Brian Conlon Foundation continues to support local groups

14 Mar 2024

Nine local groups in the Newry area are set to receive awards from the Brian Conlon Foundation this week, in conjunction with the Community Foundation for Northern Ireland, funding groups in Newry city for organisations and charities to advance education, amateur sport, providing opportunities for young people from the local area, and assistance for local community organisations.

The Brian Conlon Foundation stated:

“Being able to make these awards to groups in the Newry area is fantastic.

“The connection Brian had with Newry is well known and each year we see the support for local groups expanding and reaching new people.

“Brian was passionate about creating opportunities in his hometown and making a real difference to local lives. The Foundation reflects Brian’s values and allows his spirit to live on whilst making a positive tangible contribution to the community he was so proud of.”

Tony Jennings from St Monica’s Boxing Club in Newry said:

“Our ‘Club Fit for Life’ programme is aimed at promoting the benefits of adopting healthier habits and delivering fitter families.

“The 12 week programme will include elements that are specifically tailored to young girls who have no previous experience of boxing, a Healthy Mind programme to offer support to young people to develop better mental health outcomes and a Healthy Me project that focuses on building deeper awareness amongst boxers of the need to develop and maintain a healthy, balanced diet.

“St Monica’s Boxing Club works with expert partners and collaborate on projects to help create equity engaging with young people in under-represented groups including travellers, recently arrived migrants, LGBTQI+ individuals and young people from all community backgrounds,

“This award from the Brian Conlon Foundation will help us extend and develop this essential work building key skills and confidence in our local community.”

Speaking today, Orla Black, Grants Director at the Community Foundation said:

“The now annual awards made by the Brian Conlon foundation are making a huge difference to Newry based groups. These awards cover activities ranging for arts programmes, the enhancement of sports in the area and projects for engaging and supporting young people.

“These awards are of course a very welcome boost to the Newry area allowing projects including a sports inclusion project, a youth group summer show and kayaking for children and adults with intellectual disabilities to go ahead and improve people’s physical and mental wellbeing and its fantastic to see new groups applying each year.”

About Brian Conlon

Brian passed away in July 2019 after a short illness, aged 53. Entrepreneur and founder of First Derivatives, he was a much-loved father, husband, son, brother, friend, and colleague.

Hugely successful in many walks of life, Brian was a high achiever in education, in sport and in business. When a knee injury ended his senior Gaelic football career with Co. Down, Brian turned his attention to business and set up First Derivatives from a bedroom in his mother’s home. It is now one of NI’s most successful businesses employing over 2,500 people globally.

Despite his successes’, Brian remained a humble and grounded family man who faced both challenges and opportunities in his own life and who supported local and national causes in a quiet and understated way.

The awards were made to the following groups:

• St Monicas Boxing Club Newry towards the Club Fit For Life project
• Newry City AFC Special Olympic Club towards floorball for children and adults with intellectual disabilities
• Drake Music Project Northern Ireland towards the Platform project
• Newpoint Players towards the Newpoint Players Youth Group Summer Show
• Crisis Cafe CIC towards the There4me project
• Sticky Fingers Arts towards The Imagination Lab 2024
• Home-Start Newry and Mourne towards the Family Group Support
• Newry Shamrocks GAA towards Developing Amateur Sport in Newry
• Lisdrum Youth FC towards the Summer of Community Connection 2024 project