Hard to credit that back when the Donegal Sports Star awards was a young toddler in short pants, it was the Milford Inn Bingo Committee that selected the awardees of the day.
The very first awards ceremony took place in the self-same Milford Inn back in November, 1976 – a mere month after the inaugural meeting was held to organise the event.
BY PADDY WALSH
No such short time frames now in organisational terms – once this Friday night’s gala ceremony is over, it will be close to the time to get down to business for 2018.
Forty-one years ago, the Bingo Committee got the numbers up and running for the first ever Sports Star awards event. But leaving aside the bingo cards and switching to quiz mode – who was the first overall Donegal Sports Star winner?
Thanks to having last year’s superbly produced booklet marking the 40th anniversary open in front of me (and thanks to Neil Martin for furnishing me with it) I have the answer right here – hurdler Liam Doherty from Lifford was the historic recipient but not in that opening year.
It was two years into the awards before the committee – probably not the Milford Inn Bingo Committee at this point – decided to introduce an overall category.
“I couldn’t believe it when I heard my name announced that night. I wasn’t going to bother going to the function at all – but Ben O’Donnell convinced me to go and told me we’d have a bit of crack. So myself, Ben, and Louise McGettigan went along,” Liam recalled in an interview for that 40th publication.
Perhaps, the late Ben, so inspirational in bringing Lifford Athletic Club to the fore, knew something but whatever the case, Liam took home the trophy marking his success on the track – a national title arriving in the same year when he won gold in the Irish Junior 110 metres hurdles event at Belfield.
This achievement and numerous more by our sportsmen and women recognised at the annual awards ceremony – and quite rightly so.
And never forgetting the hundreds of names nominated for awards over those years.
I attended the recent launch of this year’s awards in the Mount Errigal Hotel a couple of Monday nights ago and it, in itself, was a memorable occasion – a proverbial gallery of local personalities from the world of sport and many previous award winners among the attendance.
A night to remember and one where we were all advised to get our tickets as soon as possible as they would be akin to getting our hands on a ticket for U2 who will be playing in Croke Park in July (a couple of months before Donegal anyone?).
Well, I missed out on both and barring Sky Sports broadcasting the awards night live I’ll be following it on whatever other media is available.
They’re pinpointing an attendance of around 700 – a few more than ambled along to the Milford Inn for that first awards evening back in 1976.
But what vision those early organisers had in in providing our sports stars with a platform to acknowledge and savour their achievements.
FRENCH LEAVE FOR MURPHY
We’ve had rugby legend, Shane Williams, switching codes to line out with Glenswilly recently against Convoy – and scoring four points to boot. And now it’s the turn of Michael Murphy to face up to the challenge of a sport that’s even more physical than Gaelic football.
The big man is in France this week to train and play with one of the country’s top rugby outfits, Clermont Auvergne, as part of the new R.T.E. reality show, ‘The Toughest Trade’.
Nobody knows at the time of going to press what position he’ll be favouring but while his kicking prowess with the round ball might suggest pairing him into the fly-half category, he himself reckons he could end up in the back row. Either way, I’m fearful we won’t see him back in Donegal colours again.
Once Clermont’s coaching staff get a glimpse of the Glenswilly ace in action, and the strength he carries into the game, they’ll not be wanting to let him go again and the dotted line and a bumper financial incentive will be put before him and the next thing we’ll see will be him lining out for Ireland in the Six Nations.
Okay, okay, he’s insisting he’s coming back and neither rugby or the Aussie Rules game – for which he was once touted and turned down – will persuade him otherwise.
But as I’ve said in this column on a previous occasion, it does make you wonder how many of our top G.A.A. stars – and Murphy is up there with the best of them – have been lost to the likes of rugby or soccer over the years.
Or, perhaps, put a better way – how much has the G.A.A. benefited from having this quality on show in our county colours?
But can the Murph emulate Shane Williams’ quartet of points on the field of play? A couple of drop goals would do the trick or – and I’d nearly be putting a wager on this one – scrambling over the line for a five pointer.
LOAN STAR
Another name put to paper as Ollie Horgan continues to assemble his squad for the forthcoming season and while Dundalk striker, Ciaran O’Connor, will arrive on a six-month loan deal, he brings with him an impressive goal-scoring record for the Louth club’s under-18 team.
