Jimmy O’Neill, Cashel Person of the Year 2024
It gives me great pleasure to introduce to you the Cashel Person of the Year for 2024. Jimmy O’Neill is the thirty-eighth person to be so honoured since Maura McHugh became the first in 1987.
At that time The Cashel Lions Club recognised the need to honour persons, who contributed significantly to the life of the town over the previous year. During the intervening years the club honoured men and women, who by their actions and lives made Cashel a better place to live for the people of the town and district
This evening Jimmy joins the ranks of these distinguished men and women because of his major contribution to the success of Larkspur Park over a lengthy period of time, that stretches back as far as the nineteen-seventies, and continues with undimmed interest and unflagging enthusiasm to this day.
When Jimmy joined Larkspur Park he was as an enthusiastic Pitch and Putt player, and he soon became an accomplished one. That enthusiasm for the game has never wavered and he continues to play off a 2 handicap today. At present, he is involved with the club in the Spring League, a competition between the five county Pitch and Putt clubs, a kind of Tipperary championship, which is played with great commitment and intensity. During his time in the club, he has won numerous competitions and he has also represented the club with distinction at the national level.
At an early stage of his involvement, Jimmy got involved in club administration and he continues to play a major part in club business, having held all the officer positions, particularly chairman. He is very skilled at organising competitions for club members and this ability was revealed at another level last year when he organised a new competition, a mixed scramble on Tuesday evenings. This has proved a major success and has introduced new people, young and old, men and women to the game of Pitch and Putt.
The success of this venture is due to the fun element, when teams of four, of all mixtures, play together in a friendly atmosphere. The scramble gives every member of the team an opportunity to contribute, while still retaining the element of competition. It is also a great social occasion, an opportunity to meet new people in a friendly environment. It has been and continues to be a great success.
One of the pleasures of playing the game of Pitch and Putt in Larkspur Park is the quality of the course, and this is another area in which Jimmy has excelled. He has involved himself for years, with others also, I don’t need to add, in maintaining the course to the highest standards. This has involved a lot of work and while many others may have honed up their tans on the beaches of Spain and other continental resorts during the summer, Jimmy has bronzed himself in the wind and sun of Larkspur Park, spending long stretches of his holidays there. This maintenance has involved cutting fairways and greens, hollow-tining, scarifying and seeding, so that Larkspur Park course is famous not only for its size and layout, but also for the superb condition of the fairways and greens. This has resulted in a number of All-Ireland competitions being played at the venue, with a further one scheduled for later this year.
Jimmy’s work in Larkspur Park hasn’t been confined to Pitch and Putt. He has been a member for many years of the overall governing body, the Larpspur Park Development Committee. Because I was chairman of this body for many years, I had great insight into his contribution to the overall development of the Park, and I can attest to the importance of that contribution.
On behalf of Cashel Lions Club, the Trustees of the Park for the benefit of the people of Cashel and District, I would like to thank Jimmy on this occasion for his long-time involvement and commitment to Larkspur, and ensure him of our appreciation of his work. In doing so I would like to involve his wife, Serena, in our appreciation of her contribution as an officer on the Pitch & Putt committee, and son, Sean, who is the gatekeeper of the park.
This is a night to celebrate the work of Jimmy O’Neill over a long period of time. It is also an occasion to admire the contribution of a man who has done so much to improve the recreational facilities of the people of Cashel. When it is realised that he has done all of this in a voluntary manner, without the expectation of any reward, it makes his contribution all the greater. Being honoured as Cashel Person of the Year for 2024 is possibly a small reward for so much done, but it is my pleasure to add his name to the distinguished list of men and women who have been honoured before him.