Winners of the 2025 Longford Leader Sports Star Awards revealed

The winners of the 2025 Longford Leader Sports Star Awards, in association with Longford Sports Partnership, have been announced.

The coveted awards will be presented at a gala celebration in the Longford Arms Hotel on Friday, November 28 at 8pm. The master of ceremonies will be Tony Ghee and tickets for the function can be purchased from the Longford Leader office, Market Square, Longford town 043 33 45241. 

Longford’s magnificent ‘Marathon Man’, the irrepressible and inspirational, Liam Fenelon, will be inducted into the Hall of Fame. With a thoroughly deserved reputation for being the friendliest marathon in the country, the Longford Marathon began in 2002 and it was organised to mark the completion of Liam's 100th Marathon - and just for the record he has completed hundreds more in the intervening years!

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County Longford Golf Club's Junior Convenor, Rheda Quinn, will be honoured as the Club Volunteer of the Year. Through Rheda’s leadership and effective management the junior section has thrived to become a vibrant part of Longford Golf Club and a vital element of its future. Numbers have grown from 25 to 100 over a three year period.

The Team of the Year is Killoe Emmet Óg whose tremendous winning record in Senior Football Championship finals continued with a single point success (2-9 to 1-11) over Colmcille in the 2025 Connolly Cup decider. Killoe’s triumph, indeed, put the seal on a memorable treble for the club as they also claimed the Junior A and C football championship titles on the same weekend while the Killoe ladies were crowned county intermediate queens.

Accomplished Longford Athletics Club walker Robin Óg Murphy is the Junior Sportsperson of the Year after capturing four national titles and the 17-year-old star also performed on the World Athletics Race Walking Tour at events in Spain, Slovakia and Poland. 

Seán Keenan from Newtownforbes is the Sports Ability Award winner. Seán, who has been involved in sport for the past 27 years, is a member of Longford Special Olympics Bowling Club, Longford Phoenix Special Olympics Basketball Club and Mullingar Shooting Stars Special Olympics Club, where he plays soccer and floorball, along with that, being a valued member of Longford Rambler and Hikers Club. 

There are also ten category winners, including Irish 800m record holder and World Athletics Championship Finalist Cian McPhillips. 

Also being honoured on the night are Andrew Fitzpatrick, who won six national titles across a range of athletics events. Fionn McCormack Crowe, age 14 from Drumlish, has had an extraordinary year across multiple sports, and in soccer, he represented Ireland at U15 international level. 

Fionn isn’t the only rising soccer star to have been selected for an award as joining him on the night will be Goodness Ogbonna who is part of the Republic of Ireland squad that is competing in the FIFA Under-17 World Cup in Doha, Qatar. 

Micheál Mulcahy was an integral cog and contributed many vital scores as Longford Slashers secured county senior hurling championship success for the 13th time following a replay victory over old rivals Wolfe Tones. Another Slashers award winner is Orla Nevin. The dynamic and tenacious defender helped Slashers ladies make it a ‘magnificent seven’ as they completed a seven in–a-row of county senior titles defeating Clonguish by 5-15 to 0-14 in the county final.

The Equestrian award winner is Evelyn Murray, a member of Longford Pony Pony Club, who competes both nationally and internationally in Tetrathlon. Tetrathlon is a demanding multidisciplinary sport involving four different elements - cross country horse riding, swimming, running and shooting - Evelyn won the 2025 Defender National Junior Girls Tetrathlon Championship in Punchestown.

Talented boxer John Nevin (16) will also be honoured. John is an undefeated amateur boxer with three consecutive All-Ireland titles, multiple provincial wins, and an international gold medal from the Denmark Box Cup. Immensely dedicated, he currently trains with the Galway Olympic Boxing Club, due to the lack of high level training facilities for amateur boxing in Longford.

Longford RFC’s Mia Rowan from Kenagh, who was joint captain of the Midlands side that won the Sarah Robinson Cup earlier this year at Energia Park in Dublin, and who has lined out with her province, is the winner of the rugby award. 

Yet another rising star is Joe Shannon and the exceptionally skilful Longford snooker star won the 2025 Irish Junior Snooker Shootout when he beat Ben du Bois from Galway in a superb final. And last December Joe (as a 14 year old) was the youngest Irish player to ever compete in a tour event and he lost out agonisingly to then world number 23 Robert Milkins in the televised Snooker Shoot Out in Leicester. 

Each of the fifteen winners will be presented with a memento in recognition of their achievement at the awards gala in the Longford Arms Hotel on Friday, November 28 and they will also be in the running for the coveted title of Overall 2025 Longford Leader Sports Star of the Year. 

Winners of 2025 Longford Leader Sports Star Awards, in association with Longford Sports Partnership

Hall of Fame

Liam Fenelon, Longford Marathon 

Club Volunteer of the Year

Rheda Quinn, County Longford Golf Club 

Team of the Year

Killoe Senior Footballers, Longford Champions 

Junior Sportsperson of the Year

Robin Óg Murphy, Athletics

Sports Ability Award

Seán Keenan 

Award Winners 

(in alphabetical order)

Andrew Fitzpatrick, Athletics 

Fionn McCormack Crowe, Soccer 

Cian McPhillips, Athletics

Micheál Mulcahy, GAA Hurling 

Evelyn Murray, Equestrian 

John Nevin, Boxing 

Orla Nevin, Ladies Football 

Goodness Ogbonna, Soccer 

Mia Rowan, Rugby 

Joe Shannon, Snooker 

PICTURES | Glittering occasion as Longford's dedicated sportspeople and volunteers honoured