Success for Young Cork Ladies Football Star

Success for Young Cork Ladies Football StarIrish Examiner National Junior Sports Star Awards Announced Upcoming ladies football star star Rena Buckley, touted as one of Ireland’s future sporting success stories, was one of twenty two young athletes honoured last week, Thursday March 9th , at the annual Irish Examiner National Junior Sports Stars Awards.

Rena was among a group of twenty young sports stars, between the ages of 15 and 19, who received awards in recognition of their achievements during 2005. The awards were presented by guest of honour Graeme Souness at a reception in the Berkeley Court, Dublin. Rena Buckley was honoured for the outstanding role she played for both for Cork, where she was outstanding in the Rebel’s All-Ireland defeat over Galway, and with her club Donoughmore, whom she helped retain an unprecedented 10th senior county title, and a 6th consecutive Munster win.

The Irish Examiner Junior Sports Star awards have been honouring the best young sporting talent in the country for 22 years now. Since its inception in 1984, over 440 athletes have been honoured, including Irish rugby internationals Donnacha O’Callaghan and Anthony Foley, Irish international soccer heroes Damien Duff, Roy Keane, Robbie Keane, and Andy Reid, rising Premiership star Anthony Stokes, former World Cross Country Champion and Olympic silver medalist Sonia O’Sullivan, Irish boxer and European bronze medal winner Andy Lee and GAA stars Seamus Moynihan and Sean óg O’ h’ailpin .

Tony Leen, Sports Editor Irish Examiner said “We in the Irish Examiner are proud of the role we have had over the last 22 years now, in honouring and recognizing the best emerging young sports stars in this country. We believe we have the best sports coverage in the country, and on our sports pages we continue, year on year, to bring Ireland’s emerging sporting talent to the attention of sports fans; these awards are a more formal extension of what we do, week in week out, and we are delighted to have the opportunity to do so. Many of today’s senior national and international stars received these awards early on in their careers and I have no doubt that a number of these young sports stars, including Rena, will feature heavily in top class competition on both the home and international stages in the future”.