(L-R) McAleer & Rushe Chief Executive Eamonn Lavery, Tyrone GAA Chairperson Michael Kerr and McAleer & Rushe Chairperson Seamus McAleer present the new Tyrone GAA jersey with Players (L-R) Padraig Hampsey, Cormac Devlin, Kieran McGeary and Conor Grogan
“We’re just delighted to welcome one of Tyrone and Ireland’s finest businesses, Tyrone’s own McAleer & Rushe, back on board as our Tyrone GAA title sponsors.”
That’s how a delighted Tyrone County Chairman Michael Kerr announced Tyrone GAA’s new two-year (plus a follow-up two-year option) sponsorship agreement with Tyrone construction and property development market leaders, McAleer & Rushe.
He was speaking as he and McAleer & Rushe Chairman Seamus McAleer and Group Chief Executive Eamonn Laverty launched the sponsorship and the accompanying new jersey in Cookstown today.
Sponsorship has become a key part of the GAA’s business model at all levels, something of which Michael Kerr is totally appreciative.
“Sponsors are now very important to us across the GAA” he explained.
“And we’ve been blessed in Tyrone with a whole sequence of great title sponsors. I thank them all, and particularly our immediate past sponsors Tyrone Fabrication who helped us to such great success in their time with us.
“Good sponsorship is of course not just about the money. It’s also about the style, the brand, the advice and the complementarities a sponsor can bring with them. That’s the real value that ‘proper fit’ sponsorship can bring.
“Of course we need to be very clear too that it’s not just a one-way arrangement, but that we too have major obligations to meet.
There’s a certain neat symmetry between the growth of both Tyrone and McAleer & Rushe into titans in their respective fields.
McAleer & Rushe were founded in 1967, the year that many observers see as the ‘throw-in year’ for the modern Tyrone GAA.
“That really was a happy, and as it turned out, an historic year for Tyrone” the Tyrone Chairman continued.
“On the GAA front we started a process of our County winning titles on the field that has never since slackened, whilst our Clubs accelerated the building of an unrivalled infrastructure across Tyrone.
“And McAleer & Rushe took their first steps on a journey that has delivered remarkable results for our County.”
“The jobs they have created here, the emigration of our brightest-and-best they have stemmed, the knowledge and skills bases they have developed, the sub-contracting businesses they have fostered, the wealth they have created and the pride, self-esteem and confidence they have generated for our whole community have been just priceless.”
“We can’t and won’t forget that.”
Over that half-century McAleer & Rushe and its people have been consistently in, of and for the GAA.
“There is no ‘us and them’ involved here” Michael Kerr added.
“This is a business where the GAA thread is very strong. And they run it not just across Tyrone but also into Derry, Armagh and many other counties.
“Seamus and Eamonn are long-established GAA men. Their contributions to the ongoing best-in-class developments in their home Clubs Kildress and Stewartstown are startling. Go to both Clubs and, to steal from another time and place, ‘If you seek their monument, look around you.’
Eamonn too of course was one of our Club Tyrone Committee members who helped grow it into the sensation it has become.”
“And they were a key sounding board for advice on our capital projects. And all the while, so many others in the firm made and make major contributions to the GAA.”
“McAleer & Rushe work to a very powerful strapline” the Tyrone GAA Chairman concluded.
“It reads ‘We deliver exemplar buildings.’
“That sentiment strikes a real chord with us in Tyrone GAA. I have no doubt that together we will deliver ‘an exemplar Tyrone.’
“And there can be no better joint enterprise than that. It’s up to us all to now deliver it.”
Announcing the New partnership with Tyrone GAA, Seamus McAleer & Eamonn Laverty jointly stated
“We are delighted to have the opportunity to work with Tyrone GAA again. Our experience of being sponsor in the past was very positive, and in ways we did not fully expect or appreciate at the time, and we look forward to developing our partnership with Tyrone GAA for at least the next 2 years.
We warmly wish all players and management of all codes the very best of luck for the incoming season and are only delighted to be a part of the next chapter after the heights of 2021.”
(L-R) McAleer & Rushe Chief Executive Eamonn Lavery, Tyrone GAA Chairperson Michael Kerr and McAleer & Rushe Chairperson Seamus McAleer present the new Tyrone GAA jersey.
