Juvenile Board.

Saturday night also saw a vintage performance at the Glen Theatre from Peter O’Malley Musician/comedian who gave almost 3 continuous hours on stage to many encores.

Sunday was Banteer Open sports and a large attendance, full list of result attached.

Sunday night was fancy dress night and results as follows

Childrens Section 

1.                 Roy Keane vs Mick McCarthy

2.                 George at his Best

3.                 Driving Miss Daisy 

Adults

1.                 Celtic tiger goes East

2.                 Travellers Wedding

3.                 Bertie and  Celia – “A lot done, a lot more to do”.

Monday attracted large crowds to the annual Duck race run at the Glen river with over 500 ducks taking to the fast moving waters of the Glen river.

Winners were as follows

1^st Damien McAuliffe Currariague

2^nd Noreen Leonard Banteer

3^rd to 8^th Liam Crowley White Country Inn,Sean Humphries Lyre,Emma Murphy, Banteer,Conor O Keeffe Duinch,Tina O Connell Castlecor,Liz Murphy c/o Duhallow Park.

The committee would like to thank the following for making the Festival possible-

Cork County Council Arts Grant Scheme,

Our Sponsor - White Country Inn, Banteer

Existing Sponsors/Advertisers in Sportsfield,

Glen Theatre and Nadd pub,

Duhallow Web Design, Banteer

The various sporting and athletic clubs of the area

All those people who supported the various events during the Festival and the committee welcomes any feedback to make next years Festival even bigger and better.