KERRY teams and individuals who excelled in sport during 2016 have been honoured at the first ever Kerry County Council Annual Awards Event at County Buildings in Tralee on Friday night.
Four county teams were honoured with Certificates of Recognition from the full Council with each of the four Municipal Districts also presenting awards to those who had achieved greatness in their own fields last year, including Tralee’s Mary Sheehy.
Cathaoirleach of Kerry County Council, Cllr Michael O’Shea and Deputy Chief Executive Charlie O’Sullivan made presentations to four county teams who had won national titles in 2016, including the Kerry Minor Football Team who won the All-Ireland Minor Championship, the Kerry Minor Hurling Team who won the All-Ireland Minor B Hurling Final, the Kerry Juniors who were All-Ireland Champions and the Kerry Ladies Under-16s who were All-Ireland Ladies Under-16 A Champions.
The four Municipal District honours were presented by the respective Municipal District cathaoirligh to Mary Sheehy in Tralee MD for her golfing achievements with the Irish Senior Ladies Team at the European Championships in 2016; in the Killarney MD to Fossa Rowing Club who won the Junior Men’s Race at the All Ireland Coastal Rowing Championship; to athlete Alan Gleeson in Listowel MD for his medals haul at the 2016 European Transplant and Dialysis Sports Championships; and in South and West Kerry MD to rower Monika Dukarska achievements in 2016 at the World Coastal Championships and the World University Championships.
Cathaoirleach Michael O’Shea said that this was the first Annual Awards Event hosted by Kerry County Council and by coincidence the eight recipients on this occasion were all sportspeople or sports teams.
“All of our award winners tonight have shown the drive, the enthusiasm and commitment to excel in their respective fields and that is why we want to honour you in our way here this evening. 2016 was a great year for sport in Kerry and our award winners are testament to that,” he said.
The award winners each received a framed Certificate of Recognition and a glass memento of the event. About 100 people including family, friends and colleagues of the recipients. Among the guest speakers were the Chairman of the Kerry County GAA Board, Tim Murphy, the Kerry Ladies Board Chairman, Maurice McNamara and Morten Espersen, High Performance Director with the National Rowing Centre in Cork and leader of the Irish rowing team at the 2016 Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro.
