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06 Sept 2025
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06 Sept 2025
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Joe Shannon
The 2024 Longford Leader Sports Star Awards, in association with Longford Sports Partnership, will be presented at a gala presentation function in the Longford Arms Hotel this Saturday night, November 30 at 8pm.
JUNIOR SPORTSPERSON OF THE YEAR - JOE SHANNON, SNOOKER
Taking the snooker world by storm is Longford’s own Joe Shannon, the 13-year-old snooker sensation from Kilmore Lower in Newtownforbes.
A worthy winner of the Junior Sportsperson of the Year in the annual Longford Leader Sports Star Awards scheme, in association with Longford Sports Partnership, the St Mel’s College student will reach a new high in December after he was recently recognised by World Snooker as 1 of 8 in the world to be invited to receive a wildcard to play in the Snooker Shootout in Leicester in December.
In this televised competition Joe will play alongside professionals like current world champion Kyren Wilson and legends of the game of snooker like Ronnie O’Sullivan and Judd Trump.
Joe has already achieved remarkable success in Irish snooker.
He is a national under-12, under-14 and under-16 champion after enjoying his most successful season so far and has now won a total of 12 national titles and three national championships.
He finished the 2023/’24 snooker season ranked number 1 in under 14 and under 16 and number 2 in under 18.
Joe has also represented Ireland three times at the Home Internationals in Leeds and has captained the under-16 Irish team on two of those occasions in Leeds.
Joe also represented Ireland twice in the European Snooker Championships in Malta and Bosnia and he is also the first-ever winner of the Irish Masters, the Fergal O’Brien Cup and the Rodney Goggins Cup.
The exciting Longford snooker star entered his first-ever men's tournament recently and out of 45 players, reached the final.
Joe is currently being coached by former Irish professional, Fergal O’Brien and has played many professional players like Shaun Murphy, Ken Doherty and Aaron Hill.
Joe has been featured on the Nationwide programme on RTE and most recently was also interviewed live on Ireland AM about his snooker career so far, reflecting on a very bright future in the sport.
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