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11 Sept 2025

Why they won: All the winners from the Donegal Sports Star Awards profiled

There was a full house for the 48th Donegal Sports Star, where Donegal manager Jim McGuinness was the special guest on a night where there were 161 nominees in over 40 categories


The Winner of the 2023 Para-Athlete Award was Alan Patterson from Killygordon. Alan Patterson was paralysed in a life changing trampoline accident inJuly 2016.
He had played Hockey for Raphoe before moving to Instonians and was part of the team that won the Kirk Cup in 2015 scoring two goals in the final. Alan had also represented Ulster at U16 and U18 Schoolboy level.
After the accident, Alan had many setbacks but was determined to play sport again and has excelled at Wheelchair Rugby graduating to the Ulster Barbarians Club squad.
He was then drafted into the Irish Wheelchair Rugby Team and competed recently at the European Qualifiers in Italy where the Wheels in Green won a bronze medal and secured promotion to Division B of the European Championships. Alan was named Irish Wheelchair Rugby Player of the Year in April 2023.

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