Prestigious annual award in Tipperary: Jimmy O’Neill honoured with Cashel Person of Year

Jimmy O’Neill was formally announced as Cashel Person of the Year 2024 at a presentation ceremony organised by Cashel Lions Club in Halla na Feile on Thursday March 14. Jimmy was nominated and selected for his contribution to Cashel Pitch & Putt Club. Jimmy is the driving force behind the Pitch & Putt Club at Larkspur Park, Cashel, and has promoted the game and the club for many years. Jimmy is club chairman and it is widely accepted that the excellent quality of the Pitch & Putt course in Cashel is due to Jimmy’s dedication and attention to detail.

Cashel Lions Club President, Tom Horan, welcomed the large attendance at the presentation ceremony which included Jimmy’s family, friends, pitch & putt players, local councillors Declan Burgess and Roger Kennedy, Cashel Person of the Year 2023, Breda Culleton and officials from Pitch & Putt Ireland including National President Mark Keohane and County Chairman, Liam Leahy. In his introduction Tom Horan highlighted the fact that the origin of the Cashel Person of the Year Award dates back to 1987 and that the purpose of the award is to ‘recognise and thank a local person who has contributed and indeed is still contributing to the quality of life in our local community’.

The Cashel Person of the Year Organiser, Eddie Morrissey, informed the attendance that the thirty eight names on the base of the trophy read like a ‘who’s who of community life in Cashel over the last thirty eight years’. He said that it was in keeping with the spirit of the times that the roll of honour contained the names of nineteen women and nineteen men. He then said it was confirmation of Jimmy O’Neill’s status in Larkspur Park and in Cashel that he was being proposed by the former chairman of Larkspur Park, Seamus King, and seconded by the current chairman of Larkspur Park, Darren Ryan. 

In proposing Jimmy O’Neill,  Seamus King stated that ‘Jimmy joins the roll of honour of distinguished Cashel Persons of the Year because of his major contribution to the success of Larkspur Park over a lengthy period of time, that stretches back to the nineteen seventies and continues with undimmed interest and unflagging enthusiasm to this day’. Seamus went on to highlight Jimmy’s contribution to the Cashel Pitch and Putt Club as an accomplished player, an able administrator, competitions organiser and the fact that he has ‘held all officer positions in the club at some stage during the lifetime of the Pitch & Putt Club in Cashel’.  Seamus highlighted the exceptional quality of the Pitch & Putt Course and attributed it to the fact that, ‘while many others may have honed 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 maintaining and enhancing the superb quality of the fairways and greens’.

Cashel Person of the Year Jimmy O’Neill who was proposed by Seamus King (former chairman Larkspur Park) and seconded by Darren Ryan (current chairman Larkspur Park)

In seconding Jimmy, Darren Ryan thanked him for ‘his long time involvement and commitment to Larkspur Park’. Darren highlighted the fact that Jimmy’s work in Larkspur Park hasn’t been confined to Pitch & Putt, he has been a member for many years of the Larkspur Park Development Committee and has contributed enormously to the development of all sports in the park’.

Cashel Lions Club President Tom Horan then presented the Cashel Person of the Year trophy to Jimmy O’Neill. In a humorous and very entertaining speech, a delighted Jimmy O’Neill spoke of the pride, honour and disbelief he felt at receiving such a great honour and joining the list of distinguished Cashel people whose names are engraved on the trophy. Jimmy spoke of the enjoyment and fulfilment he has experienced over the years due to his involvement in pitch and putt in Larkspur Park. He regaled the audience with stories of the friends he had made along the way and of the tournaments he had participated in all over Ireland and of the fond memories he had of one particular tournament in Brussels.

It was obvious to all that Jimmy was proud to accept the Cashel Person of the Year 2024 Award and above all that he was proud of the Pitch & Putt Course in Cashel and of his contribution to the Pitch & Putt Club in Cashel and to Larkspur Park.

In congratulating Jimmy, Eddie Morrissey reminded the audience that during his career as a teacher in Cashel Community School Jimmy entered a pitch and putt team in the Munster Schools Pitch & Putt Competition every year and Jimmy has the distinction of coaching and managing a team that won a schools final in 2003 and that the four players on that team ‘have Munster Schools medals thanks to Jimmy O’ Neill’.

Cashel Lions Club Person of the Year Jimmy O’Neill celebrates his win with his wife Serena and his brother John

Councillor Declan Burgess congratulated Jimmy on the award and thanked him for his many years of voluntary service to the sporting life of Cashel and he reminded the audience that while Jimmy was ‘born and raised on the Main Street it seemed to many that he lived in Larkspur Park due to  the amount of time he spends there’. Councillor Roger Kennedy thanked Jimmy for his trojan work in contributing to the development of the wonderful sporting facilities in Larkspur Park which is in the   heart of Cashel and said that these facilities are the envy of many local towns. 

Mark Keohane, President of Pitch & Putt Ireland travelled from Cork to attend the ceremony in ‘appreciation for Jimmy’s dedication and involvement in pitch and putt not just in Cashel but also throughout Munster and at national level’. Liam Leahy, County Tipperary Pitch & Putt Chairman thanked Jimmy for his contribution to pitch and putt and for his role in developing and maintaining the excellent playing facilities in Larkspur Park and above all for ‘his generosity in ensuring that the course was always available and in superb condition for county, provincial and national competitions’.

Several members of the Cashel Pitch & Putt Club also congratulated Jimmy including Shane Hoare who summed up the general mood of the evening  by paying tribute to Jimmy as ‘a gentleman, a leader and a friend’.

The final act of the evening was the presentation of an engraved piece of crystal to Breda Culleton who was Cashel Person of the Year 2023. Eddie Morrissey said that it was obvious to all that Breda had enjoyed her time as Cashel and ‘of course Rosegreen’ Person of the Year and he thanked her for the profile she had given to the award and for her presence at a number of Cashel Lions Club events during the year.

A most enjoyable evening ended with light refreshments and the buzz of conversation and laughter as many people availed of the opportunity to congratulate Jimmy O’Neill on his selection as a most deserving Cashel Person of the Year 2024.