Letterkenny woman Mary O’Neill continues to make waves in sport, having been named a finalist in the Local Women Sports Awards.
O’Neill, from Coolboy, operates the Donegal School of Shotokan Karate.
It’s been a thrilling week for Mary, who on Monday was featured in the new documentary series Cailíní Comhraic on RTE about Irish women breaking boundaries in combat sports.
On discovering her nomination for the award, she said: “I was completely gobsmacked. I couldn’t believe it and thank God for another opportunity. It’s been a busy few weeks from the success of the first ever Donegal Karate Championships I hosted to the release of the series Cailíní Comhairc on RTE1 that is on every Monday at 8pm to now getting this major surprise. It’s been an amazing few weeks to say the least. God has been so good to me I can’t be thankful enough for all the graces given to me.”
Mary is currently training for competitions and has already started planning the next Donegal Championships. In fact, she started planning the event the night that the debut competition was over!
Mary said: “I’ve had clubs contacting me from all over Ireland that were unable to attend the first one and booking in to the next one, so it’s amazing! As I always say to my club members on the big days like the gradings, the competitions, the many visitors coming to our club; they are living my very dream as a child of having my own club. I thank God for all the successes and strength to overcome any hurdles.”
The LocalWomenSport.com Awards ceremony will take place on Saturday, April 26th in the Europa Hotel, Belfast. The awards are the only dedicated women in all-sports awards in the whole of the UK and Ireland and will honour inspirational women from various sporting fields, including football, hockey camogie, LGFA, rugby, athletics, to name but a few.
Sponsored by fuel provider Go, and supported by Belfast Live, these star- studded awards are another ground breaker for Local Women Sport.
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