Irish News Ulster All-Stars Honoured
The 20th Irish News Ulster GAA All-Star team has been unveiled at the annual awards ceremony in the Armagh City Hotel.
The uniqueness of the Irish News Ulster All-Stars is that the player selection is entirely based on fan choice – readers select in their opinion the 15 players of the Championship.
Commenting on the success of the Irish News Ulster All-Stars, Noel Doran, editor of The Irish News said: “We set out to recognise the outstanding individual performers in ladies football, camogie and hurling, as well as naming the men’s football team of the year, as voted by our readers, and the overall Ulster player of the year, so this is one of the most important events in the GAA’s calendar. Standards are higher than ever, as the fantastic All Ireland semi finals proved last weekend, so there is enormous excitement surrounding our entire programme.”
Ulster GAA President Martin McAviney added, “We had a great Ulster Championship with numbers attending games up on last year and that is down to our players and I am delighted that we are recognising some of those players here tonight as Irish News Ulster All-Stars.”
Included in the line-up are six Donegal players, five from Armagh & 4 from Monaghan.
Three additional awards will be given out on the night to reflect the importance of all codes within the GAA family: Hurling merit award x 2, Camogie merit award and Ladies Football merit award.
The evening was hosted by Joanne Cantwell, RTE Sport presenter, with Kerry’s former All-Ireland winning captain Darragh O’Se as guest speaker and Uachtarán Cumann Luthchleas Gael Liam O’Neill as guest of honour.
The Irish News Ulster All-Star team of 2014 is:
1 Rory Beggan (Monaghan)
2 Neil McGee (Donegal)
3 Drew Wylie (Monaghan)
4 Andy Mallon (Armagh)
5 Dessie Mone (Monaghan)
6 Ciaran McKeever (Armagh)
7 Karl Lacey (Donegal)
8 Aaron Findon (Armagh)
9 Odhran MacNiallais (Donegal)
10 Leo McLoone (Donegal)
11 Kevin Dyas (Armagh)
12 Ryan McHugh (Donegal)
13 Stefan Campbell (Armagh)
14 Michael Murphy (Donegal)
15 Conor McManus (Monaghan)
Player of the Year: Ryan McHugh
The Irish News Merit Awards
Hurling Merit Awards:
Tyrone Senior Hurling Team – picked up by their captain Damian Casey
Kickham’s Creggan, Antrim – picked up by their captain Stephen Colgan
Camogie Merit Award: Megan Kerr, Derry
Ladies Football Merit Award: Caroline O’Hanlon, Armagh Ladies Senior Football Team
