Athletics legend Patsy McGonagle will be inducted into the Donegal Sports Star Awards Hall of Fame.
The Donegal Sports Star Committee has announced that he will be inducted into the Hall of Fame when the Awards take place in the Mount Errigal Hotel on Friday week, the 31st of January. McGonagle will be the 49th inductee into the Donegal Sports Star Awards Hall of Fame.
The Finn Valley A.C. stalwart is the seventh person from an athletics background to receive the honour after Cyril O’Boyle (1983), Paul Dolan (1989), John Carlin (2004), Hugo Duggan (2009), Danny McDaid (2011) and Eamonn Giles (2021). The Ballybofey man’s father Patsy Snr was also a Hall of Fame winner back in 1995, and was on the Irish soccer side at the 1948 Olympics. His son went on to manage four Irish Olympic teams. The only other ‘father and son’ to be recognised in this very special category were John and Jim Sheridan. The soccer men were inducted in 2008 and 2015 respectively.
McGonagle has been part of the Donegal Sports Star Awards committee since just before Covid and has previously been a winner in the Appreciation category in both 1979 and 2000. He was named Donegal Person of the Year in 2001 and was given the Freedom of Donegal in 2013.
McGonagle grew up in Ballybofey and has spent the majority of his life living in the town, going to school in Sessiaghoneill Primary School before attending boarding school in St Columb’s College in Derry, where he properly got introduced to athletics.
A four year course in Physical Education at St Mary’s College in Twickenham followed before moving back home.
A commandant in the FCA (Irish Defence Forces), McGonagle was involved in the army from a young age which he recalls was a big part of his life growing up but in 1971, he founded the Finn Valley Athletics Club.
“I called a meeting in Jackson’s Hotel and about ten people turned up, a part of our base in Stranorlar was the original town dump.”
“The centre was an unused factory and it was basically a shell that we put a door and windows on it and sealed it, we thought it was a palace but it was a shambles, it gave us a base though.”
“We operated out of MacCumhaill Park and they were very open to us so that allowed us to develop and get our own base where we are now.”
McGonagle’s link with MacCumhaill’s didn’t end there, as he also managed the senior team while he had a stint involved with the Donegal GAA team as trainer. A spell managing Glenfin also kept him in the sport.
But athletics was always the main focus to this day and the rise of the Finn Valley club has been a huge sense of pride.
McGonagle also played an integral part in the formation of the Donegal Athletics County Board as well as the Primary and Secondary Schools athletics.
“I was fortunate that the University in England had a good athletics scene and then from forming Finn Valley, the rest is history and it has been a daily exercise since.”
“I enjoyed the Gaelic but at the same time it was always athletics for me.”
“I came back from England and I was with Cranford AC, Lifford had a club but that was it really in the county. I formed a club in Glenties and a few more got going so I knew we had to form a county board and I was the first Secretary on that.”
“Organised athletics really dates back to that period from 1970 onwards.”
The success and growth of Finn Valley saw his stock rise and awarded him the chance to become Team Manager of the Irish Athletics team, a position he held for 25 years until 2017.
He credits the flexibility of his job as Head of Sport, in what was then known as the Letterkenny IT, as one of the reasons he could stay involved with the Irish Athletics team.
McGonagle managed the Irish Athletes at the Games in Sydney (2000), Beijing (2008), London (2012) and Rio De Janeiro (2016) while he was also involved at the Athens (2004) Olympics.
“All of a sudden this crowd from Donegal were punching above their weight and we were producing great results so I got on to the board of Athletics Ireland and I had people on those teams like Sean Carlin from Killygordon.”
“I got involved with Ireland in the early 90s and that continued until 2017 so it was nearly 30 years being around the world and managing Irish teams, from Juniors to the top.”
“I did four Olympics as manager and nobody in history would have done that, then there were the World Championships and Europeans. It was a voluntary position then whereas now it’s a paid position so there’s a more professional approach which is needed.”
“My father went to the Olympics in London in 1948 and I was probably unconsciously driven by that to get involved, it probably had some bearing on me.”
“I was appointed to do the Tokyo Olympics but I figured my time was up, it wasn’t having the same impact on me anymore so I stepped down in 2017.”
“The IT were very supportive of me and allowed me to develop that side of my life, there were so many good supportive people there and I was involved with plenty of teams between Gaelic, soccer and hurling there.”
“I couldn’t have developed not just Finn Valley, but Donegal athletics and running the Irish situation without that support.”
“And then the support of my own wife (Rosaleen) because I have five children and in a comical sense I always make the point that even when I was at home I wasn’t really because my head would be somewhere else so I had great family and community support.”
“There was great trust and support, athletics hadn’t existed in any form in the area but people worked with me and that’s why the centre became what it is today.”
One of the athletes that McGonagle would have coached at Irish level is former Olympian, European Champion and World bronze medallist David Gillick.
And as the Special Guest at the Awards on Friday, January 31, the Dubliner will present McGonagle with the award.
McGonagle follows in the footsteps of fellow Hall of Famers previously mentioned who received the accolade for their efforts in the field of Athletics.
A consistent supporter of the awards and more recently a committee member, McGonagle is looking forward to the night.
“Through myself or the club we have been recipients of many awards and we have always appreciated the acknowledgements from the Sports Star committee and that was one of the reasons I was very willing to go on the committee when I was asked.”
“It gave us profile and acknowledgement many years ago and it has continued when it has been deserved. And a number of Finn Valley athletes have also won the Overall award over the years so it has been a regular occasion for us and for me personally.”
“It’s no harm to say it, everybody is chuffed to get a clap on the back and I’m the same so I’m very happy to be in the company of previous inductees.”
“It’s a nice touch for David to be there because I have a very good relationship with him and his family over his career as an athlete and more recently as he began to work in journalism so I’m looking forward to it.”
