A new Galway football sponsor flew into town this week . . . bringing in an estimated €1million cargo over the next five years.

Aer Arann will now be the name across the jerseys of Galway football teams at least until the end of 2012.

The ‘changing of the guard’ brings to an end one of the most enduring sporting sponsorships in Ireland as Tommy Varden ended his 25 year association with the Galway Football Board.

It was a very amicable change of direction though last Tuesday at the Galway Gaelic Football Centre in Loughgeorge at a special function to mark the occasion. Padraic Ó Céidigh, Chairman and owner of Aer Arann, said that Tommy Varden was a very difficult act to follow.

“I really mean this — it is one of the proudest moments of my life. I know that I have a hard act to follow,” he said.

John Joe Holleran, Football Board Chairman, paid tribute to Tommy Varden for his wonderful and generous to Galway football through good times and bad times.

Tommy Varden recalled being first asked to be sponsors of Galway football back in the 1980s in the streets of his native Tuam by the late Miko Kelly.

“Times were different then — there wasn’t much in the coffers and there ...........