Community

2021 has been challenging from a community perspective and as we edge towards the easing of Level Five Restrictions, we look forward to recommencing face-to-face community engagement activities in the coming weeks.

As these are my first notes of the year, I hope all our supporters are keeping safe and well and fingers crossed we will all be back at Richmond Park together in the near future.

In the first edition of The Saint, an article detailing the Pre- Season with Pat’s Health and Well-Being programme was published. It was an absolute pleasure to coordinate this programme alongside academy staff Niall Cully, Sean Fogarty and club volunteer Rob Cullen. Leaving the visible health and well-being improvements aside, engaging with a segment of the Pat’s community every Monday, at a time when many people are feeling isolated, represented a real high point of my week. It was wonderful to be able to facilitate engagement and create bonds between the first team and our supporters in the lead up to the League of Ireland season. The player’s spoke about how dedicated the group were during preseason while offering valuable insights and nutritional advice to the supporters – ultimately taking an interest in the off the field activities of St Pat’s in a manner which simply cannot

be fabricated. The sheer dedication of this team has been evident throughout the early weeks of the season and they ultimately deserve to be supported by a fervent audience at Richmond Park – a revitalised team challenging at the right end of the table has the ability to transcend football and have a real positive impact in the local community and let us all hope those days are not too far away.

In the meantime, the following community programmes will be commencing in the coming weeks.