The Special Athlete Award at the Donegal Sports Star Awards was presented to all the nominees and was greeted with warm applause.
Anna Hennessy is a member of both the Swilly Seals and Nemo Special Olympics Swimming Clubs. At the Special Olympics Ulster Regional Games in Omagh, Anna achieved Gold in both the 50m Backcrawl and 50m butterfly. Anna competed in the European Down Syndrome Swimming Championships in October.
She has been selected for the Special Olympics Ireland Games next June in both Swimming and Basketball. And she was also a member of the Finn Harps Futsal squad that won the National Cairdeas Cup in November.
Eoin Rooney, Nemo Special Olympics Swim Club / Swilly Seals also won an award. At the Special Olympics Ulster Regional Games in Omagh, Eoin secured a silver medal in both the 50m Backcrawl and 50m Butterfly.
He competed in the European Down Syndrome Swimming Championships in October and was selected for the Special Olympics Ireland Games which takes place in June. He is also involved in the local Disability Basketball club in Ballyshannon.
Awards were also presented to the Finn Harps League of Ireland Down Syndrome Futsal Team. the team members are the aforementioned Anna Hennessy along with Daniel McGilloway, Daniel O’Reilly, David Crawford, Hughie Sweeney, Kealan Doherty, Lianne Kelly, Meg Carr, Shaun McCosker.
In November there was success for the Finn Harps Down Syndrome Futsal Team who won the 2025 Cairdeas Cup at the Sports Ireland Complex in Dublin. The successful team were accompanied by coaches Danny Ferry, Tony McNamee and the Head of Harps Foundation Stephen McNutt.
Coach Danny Ferry gave his reaction afterwards when he spoke with Chris Ashmore…
