Pitching and putting on the style to raise almost €4,000 for charity

A CAST of curious characters took their best shot at the Bohernabreena Pitch and Putt course on Saturday morning and raised over €3,500 for a local autism charity as a result.

A total of 24 players took part in the 13th Annual Mary O’Toole Memorial Cup on the day and, as is tradition for the players, they played while dressed up as a variety of zany characters.

This is in keeping with the attitude of the late Mary O’Toole, who was from Crumlin and worked in the Jobstown Community Centre until she died from cancer 14 years ago.

Mary’s nephew, Jeff O’Toole, who organised the event, told The Echo: “She was a very fun-loving person, so we decided to do something where we could dress up and have a bit of craic.

“It was great on Saturday – people were very excited by it.

“We were all in the car-park waiting to see what the next person’s costume would be.”

Jimmy, Gareth Jr. and Gareth Sr. O’Toole

The rules of the Mary O’Toole Memorial Cup dictate that, each year, the winning team is presented with the cup and gets to select the charity that will benefit from the following year’s cup.

The winners of the 2022 Mary O’Toole Memorial Cup, Darren Byrne and Noel Mannion, picked the Tallaght Parents Autism Support Group as the beneficiary of this year’s cup.

Between €3,500 and €4,000 has been raised for the group – pending the return of some sponsorship cards – and Jeff said everyone involved in the event is proud of the amount that was raised.

Nathan Meredith, Stevin Doyle, Donal McNulty

“We’re all very proud of it,” he said.

“These smaller community groups need the money, it’s very hard for them to get funding and the group doesn’t get government funding because they’re not a registered charity.

“They rely solely on private funding, and we’re delighted that the money is going to be spent on a Christmas event for the kids who have autism.”

The winners of this year’s Mary O’Toole Memorial Cup were Christy, Meredith and Derek Lovett, who will now select the chosen charity for next year’s event.

Nicole O’Toole, Domo Dowling and Leah O’Toole

Commenting on the continued success of the memorial cup, Jeff said: “It’s still very competitive because of the honour of winning the trophy and picking the charity.

“Even though it’s a laugh and we’re dressed in silly costumes, we all still want to win it.”

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