Dublin Castle was the venue for the finals of the prestigious Better Together Charity Video Competition 2013 on Thursday night.
Buncrana GAA club’s shortlisted entry didn’t get the top prize but the judges were mightily impressed and commended the club for the fantastic role it plays in the local community.
A hundred and thirty-seven, clubs and associations from across Ireland made short online videos to highlight the impact of their work, and the public voted for their favourite clips.
Over 134,000 votes were cast on the website www.bettertogether.ie between September and December, and 10 videos were subsequently shortlisted across six categories.
Galway Autism Partnership were the winners of the Volunteer Only Category, which included Buncrana GAA.
Club PRO Jim Doherty was delighted with the response to the online campaign and the clubs shortlisting.
“The video was produced by local companies Crana Communications and the Memory Factory for free and showcases the tremendous role that the club plays in the local community.
“Very few people realize the impact of their local GAA clubs in helping make their parishes better places to live and work.
“Clubs are involved in everything from assisting the RNLI to promoting alcohol and drug abuse awareness.
“Our national games are to the forefront of what we do but the GAA club is about much more than the games.
The first Better Together campaign was launched in 2010 by The Wheel, a support and representative body for the Irish community and voluntary sector.
The Wheel created the Better Together campaign in order to help raise public awareness and support for the work being done by literally thousands of charities, community groups, clubs and associations up and down the country.
Buncrana GAA would like to thank everyone who voted for their entry and everyone who gave up their time to participate in the production.
Club member John Doherty, who lives and works in Dublin, represented the club at the awards.
The awards were filmed by RTE Nationwide and will be broadcast in late January. Meanwhile if anyone wants to view the Buncrana GAA video again they can do so at www.bettertogether.ie
Commenting on the Awards, Deirdre Garvey, Chief Executive of The Wheel said:
“The Better Together Campaign demonstrates the great value of people working together for the common good.
“Charities, community and voluntary groups are facing their toughest challenge yet, not only is the demand for their services increasing, but their income levels are dropping.
“The campaign aims to turn the tide on this and strengthen local groups by showing the public the extraordinary work happening in their communities and what they can do to help.