Collection in Damian’s memory hits £37,000

A STAGGERING £37,000 has been raised through Eoghan Ruadh hurling club in Dungannon for the Kevin Bell Repatriation trust in memory of their star player Damian Casey who passed away last month.

Eoghan Ruadh chairman Tony Donnelly revealed that the donations at a recent Dungannon Clarkes game far surpassed what would have been lifted in ordinary admission fees as many supporters made contributions well in excess of the usual match day price.

“The response has been phenomenal,” he said.

“We put the appeal with a target of £10,000 and within six hours that was surpassed. We raised it to £20,000 and have gone away beyond that again. It is fantastic.

“The Kevin Bell Trust does incredible work. It has an expertise that can cut through legislation that grieving families would struggle to deal with. The response across the community is also reflective of how popular Damian Casey was. He was a great lad who is very sorely missed by us all, most especially his family.”

All Ireland hurling final tickets were also generously donated to help raise funds. A woman from Armagh who won two tickets gave them to the club to raffle while a local businessman also donated two Premier Section tickets. With 199 raffle tickets sold at £10 each, they raised another £1,990 for the appeal.

Meanwhile the Eoghan Ruadh club moved quickly to block scammers who went onto their Facebook page.

Mr Donnelly explained, “It shows how low people are that run these scams. They have no morality at all. Facebook needs to stop them. They obviously target raffles. There were people responding to give them details and we quickly stopped them and removed and deleted the scammers. We monitor it very closely now.

“However it takes a lot to overshadow the goodness and kindness we have seen in the last month and a few anonymous scammers certainly haven’t done that.”

To make a donation visit Eoghan Ruadh Hurling club Facebook page.