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‘Virtual’ AGM 2021

Our 2nd ‘virtual’ AGM was held on 10 April 2021.  As we are a registered charity we had to formally sign off our finances and directors report. We also got a chance to talk about the plans for the months ahead on and off the water, depending on restrictions.

In the meantime our Zoom account is been put to good use with two Pilates sessions per week, our weekly Knitting & Crocheting Group and weekly Virtual Coffee Break.  And not forgeting that our Board Meetings have been over Zoom for the last year. A big thank you to all the board members for all their work.

Spirit of Plurabelle 2020 Part I

The Spirit of Plurabelle Award was donated to the club by Eamon and Oscar Doyle in memory of their wife and mother, Fiona Tiernan.  It is  awarded every year to the member who in the year has best embodied the spirit of the Plurabelle Paddlers. Nominated by their fellow team members, the 2020 Spirit of Plurabelle was ‘virtually’ awarded to:

  • Chris Barnes
  • Tara Byrne
  • Gina Lyons
  • Marian O’Dea

In announcing the award winners, Susan Rowe, Chairperson, said, ‘Over the last number of months (along with help from many more)  Chris, Tara, Gina and Marian have helped to pull the club together with social and sporting activities. We had fun with Gina’s quizzes which started early in lockdown. These were followed by Tara’s stretch classes and eventually when we managed to get back on the water more than 50 members were facilitated to get out on our club O1s, with Marian and Chris being the driving force behind this.’

 

One of our awardees, receiving the award from last years recipient, Margaret Mulcahy. Fingers crossed Christine Barnes. Tara Byrne and Gina Lyons we’ll be able to present you with the award over the next few months!

Back to Paddling Part II

Since restrictions have been lifted somewhat, the Plurabelle Paddlers have started training again using our O1’s –  kayaks with an ‘outrigger’ which can be paddled using the traditional dragon boat stroke.

There is a rudder on the O1 and inside the boat, at toe level, there is a small peg, which allows the paddler steer the boat. You have to remember that there is always that pesky outrigger, waiting to catch you out if you go too near a canal bridge or worse, another paddler.

But it’s great fun and gradually more and more Plurabelles have been trying them out. Chris Barnes, who is overseeing the O1 training, says there are now 36 people availing of the training and the numbers are growing weekly. The training is undertaken under IDBA rules and there is a strict regime of cleaning the boats and equipment down – both before and after use.

Thanks to Chris and all the helms who are giving of their time and energy to bring us back on the water again.

The photos (thanks Mairead!) show some of the routines the Plurabelles go through while launching and paddling the O1’s.

Back to paddling Part I

With some Covid-19 restrictions in Ireland lifted from the 18th May 2020, some of our local members were able to start paddling in our O1's.  An O1 is a racing kayak with an outrigger. As it's a single boat we can train individually keeping physically distant.  With further lifting of restrictions in June, we are now also training in small groups on our paddle machines.

 

 

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Covid-19: Virtual training with Tara

Virtual training continues this Saturday with one of our helms,  Tara Byrne.  Tara, a Pilates instructor, has been bringing us together every Saturday since early April.  With the current Covid-19 restrictions, it will be another few months before we train together in our dragon boats.  Umtil then it's great to virtually keep in touch and to keep training together.  Most Saturday mornings Tara is in her garden, so we have the added pleasure of having birdsong in the background as we stretch!

 

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Spirit of Plurabelle 2019

Margaret Mulcahy was named as the first recipient of the Spirit of Plurabelle Award. The award was donated to the club by Eamon and Oscar Doyle in memory of their wife and mother, Fiona Tiernan.  It is to be awarded every year to the member who in the year has best embodied the spirit of the Plurabelles. Nominated by her fellow team members, Margaret was presented with the beautiful award by Oscar. A member from the early days of the club, Margaret is a former chairperson, team manager and the clubs most experienced helm. She negotiated the planning, building and fit-out of our new clubhouse and as Chair ran the club with her instinctive sense of fairness and a deep understanding of what the club is about and what the club means to each individual member.

Here is some of what Margaret said in accepting the award.

'We have our awards for winning races, but the Spirit of Plurabelle Award  is so important. We have something so precious and important here. So wonderful, the friendship, the support regardless of age, where we live, anything. It is so, so precious and if there is anything I want to say today, it is we need to guard that. It is like a tender plant we need to nurture. Fiona was very strong in all aspects of the club from the support and to the sport, particularly when she became too ill to paddle she was still here supporting us all.

The biggest challenge in the club, is in keeping the very diverse interests going and keeping everybody happy.  Our friendship and our support for each other is the big thing that we have and we need to guard and mind it. I want to just say, be tolerant, be kind and continually be good to each other and to keep this precious, precious thing we have. We all know we have a wonderful club here and we need to keep it going. We are so lucky. I am humbled and honoured to be the first recipient of this award. '

 

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