A 40th anniversary event for the Donegal Sports Star Award winners of 1983 is to be held in the Mount Errigal Hotel on Monday 8th of January. On that night the 1983 winners will be honoured at the launch of the 2023 Donegal Sports Star Awards.
There were 17 winners in 1983 with the Overall honour going to Dungloe man Vincent Bonner who also picked up the Motorsport category. Three of them John McLaughlin (April 2011), John Campbell (October 2022), and Cyril O’Boyle (August 2017) have sadly passed away.
The awards presentations took place on November 11, 1983 in the Milford Inn. Tom Feely representing sponsors Guinness Group Sales made the senior presentations. The schools winners received their awards from Cllr Noel McGinley standing in for County Council Chairperson Brian Gallagher. The late Hugh Strain was M.C. for the event.
There were 17 winners that year with Vincent Bonner taking the Overall Award after victory the Donegal International Rally. It was the only time for the Dungloe man to take the title on some soil with the support of his navigator Seamus McGettigan. The athletics award that year went through ‘The Gap’ to Kevin McBrearty of South Donegal Harriers. McBrearty was an outstanding performer in that era and in 1983 the big success was winning the Irish U20 Javelin title with a throw of 56.56 and he repeated that success the following year. He also won the Irish U23 Javelin titles in 1984 and 1985.
In the National, Track and Field League in the 1980’s Kevin enjoyed success with Tir Conaill AC. In 1988 he set a Donegal javelin record with a throw of 60m at the BLE Decathlon Finals in Belfield. Kevin McBrearty also won the Donegal Sports Star Athletics Award in 1984. He was inducted into the Donegal Athletics Board’s Hall of Fame in October 2022.
The Boxing Award winner 40 years ago was Hugh Doherty from Buncrana who won a national senior title that year. The late John Campbell took the Clay Pigeon category. The Ballybofey man was a multiple Donegal Sports Star award winner over the year and was also inducted into the Hall of Fame. The GAA winner in 1983 was Martin McHugh. It was the Kilcar man’s fourth successive GAA Sports Star GAA Award. One of the undoubted highlights of that year for the Bavan man was being a member of the Donegal team that won the Ulster Senior Football Championship title defeating Cavan in the decider in Clones. The “Wee man from Kilcar” scored 0–7 of Donegal’s 1–14 total in that decider. The other very significant highlight was later that year when he won the first of his two All-Star Awards.
There was another Ballybofey winner in 1983 as Anne-Marie Duffy (now Sweeney) took the Judo Award while Dunfanaghy native Mick McGinley father of international Paul was the winner of the golf category. Paul McGlinchey, a member of the Letterkenny RFC picked up the rugby award and the soccer accolade went to Gerry Coyle of Gweedore Celtic.
Midfielder Gerry Coyle was a key man in the Donegal Junior League’s historic Oscar Traynor Cup Final victory over Dublin’s Athletic Union League. It is the only time that the Donegal League has won that prestigious national competition in the Junior League’s 53 year history. The Inishowen League won it in May 2015.
Gerry Coyle was starring for Gweedore Celtic at the time and that was clearly demonstrated by the club having five players on that Richie Kelly managed Oscar Traynor winning team including Hughie Rua Gallagher, Donnchadh MacNiallais, Doalty Sweeney and the late Pat Doohan while Owen Coyle was a sub. The Oscar Traynor final was played at Finn Park on April 18, 1983 against the AUl. The visitors then went 2-1 up before John Kelly equalised for a second time with Gerry Coyle providing the assist. It went to a penalty shoot-out and ended in 4-2 spot-kicks win for Donegal. That success saw Gerry Coyle, now based in the USA, move from Gweedore Celtic to play at senior level with Finn Harps for a couple of seasons.
The Appreciation award in 1983 went to the late John McLaughlin a man who gave so much to the sport of boxing over a lifetime. He came from Carndonagh to Letterkenny in the late 1930s and immediately got involved training local boxers. John McLaughlin became a household name in the sport across Donegal, Ulster and the country.
He trained Malachy Price, the first Letterkenny man to win an Ulster and a National title in 1957. In a totally voluntary capacity John juggled the demands of working hard to look after the family needs with putting in a lifetime of training fighters at Letterkenny Boxing Club. Having his sons starring in the ring also helped with Jack going on to win a national title.
Four decades ago the Best Sports Girl Secondary School award went to Sinead McLaughlin. The Letterkenny girl was an elite athlete in that era with her school and also with Finn Valley Athletic Club. She was a national champion and excelled in the long jump and also competed in the high jump and the 100m. Sinead was a member of a Loreto Letterkenny team that won a National Schools title. She went on to set Donegal records in both Long Jump and High Jump in 1988. Sinead McLaughlin’s feats in both disciplines still ranks her in the top three in the County.
Vincent Breslin, a student at Abbey Vocational School Donegal Town won the Best Sports Boy Award. PCC Falcarragh got the judges nod for the Schools Team Award after winning the All-Ireland Schools Soccer Final and the fact that were going on to represent their country at a world competition in Belgium. The Royal and Prior, Raphoe won the Best Secondary School Sports category.
The Hall of Fame in 1983 went to the legendary athlete Cyril O’Boyle. Born in Kincasslagh on the 23rd February 1926 he enjoyed big Irish successes in the early 1950s winning the Irish Senior and junior cross-country tiles, the Irish 1500m along with the national one-mile title and four-mile titles.
23 years ago O’Boyle was named on the Donegal Athletics Team of the Century, the millennium team, in 2000. He was inducted into the Donegal Athletics Board Hall of Fame award in 2016. Cyril O’Boyle was a member of Strabane AC and also competed for Clydesdale Harriers in Scotland where he lived for a number of years.
1983 Donegal Sports Star Award winners
Athletics – Kevin McBrearty, South Donegal Harriers
Boxing – Hugh Doherty, Buncrana
Clay Pigeon Shooting – John Campbell, Ballybofey
GAA – Martin McHugh, Kilcar
Golf – Mick McGinley, Dunfanaghy
Judo – Anne-Marie Duffy, Ballybofey
Motorsport – Vincent Bonner, Dungloe
Rugby – Paul McGlinchey, Letterkenny
Soccer – Gerry Coyle, Gweedore
Appreciation – John McLaughlin
Secondary School Girl – Sinead McLaughlin, Loreto Convent Letterkenny
Secondary School Boy – Vincent Breslin, Abbey Vocational School, Donegal Town
Sports Teacher – Eamon Harvey, Abbey Vocational School, Donegal Town
School Team – PCC Falcarragh
Sports School – Royal and Prior Raphoe
Hall of Fame – Cyril O’Boyle, Glenswilly
Overall – Vincent Bonner, Dungloe
