By Ciaran O’Donnell
Thirty years after first getting involved in Community Games, Bernie Brennan is still as passionate and enthusiastic as ever about the organisation.
The National PR and Marketing Director has served Community Games in a number of roles and is well aware how much the business of promotion and publicity has changed in recent years.
“We’re dealing with Aldi as our main sponsor and we are there to the forefront now, whereas years ago Community Games might not have been as prominent,” she says.
“When I started off working in PR I was communicating with county and provincial PROs through emails, where now social media is the big thing. Facebook, Twitter, Instagram have a part to play in how we get our message out and nearly every county has a facebook page. Community Games has a much bigger presence now – it’s there all the time. We are grateful to Aldi for that as well. Since they came on board as our major sponsor they’ve put an awful lot into the organistation from the grassroots up. The grassroots is always our starting point, big time,”she stresses.
Like the majority of volunteers, Bernie first got involved in Community Games through her children in the Letterkenny area. In 1989 her daughter, Michelle, competed in the under-8 sprint finals.
“She then progressed to swimming where she took a gold medal. She also took a bronze medal in running. At that time Michael Crampsie, Gerard McGinley, Val Cronin, Michael and Mary Crossan and the late Neil Cullen would all have been part of Letterkenny Community Games,” she recalls.
At a meeting upstairs in Gallagher’s Hotel, she was asked to be a team manager at the national finals in Mosney, and thus began a long and unbroken association.
After joining the committee in Letterkenny, she was subsequently elected secretary, a position she held for ten years.
“Back then, Donegal didn’t have a lot of representation at national level. The late John Kelly would have been chairman at that stage. Along with the late Michael Logue and his wife, May, we started putting ourselves out there by getting involved at national level and taking a bit more responsibility.”
In 2008, Bernie was elected on to the national standing orders committee. Four years later, she was nominated for the board and was elected with a resounding vote.
“Obviously Gerry (Davenport) was there as president and it was great to see the people from Donegal taking their places on the board.”
After two years on the board, Bernie was nominated for the position of PR and Marketing Director. Five years on, she’s a much wiser individual.
“You’re going from one thing to the other. It’s very different. I was quite nervous going into the new role because of the responsibility involved. Community Games was big and we had just moved to Athlone where we had set up new offices. Travelling here and there was a whole new thing for me. There are reports to be done and it’s a big change from training kids,” she comments.
Having spent 25 years in the Community Games in a number of different areas, Bernie had a vast knowledge of the organisation she was tasked with promoting and marketing in 2014.
“I think that did stand to me,” she says.
“You need to go from the grassroots up. You have a good understanding of what’s going on in your own county, but this gives a better understanding of what’s going on in other counties. There’s a PRO for each county and it’s my job to see if there are stories that can be used nationally. Obviously in May, we’ll be looking for that story with a difference and it’s amazing the stories that come up.
“Last year we had three from the one family winning gold medals in art. I think a lot of the work is about the friendships you make. You get to know so many different people from different counties.”
The biggest difference Bernie has noticed in recent years is the reduction in paper transactions.
“In the past, reports would have had to be typed up, put in an envelope and given to each county before they left after the national festival. Photographs had to be taken and you had to give photographs back, where now everything is paperless. That changeover was a big challenge and it’s still a work-in-progress among a number of our PRO. They are still making the transition and I’m trying to make the move to digital and electronic as smooth for them as possible.”
Around sixty Community Games volunteers attended a recent workshop focusing on the basics of how to use Facebook and other social media platforms.
“It was a really useful exercise,” she says.
Bernie has seen Community Games evolve and develop since becoming a part of it three decades ago.
“We celebrated 50 years in 2017. That was a major milestone and we had a slot on the Late Late Show. You’re just so proud to be involved in an organisation that has come so far. Now to have former Irish rugby international, Paul O’Connell, as our ambassador is great. He’s so good with kids. To walk around the campus with him in Limerick is something else. He’s just fantastic and has such time for kids.”
Community Games has moved on a lot over the last decade, according to Bernie.
“The fact that the University of Limerick are so delighted to have us is a great boost to our organisation. It’s one of the best campuses in Ireland. That’s been our base for national finals for the last two years and I’d like to think it will be our permanent base. We’re happy and they’re happy.”
Community Games, Bernie says, has always moved with the times.
“There’s a tremendous amount of exceptional work being done at local level, especially in terms of social media. It’s great to be at the forefront of that. We will always have our newspapers and we are lucky in Donegal because we get coverage,” she adds.
“But there are counties who don’t get any coverage and those PROs have to work in other ways to get their message out there. Michael Crossan is the Donegal PRO and I must say he does a great job.”