The final preparations are being made for Friday night’s Donegal Sports Star Awards in the Mount Errigal Hotel.
It’s a full house for the 48th Awards where Donegal Senior Football Team Manager Jim McGuinness will be the special guest.
There are 161 nominees in over 40 categories and just three people Tom Conaghan, Joe Barr and Bea Greenberg already know they are going to be honoured.
Conaghan, a successful County and club manager in the 1980s, will be inducted into the Hall of Fame while veteran ultra cyclist Barr will receive a Sporting Acknowledgement Award and Greenberg will be honoured for successes in Surfing.
Close to 600 guests will be in attendance for the gala event which starts at 7pm sharp with Chairperson Grace Boyle getting proceedings underway before the presentations of the first nine awards are made followed by dinner and then the remainder of the presentations. The last award will be the Overall and there will be big interest who will emerge from the shortlist to take the top honour in Donegal sport. The Council are the sponsors and they will be represented by the Cathaoirleach, Cllr Martin Harley and the Chief Executive John McLaughlin.
There has been huge interest in the 2023 Awards as demonstrated by the demand for tickets.
Chairperson Grace Boyle said it’s very satisfying to see the range of sports that are going to be recognised. “I would just like to wish all the nominees well. And congratulations to them all too as it is in achievement in the first place to be on the list for the awards. There are over 40 categories which shows the spread and diversity of sports. The Special Athlete and Para-Athlete categories are hugely important parts of the event. And so is the Appreciation category which acknowledges long time volunteerism in sport ” Ms Boyle said.
Guests are asked to be there for 6.30 on Friday as the first presentation will be made at 7pm sharp.
