O’Neills Partners Cricket Ireland
Ireland’s superb performances in the ICC Cricket World Cup provided the backdrop to the opening of O’Neills first Australian office in Adelaide.
Headed up by Kildare native Antoinette Brophy, the Official Launch of O’Neills Adelaide in conjunction with Cricket Ireland was held at the offices of Andersons solicitors just before Ireland’s crunch World Cup match against Pakistan. O’Neills is official kit supplier to Cricket Ireland supplying the current World Cup Ireland Cricket Jersey.
Guests of honour at the launch were the Irish Cricket officials and the playing squad who came so close to qualifying for the knock out phase of the ICC World Cup. Also present were Kieran Kennedy and Antoinette Kelly from O’Neills and local businesses and representatives of the Irish Community in Adelaide.
There has been huge interest and support among the Irish Community in Adelaide for O’Neills; they have enthusiastically welcomed the presence of such a well-known brand indelibly associated with Irish sport to their City.
Antoinette Kelly said: “On the back of the World Cup, for which we supplied all the kit to the Cricket Ireland team, the profile of the O’Neills brand has grown among those people not as familiar with it. That can only help us establish our operation here in Adelaide. The exposure of O’Neills to a massive TV audience during the Cricket World Cup was fabulous.
“The launch meant a lot of children and local cricket fans could meet the team, get their jerseys and cricket bats signed and generally enjoy a great occasion ahead of the St Patrick’s Day Festival and the big match. The O’Neills name got great exposure during the World Cup and was available to supporters through the PJ O’Brien’s chain of Irish Bars.”
O’Neills in Australia
Kieran Kennedy said: “We are delighted to have a presence in Australia led by Antoinette. We have opened offices in the US and France already, and with the large Irish community here and the Australian’s natural enthusiasm for sport and outdoor pursuits it is a natural market for ourselves.
“We were delighted to be Official Partner to Cricket Ireland for the World Cup, we have had a brilliant working relationship for a number of years now. Cricket is popular in the area in which we manufacture our jerseys in Strabane in County Tyrone and many of our 300+ employees are very familiar with the game and have been following Ireland’s progress with enthusiasm.”
“It has been fantastic to see the team perform so well on the global stage, they were a little bit unlucky not to progress. We were delighted to have the Irish squad as special guests at our launch; it made for a wonderful occasion with local Irish people living here as well as Australian Cricket fans. We look forward now to building on the launch and further establishing the O’Neills brand in Australia.”