When the Laois ladies football team came calling, Kevin Meaney found it hard to say no.
In fact he decided to back them 100%.
The new sponsor of Laois ladies football has been a close observer of the ladies game in the past number of the years as his partner Laura has been heavily involved, even returning after the birth of their first child – Caoimhin – to star in a National League final in Croke Park in 2023.
Kevin himself is a former county player too, of course, representing Laois from 2008 to 2019.
The Laois ladies enjoyed another eventful season this year, going all the way to the All Ireland intermediate final in Croke Park, where they lost to Tyrone.
Given that Laois have introduced a huge number of new players and experienced manager upheaval in mid 2024 en route to being relegated from the senior grade, this year was a pleasant reversal in fortunes.
But the realities of running a county set up is always a concern for county board officials and the search for a new sponsor got underway after the arrangement with the Killeshin Hotel came to an end.
Martin Crowley from Emo, a founding member of the Laois Chamber of Commerce and successful business owner himself, had a strong connection as his daughter Ciara was playing and he helped the Laois county board tee up a new deal.
“I have a good connection with the Laois Ladies,” explained Kevin in his Meaney Hire premises in Athy on Saturday morning last where the official launch of the new sponsorship – as well as the unveiling of the new jerseys – took place.
“My partner Laura was with Laois for a good few years, and I’ve probably watched more ladies football in the last few years than lads, so it was always good to get involved.
“I support Laois in any way I can. Martin met me and he just showed me the opportunity, there’s good advertising with the likes of yourselves and support the ladies the best way I could, so I said I’d give them a help out.”
“We always did hire, but we were mostly involved in civils, and our hire yard was at the back of my home.”
His base now is where Laois Hire previously had their Athy depot on the Kilkenny Road and has proven an ideal location for Meaney to grow that side of his business.
“Michael Killeen, lord have mercy on him, used to own this yard here one time, and when they moved out, we moved in, simple as that. We just kind of got very busy here, there’s a lot of good industry around Athy, and it picked up, and we’re going well here now, thank God.
“We do everything machine-wise from like a one-tonne machine up to 50-tonne, and then we have dumpers, teleporters, access, a lot of cherry pickers and stuff like that, and we have a fully stocked shop here with concrete tools, small tools, we have a haulage company as well where we do grab hire and just deliver stone and move clay and kind of into everything.”
“Just around the All-Ireland Final, we were looking for a sponsorship,” added Laois ladies football chairperson Martina Phelan, herself an absolute stalwart of the game locally having played with Laois for years too and followed it up by being with countless teams and more recently as head of the county board.
“The Killeshin has been our sponsor for the last few years, and we’re very grateful to them, but they had sort of cut ties from us, so we were just chatting with Martin Crowley, and he said he’d give us a hand looking for sponsorship, and he got the ship going, so he did a lot of work.
“It’s great to get Kevin involved. Kevin was a Laois footballer, an Arles man and Laura has worn the blue and white jersey for Laois for a long time, and it’s great to get somebody back in Laois sponsoring us again.
“This year’s been a very good year, there’s a lot of good support out there, especially with the girls getting to the All-Ireland Final.
“The amount of support out there in Laois is unbelievable, so it’s probably easy not to get going when you have good people behind you, and when the girls are going well, it just brings a bit of extra morale to the county as well.”
“The biggest challenge we have in Ladies football is facilities and finances,” added manager Stephen Duff.
“They both probably overlap with each other. So to get a strong supporter and someone who actually cares and someone who’s definitely invested and motivated by Ladies Football in the county is massive for us.
“So we’re massively grateful to Kevin because without this support, we wouldn’t be able to do what we do. So yeah, to answer your question, we would be lost without him.”
SEE ALSO – Laois Football Podcast: New sponsor for Laois Ladies as Meaney Plant Hire comes on board
