Clann na nGael
Clubman of the Year - 1994
It is rare that footballers get involved in the administrative side of their club until their sporting career is beginning to wane. Our "Clubman of the Year" award goes, however, to a man whose role as and administrator has always gone side by side with his footballing career.
Denied success at juvenile level, as those were lean years for the club’s under-age teams, he soon made up for this when he joined senior ranks. He first played Senior Championship Football in 1975 and had only one year to wait before tasting the fruits of County Championship success. A teak, tough defender and an excellent reader of the game, he went on to win ten further County Medals and seven Connacht Championship Medals. A vital cog in the club’s footballing success of the ‘70’s and ‘80’s, he captained the County Championship winning team of 1981. When he stepped down from senior ranks, his experience was a great asset to the team which won the County Junior ‘B’ Title in 1990.
His career as an administrator also began at an early age. He showed his willingness to become involved in the running of the club’s affairs when, although only 16 years, he contested, and was only narrowly defeated for, the post of Club Secretary in 1969. At the club’s AGM of 1973 he was elected chairman at the age of 20 and it is almost certain that he thus became the youngest chairman ever in the club’s history. He served two further spells as chairman, from the 1983 to 1988, and again from 1990 to1994 his great work on behalf of the club was recognised when he was previously named "Clubman of the Year" in 1987.
Of course this year we look back with satisfaction at the completion of the development of our new playing field and clubhouse. Many people have toiled very hard to bring this work to fruition. For a development of this magnitude, there have been very few hitches or complications and much of the credit for the smooth progress of the operation must go to the outstanding commitment and leadership of the recipient of this year's Clubman of the Year is ...
Vincent Harney