DARA WILL BE HARD TO REPLACE

Ian Fortune

Saturday night was certainly a special night for the connections of Fleadh Saraide and A Lucky Julie as they shared the honours in the Sporting Press Online Edition Irish Oaks but it was also an evening tinged with sadness for those that work at, or frequent, Shelbourne Park with the hugely popular Dara Geraghty signing off for the final time at the home of greyhound racing.

Dara would have been known by most that regularly make the journey to Shelbourne from his time working in the bars, restaurant and more recently as Head of Operations. A great character with a wonderful ability with people, he will be greatly missed.

After a long number of years working at HQ, Dara has made the decision to move on to pastures new and the news has come as quite a blow to his many friends in greyhound racing.

On behalf of all that worked with or dealt with Dara in the past, I’d like to thank him all his work and especially for steering the ship in recent years. He leaves behind a great team that will look to continue his great work. Many of them were on hand on Saturday to give their popular colleague a suitable send off.

The DGOBA made a presentation to Dara, who was joined by his wife Mira and a number of his team, on Saturday night. Whether Dara will get more time to play golf in the future is hard to predict but, have no doubt, he will try. Finally, I’d likely to remind the man himself that our door is always open and not to be a stranger.

Pictured: Alan Redmond on behalf of the DGOBA makes a presentation to Dara Geraghty on his retirement as Head of Operations at Shelbourne Park. Linda Lenihan presents a bouquet of flowers to Dara’s wife Mira. Also present are Eoin McCann, Amar Shiboo, Kounal Ramsaye, Gilly Guyleim, Sean Moran, Pat McCabe, Denis Buckley, Ger and Laura Reynolds and Liam and Kayden O’Connor. Image by Imelda Grauer.