Championship joy for the Sean O’Mahony’s

O’Mahony’s man of the match Conor Finnegan lifts his award as captain Pat O’Brien lifts the Seamus Flood Cup in Clan na Gael Park yesterday.

A strong finish to either half proved decisive as Sean O’Mahony’s held out for a 1-11 to 1-8 victory over St Fechin’s to land the Louth IFC title at Clan na Gael Park in Dundalk yesterday.

The Point Road outfit had been trailing their opponents by a point approaching half-time before a three point surge gave them a 0-7 to 0-4 lead at the break.

They then tagged on a goal and a point on the restart to race into a 1-8 to 0-4 lead with Conor Crawley boxing to the net in the 33rd minute.

The Termonfeckin men fought their way back into it, however, with a late penalty bringing the sides level at 1-8 apiece as Ronan Holcroft began to create all sorts of problems for Brendan Nordon’s side.

However, the O’Mahony’s hit the three closing scores of the game through three Conor Finnegan frees to seal a famous win and a first championship title since 1998. Afterwards captain Pat O’Brien lifted the Seamus Flood Cup and Finnegan picked up the man of the match award.

Afterwards there was celebrations galore in the Quay, with the cup being presented by Fr Michael Cusack at the 6pm Mass at St Gerard’s Novena in the Redemptorist Church that evening.

Sean O’Mahony’s: Kevin Brennan; Pat O’Brien, Mickey Clarke, Ronan Byrne; Keith McLaughlin, John O’Brien, Kurt Murphy; Conor Crawley 1-0, Shane Brennan; Peter Nixon, Liam Dullaghan 0-1, Conor Finnegan 0-6; Stephen Fisher 0-2, Conor Martin, Stephen Kilcoyne 0-2. Subs: David Dowling for C Martin, Brendan Traynor for K Brennan (BC), Conor Martin for C Crawley, Gary Mulligan for D Dowling.

St Fechins: Keith McCarthy; Richie McDonnell, Niall McCabe, Billy Fanning; Sean McConnell, David Collier, Jamie King; Bevan Duffy 0-1, Ryan Sheridan 0-1; Conor Haughney, Colm O’neill, Brian Devlin; Ronan Holcroft 1-5, Harry McCarthy, Niall Devlin 0-1. Subs: Marc Hynes for C Haughney, Paul Matthews for R Sheridan, Danny Burnell for H McCarthy, Eoghan Duffy for J King.

Referee: Stephen Johnston

DFP Group acquire two new financial services firms

Pictured at the announcement of the deal are: Aoife McCarthy, director, DFP Group; Michael Bollard, managing director, Bollard Financial Services; Eoin Doohan, group managing director, DFP; and Brendan Nordon, group actuary DFP.

Dundalk-based DFP Group, one of the north east’s largest pension and investment consultants recently announced the acquisition of Bollard Financial Services and Doody Crowley Financial Services in Dublin.

Both Bollard Financial Services and Doody Crowley Financial Services are long established financial advisory firms with over 25 years’ experience advising both private clients and companies in all aspects of investment and retirement planning. These acquisitions further strengthen the DFP Group’s commercial footprint within the greater Leinster region.

Eunan O’Carroll of Core Consulting who managed the deal for the Quayside Business Park-based DFP Group said: “This deal represents a win-win situation for all firms involved. Given the likely changes to the business model as a result of pending regulation and the changing commercial focus of the larger product providers, financial advisory firms will require significant investment is systems and resources, if they are going to transition their business to the new model advisor approach that will emerge in the next two years.”

Commenting on the acquisition to Business and Finance, Eoin Doohan, group managing director of DFP Group said: “We are delighted to welcome Bollard Financial Services and Doody Crowley Financial Services as part of the DFP Group. These are strategic acquisitions on our part and they will ensure we remain one of the leading independent financial advisory practices within the Irish market with combined assets under management in excess of €175m.”

Michael Bollard, a well-known financial services practitioner in Dublin for many years and director of Bollard Financial Services said: “This deal further strengthens our capacity to deliver a highly professional financial advisory services to all our clients and ensure we are best placed to deal with the changing market dynamic that will emerge in the future as a result of further European regulation enforcement.”

Bollard Financial Services will now be rebranded as BFS Pension & Investment Consultants and trade under the DFP Group of companies.