Ardara stalwart finally gets his U-16 championship medal - 70 years later! 

CLG Ard an Rátha won the U-16 County Championship back in 1955 but it’s taken until 2025 for one of its players to finally receive his medal. 

The late Thomas ‘The Diamond’ Breslin found the missing medal during an attic clear out not long before he passed away. 

Thomas and his brother Seamus were both great players in their day but none of them were on that particular team. 

Playing detective, the Breslin brothers got in contact with then club chairman John Michael O’Donnell to see if he could help them get the medal in the hands of its rightful owner. 

With the assistance of a grainy old black and white team photo, O’Donnell went around the entire squad and, in the end, by the simple process of elimination, it was eventually discovered that Tom O’Donnell had never received his medal 70 long years prior. 

And this week, at the clubhouse in Pearse Memorial Park, CLG Ard an Rátha President Charlie Mooney finally handed the medal over to a grateful Tom O’Donnell.