Updated Nov 28th 2005

In the off season Setanta enters an indoor soccer team at the YMCA Indoor Soccer Center in Point Loma.The team is named Lordy Celtic after the one and only Barry "Lordy" Moran who moved back to Ireland after 3 fun filled years in San Diego. Anyway the team finished first in the league and is now in the semi final on Nov 29th. You can keep up to date with the teams progress by clicking here The Setanta Awards for 2005 were announced at the recent Banquet.Thanks to Brian White who organised the night and to all who attended, making it yet another great Setanta social event. Junior B Players Player of the Year Geoff Barnett Junior C Players Player of the Year Brian White Players Clubman of the Year Rory O'Loughlin Batter Burger of the Year Rory O'Loughlin The Setanta Halloween Bus Tour keeps going from strength to strength. This year it was a 75 people sell out nearly two weeks before the event.! With great music provided by Jason Mullaly and Rory the Hip O'Loughlin the bus was constantly rocking. This year we visited Latitiude 32 Pub in Pacific Beach, Rileys of Point Loma, The Ould Sod of Normal Heights and closed out the night in The San Diego Sports Club in Hillcrest. Winners of Best costume: Best Witch: Kristi Jenkins as the Witch of the West Best Action Hero: Tracey O Rourke as Poison Ivy Best Pope: Conor Smith as the Pope Vader, a cross between Pope Benedict and Darth Vader Best Grim Reaper: Declan McCole as the man who comes to get you when your time is up Best Overall Winner: Brock Harris as one ugly Playboy Bunny. Thanks to everyone who took part and we hope to see ye all again in 2006. A huge congratulations to three ex members of Setanta. One of the founding members of Setanta, Dermot Kehily played full back for his club, St Brigids in winning the Dublin Intermediate Championship. Also on The Brigids team was Stephen Andrews who played for us in the Summer of 2004. Finally, Conor "Champ" O'Donoghue played at full forward for his club, St Peters Dunboyne and they won the Meath Senior Football Championship. Fair play to the lads. Next up for Setanta is the social event of the year, The Setanta Halloween Pub Tour.This promises to be the best one ever. We're still working on all the details but it is definitely on Friday October 28th. You can sign up here Well it didnt work out as planned for Setanta.Both teams lost their first games of the weekend which was very disappointing.It wasnt for lack of effort and it really was great to see 30 fellas travel from San Diego to play Gaelic Football.We, of course made the most of the weekend, enjoying the social scene and culture in the City of Brotherly Love. Click here to read the Junior B match report and Click here to read the Junior C match report Setanta travel to the U.S. National Finals with two teams this year.This is a huge undertaking and is a credit to the effort put in by the board, coaches and players. Hopefully both teams will come back with some silverware. The Bay Party on August 20th was a massive success with the new Special Olympics a big winner with the crowd.Here is the winners of the events Wheelbarrow Race: Bryan Ly and Bobby Bistro Three Legged Race: Gary and Paul O'Hara Lime and Spoon Race: Bryan Ly and Bobby Bistro Sack Race: Geoff Barnett Setanta won their third Southern California Championship in a row on Saturday August 6th and will now travel to The Nationals Finals in Philadelphia with a Junior B and a Junior C team. Click here read the match report This Saturday is your last chance to watch a game of Gaelic Football in San Diego for 2005. Setanta plays host to the Wild Geese with the winner representing Southern California at the National Championships Labor day weekend in Phildelphia. Throw in time is 5pm at La Jolla High School Click here to get directions With just a week before the Southern California Final, the Chris O'Shea trophy re-appeared after going missing from The Felspar Kids house in Sept 2004.This made headline news in Ireland with the story being picked up by the Irish Times.Click here to view Setantas first trip to San Francisco since 2001 was a rip roaring success on and off the field. A squad of 19 players travelled and we played the Young Irelanders, currently unbeaten in the San Francisco Junior Championship. The final result was Setanta 2-11 Young Irelanders 1-06. You can read the match report by Clicking here Off the field we had a great night in Fibber McGees and Durty Nellys Pub. The fun we had on Sunday was even better with Jason"YoYo"Giles dancing for everyone in Pier 23.Thankfully everyone made their flights! Mark Saturday July 16th down in your calendars as the day Barry'Lordy'Moran departed San Diego for good.Lordy is now free to inflict his rendition of Spancill Hill on Trinity College, where we're sure he has taken up residence in the Buttery Bar, instead of the main Science Building. Lordy will be missed on the field for his two deadly left feet & off the field for providing some of the great photo moments for the aspiring photographers in the club. Aside from playing football and surfing the waves, Setanta raises money for charities throughout the year.On July 16th we raised $485.50 for the Girls and Boys Clubs of Carlsbad.As with all charities, every dollar collected counts, so Well done to all who contributed and thanks to Bitser for doing a lot of the groundwork in initiating the charity link up. Thanks as well to Rory O'Loughlin for organizing the visits of Phoenix and Chicago and to Brian White and Conor Smith for looking after the publicity and the flyer. The unbeaten streak continues! On Saturday July 16th Setanta Junior C team played host to a gallant Phoenix Gaels team but in the end the obvious fitness of the Setanta squad showed up with a final score of 4-17 to 4-06.In the second game of the day, Setantas Junior B team nearly got a big fright from Chicago Parnells.Down 4 points at half time, Setanta only gained the lead in the final 5 mins and eventually held on for a 3 point win. A great night of singing and slurping continued in The Ould Sod that night with all the teams represented. Setanta had a big home win against the Wild Geese on Saturday