The event was open to girls from Under 8 through to Under 13 with over 50 teams participating. The festival has been running for 16 years but this is the eighth running of the Girls Only festival run in tandem with the Powerchair Football section of the tournament, which took place on the same day in Gormonston Park.
Paul Keogh FAI/Fingal County Council Development Officer commented: "There was a great turnout by girls teams from all over Fingal and indeed Dublin - we even had the Donegal League take part, which is a great indication of the appeal of this event that people will travel so far to play. This event gets bigger and better every year and a lot of credit must go to the work being done by local clubs to encourage the growth of women’s football in communities around the county."
Senior Sports Officer of Fingal County Council, Niall McGuirk, stated: "The Fingal Festival of football continues to grow and evolve each year. We need to provide events like this to give girl’s more choice and opportunity when it comes to participation in sportand encourage clubs to continue to form girls’ teams to try and tackle female dropout rates from sport."
While the Fingal Festival of Football caters for both elite and community sections the overall ethos remains the same in that it’s a community event providing a fun environment for young people to come together, while enjoying their sport and creating an opportunity for them to meet people from all over the country.
After some nail biting finals the Mayor presentedthe Harmony Cup, now named after the late Gerry Lynam, one of the founders of the tournament to U13 Elite Winners: Glebe North FC & Runners up: Cherry Orchard. The U13 Community Winners were: Malahide United & Runners Up: Killegland FC and U12 Elite Winners: Peamount United.
The winners of the Powerchair Football, Midlands United received the Harmony Cup trophy from the acting Mayor of Fingal, Jimmy Guerin, after they defeated DCU in the final. Both teams will be representing Ireland later this year in Europe in the Powerchair Champions League.