BY JOHNNY CAROLAN
ADRIGOLE’S Joseph Blake will hope that a strong first year as a Cork delegate to the Munster Council will stand to him in the election for 2024.
Outgoing county board chairperson Marc Sheehan (Aghabullogue) and Paul McCarthy (Kinsale) are also in the running for the election, with ballot papers to be returned by Friday week, December 8th.
Blake served his club and then the division of Beara before being appointed as Cork County Board PRO from 2019-22. Last year, he was elected as one of Cork’s two delegates to Munster, along with Michael Byrne, whose term has now concluded.
Having got the first year under his belt, Blake is keen to build on that experience.
‘Obviously, I go to the meetings, which are held on a regular basis up in Limerick,’ he says, ‘and I’m also on the hearings committee, so I attend those meetings, and I’m on the planning and development committee, too.
‘I’ve been very busy in recent months with that. Clubs apply for Munster Council grants, so I had to go through all of them and make sure that they were okay. Prior to that, I would have been assisting clubs who had queries and helping them with their applications.
‘In recent weeks, I’ve been very lucky to be visiting those clubs. It has been great to see all the great work that is being done as well as hearing about future plans and fundraising.’
Being the next step up from county executive involvement, there are similarities between that and provincial council duties but also notable differences.
‘It was the first time I’ve been on a hearings committee,’ Blake says. ‘I would have been on the CCC [competitions control committee] in Beara and the one in Cork. Now, I’m dealing with a lot of people from counties across the province.
‘I was fortunate when I came on to the council in that Michael Byrne, who is the outgoing delegate, was going into year five and he had a lot of experience. He was able to show me the ropes. I would have also been fortunate enough, as a previous county officer, to have known a number of the people serving on the council, both delegates and officers, as a lot of them would have been county officers at the same time as me.
‘That has been a great help. You’re dealing with hearings at club level, inter-county level, schools – they all come through the Munster hearings committee.
‘The last few months have been a great eye-opener in that I’m dealing with clubs on the ground in Cork, out visiting them and doing the best I can in obtaining the highest percentage of grant allocation possible.’
Given that the other two candidates are very capable and have strong bodies of work supporting them too, Blake is expecting a tough battle. Having just undertaken a new stint as Adrigole secretary, he is not short of work but wearing different hats ensures he stays in touch on the ground.
‘Obviously, there are two other people running and they’re both very experienced,’ he says. ‘Marc Sheehan is the outgoing county chairperson and he was previously on the Munster Council for a number of years while Paul McCarthy is a long-standing county board delegate.
‘I can’t take anything for granted – every vote counts and it’s about trying to get every vote possible to get one of the two positions available.
‘I have a lot of administrative experience, between Adrigole, Beara, Cork and Munster. While I was a county officer, I still remained a club and divisional officer and the same applied when I went on to the Munster Council.
‘I think it’s important that, while I’m serving on the Munster Council, I’d still be involved at club level as you’d hear issues raised that people mightn’t say to you at provincial council level.
‘Obviously, the experience gained at Munster level has been of great benefit in that I’ve been able to bring it back at divisional and club level as well.’
