2023 Western People Mayo Sports Stars Award winners are announced

After one of the stormiest Sundays of recent times, it seems almost fitting that this week we salute those Mayo sportspeople and teams who brewed up a storm over the past 12 months with the unveiling of the 2023 Western People Mayo Sports Stars Awards.

A flood of nominations were submitted by you the readers and revealed yet again the sheer breadth of this county’s sporting talent. The task of deciding upon this year’s ‘chosen ones’ was an arduous one for the adjudicating committee given the scale of the achievements that were documented in the nominations, and there’s no doubt the 2023 selection of Mayo Sports Stars award winners stands up there with any to have gone before it in terms of quality.

The Western People Mayo Sports Stars Awards are to take place in Breaffy House Resort on Friday, February 16 (note a change from the original date). Tickets can be booked by contacting the Western People at 096-60999.

The Young Sportsperson of the Year is Moy Valley AC’s Seamus Clarke. One of the country’s most exciting up and coming racewalkers, Seamus won gold medals at World Athletics Series U18 5000m races in Dudince, Slovakia and Raheny, Dublin (in a PB time), and gold at the U20 5000m Open International in Isle of Man. Finishing ninth in the U18 5000m at the European Youth Olympic Festival in Slovenia, the Ballina teen has already secured qualification for the 2024 European Athletics U18 Championships.

Ending the county’s 29-year wait to win the LGFA All-Ireland U14 ‘A’ Football Championship is reason enough for the Mayo U14s to be recognised as Team of the Year.

A stellar year on the playing field for Jordan Flynn in 2023 sees him win the Gaelic Football award. The Crossmolina man displayed remarkable consistency of the highest level and was a key cog in Mayo’s NFL Division One title-winning campaign. Carrying his good form – and scoring prowess – into the championship, he was later one of only two Mayo players nominated for a GAA Football All-Star award.

The 2023 Mayo Sports Star Award for Ladies Gaelic Football this year goes to the footballers of Claremorris LGFA who enjoyed an historic run to the All-Ireland Club junior football championship final, winning Mayo and Connacht titles along the way.

The Sports Personality of the Year is Lacken native Caelan Doris who was such a pivotal figure in Ireland’s men’s rugby team winning the Six Nations Grand Slam and beating eventual champions South Africa on route to reaching the Rugby World Cup quarter-final.

It was also an excellent year for fellow Ballina RFC clubmates of Doris, Fiachna Barrett and Harry West, who were U20 Grand Slam winners and U20 World Cup Finalists with Ireland for which they will receive the Rugby award.

The exceptional performances of Pauline Moran throughout 2023, but specifically at the World Masters Athletics Championships where she won four gold medals (over three distances), see her win selected as the Athletics award winner. Pauline also won double gold at the British and Irish Masters cross countrys.

Running is also recognised with the selection of Adrian McNamara as recipient of the Endurance award. The Ballina man marked New Year’s Eve by setting a new Irish record when running almost 144 kilometres in 12 hours.

This year’s Motorsport award recipients are husband and wife John Warren and Ruthann O’Connor. The Ballinrobe duo swept boards as Class winners in the National Irish Rally Championship, Border Rally Championship and West Coast Rally Championship. Co-driver Ruthann also secured ‘Top Female’ awards at both the National Rally Championship and West Coast Rally Championship along the way.

After more than 40 years of unstinting service to the Grainne Uaile Sub Aqua Club in Ballina of which he is a founding member, Christy McDonagh is the recipient of a Lifetime Achievement award. A talented rower also, Christy once also represented Ireland against England at the prestigious Henley Regatta and in 2020, helped establish Ballina Rowling Club.

Bethany Doocey is selected as a Mayo Sports Stars for Boxing. 2023 was a wonderful year for the Keelogues woman who defeated the European Youth gold medallist on her way to retaining her Irish senior light heavyweight crown after which she also won the U22 75kg title.

You can’t ask much more than to win every competition before you, and that’s exactly what the Manulla women did in 2023 when winning Mayo’s domestic treble of the Premier League, Mayo FA Cup and Rumley Cup – and can now add the Mayo Sports Stars Soccer Award to their list of achievements.

This year’s Community award winner is Rita Casey from Charlestown. Rita ran the Dublin Marathon in 4h04m despite undergoing chemotherapy treatment. She raised an incredible €22,300 for Mayo Roscommon Hospice in the process.

National titles are hard come by so deserve to be celebrated and acknowledged when they do, with the 2023 Schools award going to St Joseph’s Secondary School, Foxford in recognition of lifting the FAI Schools National Senior ‘B’ Girls Cup last season.

A 2022 recipient, Oisín Joyce continues to break new ground and after another season of excellence, is again selected for a Mayo Sports Stars Award in the Javelin. The Ballinrobe youngster smashed a 24-year-old record to win the All-Ireland Schools senior title and smashed a 16-year-old record by over 10m to win the All-Ireland U19 title. The best was yet to come when he won gold at his first-ever national senior championships with a PB throw of 70.56m and he also finished sixth in the European U20 Championships Final.

Cuileann Bourke is this year’s Handball award winner. Winning the All-Ireland junior singles 40x20 championship and the Irish Third Level open one-wall championship, the Belcarra native also became the first Mayo player in several years to reach an Irish senior singles final. In addition, the Trinity College student also represented Ireland at the US Collegiates in Arizona.

Jack Armstrong is also a recipient in the 2023 Mayo Sports Stars Awards for Martial Arts. The Ballina man enjoyed a career-high when becoming a gold medallist at the International Brazilian Jiu-jitsu Federation’s Pan Pacific Championships. 

Moy Valley AC has become the dominant force in all of Ireland for cross country running at underage level, with an eyewatering list of accomplishments that extend right from under-11 level all the way up to senior. 2023 was an exceptional year altogether with an array of national titles won at both individual and team level and for that, they are deserving of the Club of the Year award.

The Western People is privileged to announce that the late Padraig Brogan from Belmullet will be honoured with the Posthumous award. A driving force behind the hugely successful Erris Parkrun, Padraig passed away last January. He was remembered as a ‘a true leader, brilliant organiser, caring friend, and so much more’. A leading official in the Belmullet Municipal District as a member of the staff of Mayo County Council, Padraig was also a member of Belmullet GAA Club for many years and coached at a variety of age levels along the way, someone who was described as a “true volunteer” and who gave up so much of his time to help the youth develop their potential.”

One of the true legends of Mayo football, Martin Carney will this year be inducted into the Mayo Sports Stars Awards Hall of Fame.

One of Mayo’s longest serving senior footballers, Martin had already won two Ulster SFC medals – and played 10 years – with his native Donegal by the time he switched allegiances to the county of his father’s birth in 1980. Within a year he was captaining the Green and Red to their first Connacht SFC title in 12 years – one of four Carney would go on to win – and he remained part of the Mayo panel up until deciding the retire the season after Mayo reached the 1989 All-Ireland Final. That’s twenty years of inter-county senior football!

Remembered as a “a classy, ball-playing forward and free-taker,” Martin would later train Mayo minor and U-21 teams to three All-Ireland finals while also honing a fine career as co-commentator for RTÉ and Midwest Radio.