Limerick’s Denis Martin and the late Padraic Kearney to be recognised at the Irish Sport Volunteers Awards

THE Federation of Irish Sport Volunteers in Sport Awards ceremony, proudly supported by EBS, will take place this week online.

Limerick’s Denis Martin will receive nationwide recognition for his years of dedicated volunteer work with Staker Wallace GAA at the virtual award ceremony.

Martin’s impact on Staker Wallace GAA is well known in local circles. Joining the club in the 1970’s, Martin immersed himself into the club and at various points since 1982, has held the role of Junior Club Secretary, often stepping back to take on a different volunteer role in the club.

He is involved with every aspect of the running of the club, organising fundraisers, manning the parking at matches and selling tickets for the club lotto – simply put, Martin has done it all.

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His role goes beyond the clubhouse and he is always on hand to coordinate first aid courses to all the new volunteers and coaches and is an extremely valuable club person.  

Pádraic Kearney (RIP) has also been honoured with a Special Recognition Award for his commitment to Gaelic Games in Adare GAA Club. Kearney was incredibly committed to his community, with his volunteerism going far beyond sport. His untimely passing earlier this year has been felt by everyone in the club, especially the younger members, who he coached for many years.

The Volunteers in Sport Awards celebrate the contributions of the band of volunteers across the country who give their time to Irish sport and physical activity every year. This equates to approximately 37.3 million hours of volunteering across Ireland’s 13,000 registered sports clubs and associations and, according to Sport Ireland’s 2021 ‘Researching the Value of Sport in Ireland’ report, is worth an estimated €1.5bn to the exchequer.

Throughout September and October members of the public, sports clubs and governing bodies were invited to nominate an individual whose contribution to sport and physical activity in Ireland has made a real difference to their community, club or county.

The nominations and award recipients were selected by a judging panel consisting of 12 individuals drawn from sports administration, the volunteer community and media, and included former Director General of the GAA, Paraic Duffy, RTÉ broadcaster, Marie Crowe and CEO of Gaisce, Yvonne McKenna.

In addition to the 32 county-level award winners, Amina Moustafa, a volunteer across many different sports including football, basketball and swimming, received the overall Outstanding Achievement Award for her incredible service to the promotion of sport amongst women of diverse ethnic backgrounds, as well as her continued support of Sport Against Racism Ireland (SARI).

Máire Allen and Jacqueline McCormack have also received a Special Recognition Award for their amazing work with Roscommon Special Olympics Club. They have dedicated their time tirelessly over the last number of years and more recently, in the face of the challenging circumstances caused by Covid-19, did everything to ensure the club’s members remained fit and active throughout the various lockdowns.

The awards will be streamed live each evening from 7pm on the Federation of Irish Sport’s Facebook page here: https://www.facebook.com/federationofirishsport/ with the awards schedule listed below:

• Tuesday, December 7th: Leinster and Special Recognition Award
• Wednesday, December 8th: Munster, Connacht and Special Recognition Award
• Thursday, December 9th: Ulster and Outstanding Achievement Award

For more information on the awards, visit http://www.volunteersinsport.ie/

Full list of winners for the 2021 Federation of Irish Sport Volunteer in Sport awards proudly supported by EBS: 

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