Final preparations are being made for the 2024 Donegal Sports Star Awards which take place in the Mount Errigal Hotel on this Friday night.
Close to 650 guests will be in attendance and with such large numbers making their way to the 49th Awards, the Committee is appealing to everyone to be in the hotel by 6:30pm. The Banquet will start at 7pm sharp with the presentations of the first 14 awards taking place before dinner.
Donegal Sports Star Awards Chairperson Grace Boyle says it’s important that those attending leave plenty of time for their journey as traffic around Letterkenny is expected to be busy Friday evening.
“The most important thing is all those attending to be safe on the roads. So leave plenty of time for your journey is my message. Everyone is asked to be in the hotel for 6:30pm. People should be seated for 7pm sharp as the first awards will be presented from that time. It’s a huge undertaking for the hotel staff in terms of service so it’s important that we stick to this schedule,” Ms Boyle said.
The Committee is also asking that anyone who has purchased tickets and are not now able to attend to please return them to the Mount Errigal Hotel as soon as possible. That will allow the Committee to redistribute those tickets to meet demand.
Two-time European 400m champion David Gillick will be the special guest for the banquet where the exclusive sponsor once again is Donegal County Council.
There are 138 nominees in 38 categories. Just five people know they are getting awards – Mark Coyle (Professional Sport), Charlie Collins (Sporting Acknowledgement), Richie Kelly (Brendan McDaid Memorial Special Achievement) and Patsy McGonagle who will become the 49th inductee into the 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. He 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.