July 9th with the scoreline reading, Setanta 1-25 to Wild Geese 1-08. With this win, Setanta will now host the Southern California on home turf at La Jolla High School.The winner of that game will travel to National finals in Philadelphia. Congratulations to Adrian Callaghan who finally got hitched on Saturday July 2nd to the lovely Katie McKelligon. A great day and night was had by all.A rousingly brutal version of Spancill Hill was sung by Lordy at closing time to finish off the celebrations. Setanta came back from a ten point half time deficit against the Wild Geese to win by 2 points.Final score was Setanta 1-17 Wild Geese 3-09.This was the first of two competitive games to decide who will host the Southern California Final on August 6th.You can read the match report by Clicking here Practice for June 15th will be held at Ski Beach as La Jolla High School is unavailable due to High School graduation event. Make sure to bring your runners as we're go gonna run the bloody legs off ya. A very entertaining game was held at La Jolla High School on June 11th where the Wild Geese of Orange County travelled with an 18 strong contingent which was great to see. In a very high scoring game, Setanta ran out eventual winners 4-14 to 0-18. Best for Setanta were Scott McBrayer in midfield and Vinny McCarthy who got 2-1 on his debut.After the game a large crowd enjoyed pints and banter at the Blarney Stone in Clairemont. On June 4th Setanta flew to Phoenix for the first game of the season. In very mild conditions for Phoenix(95 degrees f) it would be fair to say we played awful. A very gallant Phoenix team won the midfield battle and scored some nice points. Rory "Flashdance" O'Loughlin deputised in goals for Setanta letting in the first howler of the season.For setanta Ultan Breslin battled very gamely and deserved his 1-3.After the game the Gaels hosted us with a delicious bbq and beers followed by the night out in Tempe, where Lordy Moran on his last tour of duty with Setanta(he's moving to the Southside of Dublin in July) gave the Rula Bula crowd a version of Spancill Hill not seen since he last sang it at Bitsers eviction party. To the credit to all travelling, we made the 8am flight back to San Diego, where some watched Dublin v Meath on tape delay while others hit the Silver Fox, but thats a story for a different website. A very special thanks to Kathy and Randy Franke who announced on Saturday the 28th May that Setanta will have use of La Jolla High School for summer practices. With the cutbacks in the San Diego Parks Dept and pressure on all playing fields we were really struggling to find a decent sized field that can accomodate Gaelic Football.The club really appreciates the effort by Kathy and Randy to secure us this field. With Setanta now fielding two mens team, this news could not have come at a better time. On Saturday May 28th, Setanta played an inter club game at our home ground, La Jolla High School. We had a great turn out of 26 players. It was a very competitive game and there was only one point in it at the end. It was great to see some new players out who impressed considering they have only been to practice 5 or 6 times.The proceedings then moved onto The Ould Sod where in all fairness it was one of the craziest nights seen in a long time. Unfortunelty Mundo had his brand new T Shirt ripped by the Amazonian Clan Na Gael team from San Francisco and is still shook from the experience. The Setanta Golf Tournament on May 21st was probably some of the worst golf ever played, some of the best fun and definitely the most financially successful in its 4 year history. Many thanks to all the people who played and to our sponsors On Sunday May 8th 2005 while enjoying a few pints in the Ould Sod, club secretary Rory O'Loughlin and club captain Colm Conneely blatantly accused the webmaster of photo censorship. A very legal document was drawn up and signed by all parties.So, if anyone has photos from club events they want posted on the website please email them to the webmaster and you can be guaranteed they will be posted if they are of the required quality. The Setanta Golf Tournament is next up on the calendar(Sat May 21st).This year we have switched play to Mission Bay Golf Course.It was felt by all that we had mastered the Balboa course and something fresh and challenging was needed. As an added social extra, there will be an official gathering afterwards on Mission Bay with beer and food for all those who played in the golf. More details and the online sign up form are available by clicking on this link Click here The new season starts on April 18th. We will practise on Monday nights for the first three weeks and after that we will add Wednesdays as well. We have a new practise field this year.Its at Kearny Mesa Rec Center. Directions and practise schedule is available by clicking on the link Click here The St Patricks day parade went off without incident which is always a good thing.About 15 of the team marched in the parade and a couple more manned the Setanta booth. Special thanks to Brian White and Rory O'Loughlin for organising the booth and making sure everyone got down in time.A special Co-Ed game of Gaelic Football was played in the park afterwards which everyone enjoyed. Late night revellers at the Ould Sod included, Tomas O Sullivan, James Coyne, Adrian Callaghan, Colm Marmion, Conor O'Donoghue, Geoff Barnett, Conor Smith and Rory O'Loughlin who was last to leave but thankfully not by himself. Congratulations to Joe & Iris Dowling who gave birth to a lovely little girl on March 2nd at 9:14am. Her name is Ella, and she weighted in at 8 lb 1 oz. Both Fr and Madre are doing fine. Setanta will be marching in the San Diego St Patricks Day Parade on Saturday March 12th.Clear your calendars for the day The Setanta 2005 AGM was held on Thursday Feb 17th.Here are the names of the people now running the show. President: Declan McCole Secretary: Rory O'Loughlin Treasurer: Steven Glynn Development: Brian White Congratulations to Niall O'Carroll and his wife Mary who had a baby boy on Jan 19th 2005. The young fella, named Aiden Joseph weighed in at 6lb 10oz and was 19 inches long..