He’ll get a chance to partner that other new front-line signing, Danny Morrissey, with Harps in action in a pre-season against Athlone Town on Saturday – a twin strike force that, if it clicks, might finally generate the goal power that will be desperately needed to stay in the top division.
Horgan will no doubt give a run-out to his other close season captures including Jonny Bonner and Killian Cantwell who will be important elements for the campaign ahead.
After a slow start, many of the players from last season’s squad have re-signed but the one name all Harps supporters would be wishing to add the ink to the paper is goal-scoring midfielder, Sean Houston – the 2016 Player of the Season.
He could be the man to make all the difference when the points, and indeed the goals, are being added up at the end of the new season.
SOMETHING TO BRAGG ABOUT
And now for some entertainment news. As in Billy Bragg appearing this coming Monday night at the An Grianan Theatre in Letterkenny. I know. You’re wondering did this particular item escape from the entertainment section to get here but, no, there is a sporting connection so stick with it.
Some years back I seem to recall seeing a picture of the same Billy Bragg performing in concert at a venue in England, I believe. Probably a very good gig but I wasn’t at it, so I can’t say for sure though they do say he’s a quality musician.
What singled him out, however, in the image I saw around the time was the fact that he was wearing a Finn Harps jersey. Yes, a Harps shirt. Thrown up on stage by a member of the audience, I do not know but there he was – performing with a bit of the blues (I’m wondering did he do the Finn Harps song while he was at it…).
English born Bragg is in Letterkenny this weekend to perform alongside Joe Henry in the ‘Shine a Light’ tour (once known as the ‘Wear a Harps top’ tour).
Wikipedia describes him as singer, songwriter and left-wing activist.
Precisely what the Harps need – a decent left winger and someone with experience of wearing the jersey.
THE TIMES THEY AREN’T A CHANGIN’
And now how about throwing in some politics into the mix now we’ve got the entertainment out of the way?
Actually, no, politics doesn’t, as we know, belong or have any right to belong, in a sports column, unless, of course, it concerns the politics of sport which is a different matter altogether.
Only nobody apparently informed the ‘Irish Times’ who continue, somehow, to merge the two together as if there should be no dividing line.
At the weekend, former ‘Donegal Democrat’ reporter, Keith Duggan, one of the best at his craft it must be stressed, managed to introduce the newly installed U.S. President into his ‘Sideline Cut’ column on the back page of Saturday’s sports supplement.
And not simply mention the bold Mr Trump in passing but tear into him whenever the opportunity presented itself – which, essentially, amounted to the entire column.
It was supposedly from the outset a piece on American football and specifically the Pittsburg Steelers – though the term ‘Disunited States of America’ did hint at something more – but once Duggan mentioned that the Donald had made a “passing if pointed reference” to the Steelers during a dinner engagement, we knew where it was going.
And that was where it went.
Not, as I say, the first time the paper of record has either encouraged or allowed its sports reporters to play ball on the political field and probably not the last.
Some of us – I dare say most of us – enjoy sport for the very reason that it helps remove us from issues such as politics so why the pressing need for the ‘Times’ to score some political points on their sports pages when they have ample space – invariably taken up – elsewhere in the paper to hammer home their message?
BRADFORD CITY: 36; LEEDS UNITED: 0
What’s this? Leeds United getting two mentions in this column in the space of as many weeks? David in Eason’s at the Letterkenny Shopping Centre will be pleased. Or maybe not.
Back in late 2006, fans of Bradford City produced a 36 page book on their Yorkshire rivals, putting a cover price of £1 on it and calling it ‘Everything You Ever Wanted To Know About The Not So Massive Club That Was Super L666ds.’
Naturally Leeds fans were quick to snap up copies of the book though they might have been advised to open it before purchasing as all thirty-six pages were totally blank. Or, perhaps, more appropriately, white.
Don’t look out for it in Eason’s…
KING COLEMAN
He’s a king among footballers so, apt it was, that our own Seamus
Coleman should crown an excellent performance at the Palace with that
spectacular injury time strike at the weekend.
St Catherine’s will probably have a wait for a few years yet to get him back…
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