Medals have been presented to some of Kilkenny’s newest up and coming soccer stars.
Project Ains Nyuk was launched last September (hear that here).
Organised by Gardaí who were aided by a range of other agencies, the aim was to identify and nurture leaders within the city’s Traveller community.
It took the form of a five-a-side soccer tournament with teams from St Catherine’s (Wetlands) and St Mary’s (Hebron Road) meeting crews from established clubs Freebooters and Evergreen.
Training kicked off at the end of March (hear that here and here) and games took place across April.
Earlier this week Minister Frank Feighan was invited to The Watershed to present medals to the team from St Catherine’s (pictured above with Captain Mikey Carthy).
The Minister got more than he bargained for when challenged by one of the crew:
‘Minister you should come play with us’ says John Carthy to @FrankFeighan who quickly jumped in to take a shot. He’s in #Kilkenny to present medals to participants of Project Ains Nyuk pic.twitter.com/2zwCy8t4yq
— KCLR 96FM (@kclr96fm) May 3, 2022
Our Edwina Grace was at the event and spoke to some of those involved from the start:
Minister Feighan too spoke to our reporter about his Kilkenny visit and looked ahead to his Carlow stop-offs for the following day: