Belturbet's first citizen honours volunteers

Belturbet's first citizen, John McDonald, honoured two people for their volunteer work in the town over the past three decades at a recent ceremony. Each year the chairperson of Belturbet Town Council presents the Chairperson Awards to people in recognition of their dedication to their chosen organisation. Cllr. McDonald made presentations to Anna Leonard and Michael Lawlor for the roles they have played in promoting Scór and underage football respectively. Speaking at the ceremony, the mayor said it was a an honour for him to carry on this great tradition initiated by Cavan County Council. People like Anna and Michael, or Micky as he is affectionately known, deserve their recognition for the hard work they have put into the respective organisations. Anna Leonard and her family, said Mr. McDonald, have been synonymous with Scór and their involvement has spanned three generations. Together with her late mother Anna Gorby they prepared the first Belturbet junior and senior Scór teams in the early 70s. Under Anna's tutelage the junior and senior teams achieved success with Ulster and All-Ireland titles. "Anna is a lady who realises that success can never be taken for granted and made sure that many hours of hard work and practice have been put into every aspect of Scór," said Cllr. McDonald. Despite setbacks, and a major one was the sad passing of Anna's mother; "Anna has always remained positive and this has manifested itself in her tireless drive to keep Scór alive and well in Belturbet." There has been many highlights for Anna, one of them being when the céilí dancers won the All-Ireland title in 2004. "For your work in bringing Scór to generations of both young and old, I salute you Anna," he said. Micky Lawlor has one great passion in life and that has been Gaelic football. From his early days with the Rory O'Moores as a player right up to the present day where he has been very much involved in training many of the club's under aged teams football has been his passion. "There was a certain gentleman whose advice was to lie in around the square." One thing for certain, said Cllr. McDonald, is that Micky Lawlor, when he returned from England in 1997, did not lie in and around the square. "He literally hit the ground running just like the under aged teams he has been involved with." In 1998, the under-14 team won the Division 2 final against Ballinagh, and from there right up until 2002 Micky had been involved with under-14 and under-16 teams who had varied success being narrowly beaten in two semi-finals by Crosserlough and Lurgan. Brendan Reilly and Declan Reilly were there to share in the 2002 defeats and successes. Micky took over the reigns with the under-8s and under-10s along with Jim McElgunn and Kevin Brady. "He has been the springboard for many of out underage players with his dedication to training them in all that is good in underage football," he said. Cllr. McDonald also praised his "tremendous work ethic" with the boys and girls and noted the respect that the young players had for him. Micky readily acknowledges that it was not a one-man operation and he was fulsome in his praise for Kevin Brady, Jim McElgunn and Aaron Donohoe. A testament to his hard work is the fact that the club now has up to 70 players between under-8 and under-10. He has guided many of them to success in the Fr. Morris Tournament. Only last year he was involved with the successful St. Mary's Boys School football team that won the Cumann an Bun Scoil Division two final. Concluding Cllr. McDonald said it gave him great pleasure to present both Anna and Micky the Chairperson Awards for 2010.