Revealed: 2026 Western People Mayo Sports Stars Award winners

The Western People is this week proud to announce the recipients of the 2026 Mayo Sports Stars Awards.

In what has been a monumental year for sport in Co Mayo, the 2026 Mayo Sports Stars Awards have attracted a huge volume of nominations and the quality of submissions received was of the highest standard, epitomising the sporting excellence that is in Co Mayo and the wide variety of sports in which our sportspeople shine.

Since their inception in 1970, the Western People Mayo Sports Stars Awards have honoured some of the county’s finest sporting achievements and personalities – and this year is no different, with some outstanding results and performances by Mayo sportspeople, nationally and internationally, across a range of different disciplines.

The Western People is especially pleased to confirm that Mayo’s All-Ireland Senior Football Championship winning manager Andy Moran will be the special guest for the awards banquet.

The Ballaghaderreen native’s career has been one of elite achievement. As a footballer, he was selected twice as an All Star and named GAA Footballer of the Year in 2017. At one stage Mayo’s most capped senior player of all time, he won eight Connacht SFC titles, two National Football Leagues, three Sigerson Cups and two Mayo SFC titles.

A former Mayo Sports Stars award recipient himself, Andy Moran’s greatest accomplishment came in 2026 when he masterminded Mayo’s coronation as All-Ireland Senior Football champions after 75 years of waiting for the Sam Maguire Cup. It’s a milestone moment that will be marked accordingly at this year’s Mayo Sports Stars Awards night.

The full list of winners of 2026 Western People Mayo Sports Stars Awards are as follows:

Athletics - Hugh Armstrong (Ballina Athletics Club); Community – Ann Egan (Ballina Parkrun); Gaelic Football - Ryan O’Donoghue (Belmullet); Golf – Ballina Golf Club (All-Ireland U18 Boys Inter-Club Champions); Gradam na Gaelige – Castlebar Mitchels GAA Club; Ladies Football – Sacred Heart School Westport (LGFA All-Ireland PPS junior ‘A’ champions); Lifetime Achievement – Paraic Sweeney (Achill); Posthumous – Seamus Tuohy (Breaffy); Powerlifting – Barry Walsh (Ballina); Racewalking – Seamus Clarke (Moy Valley Athletics Club, Ballina); Rowing – Tullaghan Bay Rowing Club (Emma Gaughan, Tara Doocey and Kathleen Doocey); Rugby – Aoife Heaney (Claremorris), Evie Kennedy (Ballina) and Kitty Sweeney (Westport); Schools – Ballinrobe Community School (LGFA All-Ireland PPS Senior ‘C’ champions); Soccer – St Joseph’s Secondary School Foxford (FAI Schools Minor ‘B’ Boys champions); Special Achievement – Laura Skeffington (Swinford); Triathlon – Roxane Sands (Bofeenaun); Sports Personality – Jack Coyne (Ballyhaunis); Young Sportsperson - Darragh Beirne (Claremorris); Hall of Fame – John Prenty (Ballyhaunis).

The 2026 Western People Mayo Sports Awards banquet will be held in Breaffy House Hotel on Friday, November 13, 2026. The evening will include a drinks reception, four-course dinner, awards presentation and entertainment. Tickets are priced at €75 and can be obtained from the Western People by contacting Nicola Lawrence at 086-8293435 or nicola.lawrence@westernpeople.ie.