Great decades of fairways, friendships and fundraising

More than two hundred golfers took part in this year’s Annual Golf Scramble for the Irish Kidney Association at Nenagh Golf Club, continuing a local tradition that has brought golfers and supporters together for more than four decades.

Fifty-two teams played over Saturday and Sunday, September 12 and 13, raising €9,035 for the Irish Kidney Association (IKA). The annual event is estimated to have raised close to €175,000 for the charity over the years, helping support people living with kidney disease and their families, while also supporting the IKA’s work promoting organ donation.

The reason behind the fundraising was particularly visible at the prize presentation for the golf event this year, where several local kidney transplant recipients came together to support the event.

TRANSPLANT RECIPIENTS

The accompanying photograph taken at the prize presentation this year captures the longstanding connection between Nenagh Golf Club and the Nenagh Committee for the Tipperary IKA Branch, and the local community. It includes four transplant recipients – Michelle Barry, Sheila Gregan, Matthew Holland, and John Mounsey, alongside Michael Fitzsimons, Nenagh IKA committee and Diana Austin, Ladies’ Captain of Nenagh GC.

John Mounsey continues to enjoy longevity of the kidney transplant he received more than two deceades ago. Michelle Barry, aged 22, a local kidney transplant recipient and camogie player with Éire Óg, also attended the event. Michelle returned to playing camogie following her transplant earlier this year. There was another personal connection to the event through Matthew Holland, age 22, from Ardcroney, whose mother Jackie works at Nenagh Golf Club. Matthew received his second kidney transplant in December 2025, having received his first transplant when he was 10 years old. He attended the prize presentation in support of the fundraiser.

Sheila Gregan, herself a kidney transplant recipient, is a long-standing member of the Nenagh IKA committee and member of Transplant Sport Ireland. She has become a seasoned participant in transplant sport having represented Ireland at multiple events around the world and continues to win many medals and good memories on the way.

Another stalwart from those early days who remains involved is Michael Fitzsimons, whose late brother Eugene received two kidney transplants.

For everyone involved, this year’s event was about much more than one weekend of golf. The €9,035 raised for this year’s event is the latest contribution that dates back more than 40 years.

IMPORTANT FUNDRAISER

The Nenagh committee of the Tipperary IKA Branch was established in the early 1980s, with the fundraising golf event becoming an important part of its activities from those early days. A report in the Nenagh Guardian in 1987 recorded then Tipperary IKA Branch Chairman the late Paddy D’Arcy referring to the golf event as being in its fifth year, placing its beginnings around 1982. Paddy, who passed away in December 2018, had received three kidney transplants, the last from his sister.

More than four decades later, the golf event for the IKA continues, thanks in large part to the enduring support of Nenagh Golf Club, which has made its course available for the two-day fundraiser since its early days.

Down through the years, the Nenagh committee supported the wider Tipperary branch through churchgate collections, fashion shows and other fundraising activities. The golf event at Nenagh Golf Club became the enduring fundraiser, bringing together the IKA, the golf club, and the wider community.

James Dodd praised the support received from the local community and Nenagh Golf Club over the decades. He said: “Nenagh Golf Club has been really supportive and so generous to us. They have given us the course for the weekend year after year and helped with timesheets, administration and all the practical arrangements. It is amazing to see how generations of people have supported it.”

“We wish to express our sincere thanks to the past and present Men’s and Ladies’ Captains, managers and staff at Nenagh Golf Club, as well as the golfers, sponsors, local businesses, volunteers, families and wider community whose support, through participation, sponsorship, prizes and donations, has helped sustain this special fundraising tradition for more than 40 years and, in doing so, enabling the Irish Kidney Association to continue supporting people living with kidney disease and their families.”