I STILL LOVES ME COUNTY BOI
One of our talented and dedicated volunteers, Michael Smyth, is nothing short of a veteran when it comes to being a fan of Waterford Hurling.
A couple of years back, Michael showcased his artistic skills by hand painting a picture of Waterford’s centre-forward, Austin Gleeson.
I asked Michael about the painting and what his inspiration was behind it:
“As a big Waterford hurling supporter and a big fan of Austin Gleeson I thought it would be a nice idea to do a painting of him . The painting itself is based off his celebration after he scored a goal against Cork in the All Ireland Semi Final in 2017. Austin played a big role in last Sunday’s All Ireland Final, unfortunately it wasn’t our day as we faced a very talented Limerick side. Austin and the team lit up the past few weeks for us Waterford supporters by producing fantastic performances in these difficult times. I would like to thank everyone for their kind words about the painting in the past few weeks. As I still can’t believe how much attention it attracted. I would like to thank to everyone involved in Farronshoneen over the past few weeks and my parents, friends, family and all who bidded on the painting and for sharing it on their social media .I was delighted the painting raised €100 for the Farronshoneen Youth project”.
Back at the timing of it’s painting, Michael was kind enough to donate it to the Farronshoneen Community Youth Project where it stayed up until recently. Carrie, our community youth worker in the project, was amazed by the painted and seen an opportunity to do something positive with it coming up to the final. After a team meeting it was decided that auctioning off the painting would be a great way to raise some funds for the project while also ensuring Michael got the recognition he deserves.
In just 4 days the painting raised €100 for the project and gained quite a bit of traction on social media. However, it wasn’t just picked up on through social media, the painting made it into the Daily Star Newspaper.
Since it’s auction, the picture of Austin has been hanging proudly above the mantelpiece in its’ new owners home
From all of us at FCYP, we would like to thank Jimmy Veaney for their generous bid on the painting. Most importantly, we would like to thank Michael Smyth himself for his outstanding level of generosity and skill, you should be very proud of yourself. Let’s look forward to 2021 now #DéiseAbú.
