Gallery: Letterkenny Gaels with plenty to celebrate at Annual Dinner Dance

CLG Ghaeil Leitir Ceanainn held their Dinner Dance on Friday night past at the Clanree Hotel, Letterkenny.

The Glebe based club had much to celebrate over the last number of seasons, in particular, the Senior Footballers lifting their first Junior A Football Championship title. The club also celebrated its 25th anniversary in 2021 but these celebrations had to be curtailed as a result of the Covid pandemic.

Former County Chairman and current County Childrens Officer, Mick McGrath, was the guest of honor for the gathering. Coincidentally it was Mick who proposed the establishment of Letterkenny Gaels all those years ago when he was the Donegal GAA Development Officer. The club were also honoured to have Club President, Fr. Ciaran Harkin and Fr. Dominic Thoomkuzhy in attendance.

Joint MC’s on the night were Laura Walker and Oisin Cannon and they opened proceedings by welcoming Club Chairman, Danny Cahill, to say a few words to the attended guests. The first award of the night was presented to outgoing club Secretary Declan Barrett who had a busy number of years with the club.

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Following that, awards were presented to James Frain, Mick O’Malley, Enda Mannion and Garry Coll who were the four founding members of Letterkenny Gaels. This was followed with both the Junior A and Junior B football champions and management teams being presented with their county medals from 2022 and 2021 respectively. Charlie Creevy and Nicky McGarrigle were also recognised for their endeavours with the Donegal Masters All Ireland victory in 2021.

Five Letterkenny Gaels hurlers received awards for winning the County Minor Hurling Championship in 2022.

Player of the Year awards were presented to footballers, hurlers and ladies footballers. The hurling award winners were Brian Diver and Matthew Winters while the Ladies Football awards went to Deirdre Ní Dhochartaigh, Andrea Cutliffe, Clodagh O’Connor, Monica O’Connor, Sorcha Friel and Chantelle Grant. The adult football award winners included Shaun McGilloway, Conor Walker, Aidan McGinty, Niall Diver and Ronan Frain.

Awards were also presented to the Gaels 2022 County Scór champions in both recitation and Ballad Group. Brian Sweeney, recitation, and Deirdre Ní Dhochartaigh, Aoife Doherty, Bernie Frain, Michael O’Connor and Mark McFadden who made up the Ballad Group accepted appreciation awards.

Letterkenny Gaels 25th Anniversary Publication Committee members were presented with appreciation awards for their work and contributions to the beautifully produced anniversary book which chronicles the first quarter of a century of the history of the club. Jim McGlynn who was the publication editor was assisted by Eunan Quinn, Diarmaid Doherty, Brian Sweeney and Mark McFadden.

A special sponsor appreciation award was presented to Enda and Clare Nicholls of the Arena 7 for their continued support of the club over the years. The final award of the evening was the Club Person of the Year award and this was presented to the affable Kieran Barron, who amongst other things, spearheaded the hugely successful Camper Van Draw which the club ran in conjunction with Letterkenny Rugby Club in the summer of last year.

The Dinner Dance continued on into the early hours with music from the lively Gary Mangan and Sean Kerrigan. Letterkenny Gaels wish to thank Michael Naughton and his staff at the Clanree Hotel for their first class service and hospitality with the Dinner Dance. A special word of appreciation is also extended to Charlie Cannon and his committee on organising this memorable event.