FURTHER honours are on the way for Clare hurling manager, Davy Fitzgerald, who has been selected as the Clare Person of the Year for 2014 by the Clare Association in Dublin .
He will be presented with his award at the association’s annual dinner next month in The Clyde Court Hotel, the venue also used by the Clare team for their post-match celebrations after winning the All-Ireland senior hurling replay.
Well-known sociologist and Sixmilebridge parish priest, Fr Harry Bohan, who is prominently linked with Clare hurling, will receive the association’s Hall of Fame Award for 2014 at the same function.
The latest personalities to be honoured by the Clare Association were named by Liam O’ Looney, chairman, at a function to launch the association’s annual yearbook in the Addison Hotel, Dublin on Tuesday night. He said that they were delighted to honour Davy Fitzgerald, who with his players and management, made it another special year for Clare.
As well as being the successful manager of the Clare team this year, Fitzgerald won six senior championship titles with his native Sixmilebridge and his role of honour also includes two All-Ireland finals with Clare in 1995 and 1997, three Munster medals, a Munster minor hurling medal in 1989, as well as being selected on the All-Stars teams on three occasions.
Mr O’Looney said they were also looking forward to making the presentation to Fr Bohan, a former Clare hurling manager in the late 1970s and early ‘80s, winning two National Hurling League titles and reaching three Munster finals. He later served as a Clare hurling selector.
One of the country’s best known social commentators, he founded the Rural Resource Organisation, which built houses in 120 villages throughout the country. He also founded Ceifin Centre For Values, leading to debate on changes in Irish society.
The Clare yearbook was launched by Martin Donnelly, president of the Clare Association, a past Clare Person of the Year.
To mark another successful year’s running of the Martin Corry Memorial Walk, a cheque was also presented to Mary Crawford-Barry, principal of St Joseph’s Secondary School, Spanish Point.
A native of Ennis, Colin McGann has been editor of The Clare Champion since August 2020. Former editor of The Clare People, he is a journalism and communications graduate of Dublin Institute of Technology.