Shefflin and McGlynn among winners at The Irish Daily Star Galway Crystal GAA Awards

The most prominent players of the 2012 Football, Hurling and Camogie seasons were honoured at The Irish Daily Star Galway Crystal GAA Awards at Croke Park Stadium.   The awards hosted by Today FM’s Paul Collins, were presented by Mr Pat Rabbitte TD, Minister for Communications, Energy and Natural Resources.

The Star Galway Crystal GAA Awards are unique as they honour outstanding GAA performances from players from all counties with awards being presented to ‘The Star Man of the Match’ for every single hurling and football game played during The Championship as picked by The Star’s GAA team.

Henry Shefflin from Kilkenny was named ‘Hurler of the Year’ while Frank McGlynn from the Donegal team was recognised as ‘Footballer of the Year’. The award for GAA Personality of the Year for 2012 was presented to former Gaelic Footballer and Donegal Manager Jim McGuinness and the Special Merit Award went to Dr David Hickey, who was a three times all Ireland winner with the Dublin Football Team.

In the Women’s section, Cork footballer Geraldine O’Flynn was presented with the award for ‘Player of the Match’ at the 2012 Ladies Football Final and Ursula Jacob from the Wexford team won the award for ‘Player of the Match’ at the 2012 Camogie Final.

Ger Colleran, Managing Director of The Irish Daily Star said : “We are delighted to celebrate the very best in Gaelic sport at The Irish Daily Star Galway Crystal GAA Awards.  It has been another year of success, entertainment and the highest performances by players who contribute much, much more to our lives — and to the spirit of the nation — than they ever extract in personal satisfaction.”

The Star Galway Crystal awards do not to discriminate in favour of only the strong and successful counties but unashamedly honour the players of the match in every championship game – in every round from the commencement of the competition in May each year to the finals in September and each winner is presented with a specially engraved piece of Galway Crystal. In addition, further awards are presented to the Hurler and Footballer of the year as selected by readers of The Star with additional awards being made to ‘Player of the Final’ in Camogie and Ladies Football.This year over 80 awards were presented.