Donal Keenan Roscommon

Two Roscommon natives set to receive GAA MacNamee Awards

Donal Keenan Roscommon

Picture credit: Barry Cregg / SPORTSFILE

Two Roscommon men are set to be honoured at the GAA National Communication and Media Awards in Croke Park this Friday night.

The Clann na nGael GAA Club website (www.clanngaa.ie designed by PRO Eugene Pettit has been announced as the winner of Best Website category. Commenting on the website the Judges said “This site is vibrant and aesthetically pleasing to the eye, the ease with which the user can navigate and locate information is testament to the developer and it shines a positive light of GAA activity within the county both through its content and its lay-out.”

Roscommon town native Donal Keenan Junior, pictured above, is set to receive the Hall of Fame Award.

Donal worked with The Roscommon Champion for three years in the late 1970s before moving to the Westmeath-Offaly Independent where he spent a year. He joined the Irish Independent as a general sports reporter in 1981 and was appointed GAA Correspondent in 1985, replacing Donal Carroll who retired. He continued with the Independent until 1994 when he moved to the Sunday Times, remaining there until 1996 when he joined the newly-founded sports newspaper, The Title. It later became the sports section of Ireland on Sunday, which was subsequently taken over by the Irish Daily Mail. Donal continued his association with the paper until 2015.

He has also been involved with several books as author and publisher, mainly in the GAA sphere. He co-wrote the autobiographies of ‘Babs’ Keating and Teddy McCarthy and also produced the ‘Ultimate Encyclopaedia of Gaelic Football & Hurling’.
An All Star selector for many years, he served as the scheme secretary/coordinator between 2001 and 2010.

In 1997, he won a MacNamee National Media Award.

The GAA National Communication and Media Awards, known as the MacNamee awards, will be presented by Uachtarán Chumann Lúthchleas Gael, Aogán Ó Fearghail, at a function in Croke Park on Friday next, February 17th.

They are named after the late Pádraig MacNamee, former President of the GAA, Chairman of the GAA Commission (1969-1971) and member of the RTÉ authority. They are presented annually in recognition of outstanding contributions made by individuals and Association units in the area of media and communications.

The GAA President offered his congratulations to this year’s winners. He said: “The late Pádraig MacNamee was a man ahead of this times in many ways and it is fitting that these awards should be named in his honour. “More than ever, excellence in the area of communications is of paramount importance and has a major bearing on how are games are projected.

“I am delighted to acknowledge that so many of our units, not least those at club level, fully embrace this outlook and utilise technology to further enhance their reach.

“I offer my congratulations to all of this year’s winners and hope this recognition not only strengthens their ambitions in this area but inspires others to follow.”

The winners of the 2016 MacNamee Awards are as follows:

Provincial Media Award – Kerry’s Eye “Sport & Revolution”
Click here to download the winning article.

2016 Best Programme – Tyrone GAA Football Final & Replay

2016 Best GAA Publication – Monaghan Official GAA Yearbook

2016 Best GAA Club Publication – Sand in our Boots – Beale GAA Club, Kerry

2016 National Media Award – Neil Loughran, Irish News (article on former Down footballer, Peter Withnell)
Click here to download the winning article.

2016 Best GAA Related Radio Programme – Máire Treasa Ní Cheallaigh (programme with former Clare Manager, Davy Fitzgerald)
Click here to download the winning entry.

2016 Gradam Gaeilge (Irish Language Award) – www.tuairisc.ie

2016 Best Photograph – John McIlwaine

2016 Best New Digital Initiative – Armagh TV