Roscommon man to receive GAA President’s Award for making his community what it is today

A County Roscommon man — who has been at the coalface of his club for more than six decades — will be a recipient of one of this year’s President’s Awards.

Joe Moore, from St. Aidan’s GAA Club, has been confirmed as the Connacht winner of the Gradaim an Uachtaráin 2026.

Joe will be presented with his award by GAA President, Jarlath Burns, at a ceremony in Croke Park on Friday evening.

In unveiling the winners, the GAA said that it’s “no understatement to say that the sporting lives of the people of Dysart, Ballyforan and Four Roads parish wouldn’t be the same without the influence of Joe Moore.” 

Founded in 1956, St. Aidan’s GAA Club wasn’t properly established until the 1960s as the various corners of the parish gelled together.

At 15 years of age, Joe played adult championship for St. Aidan’s in 1959, but the club didn’t field a team again until 1963 — his first year out of minor. By then, he was club secretary and involved in running the team as well.

“Joe was renowned for travelling to the various national schools around the parish and dropping postcards for each family in order to run parish leagues in Dysart, then in turn ensuring those same young players continued to play football with St. Aidan’s.

“The sight of Joe bringing young players to matches on his bike, or later on, in his car, was commonplace,” noted the GAA.

The bones of Joe’s 1962 minor team stuck together, aided by a handful of older players, and a junior championship win in 1966, with Moore lining out at right wing forward, proved to be a vital stepping stone.

“Every positive step that the club has taken has either been driven by Joe or benefited from his involvement. He was central to the fundraising drive and the work involved in putting in a new pitch at the club grounds in Ballyforan while he was playing.

“Since then, the club has added floodlighting, a walking track, a gym, community meeting room, four dressing rooms and a second training pitch, and is currently aiming to put in an astroturf training area around the ball wall.

“Perhaps most importantly of all, in a parish that has a strong tradition of hurling (through Four Roads HC) and handball (through Mount Talbot club), Joe has always encouraged young players to be involved in all sports and supported them in doing so, to the point that he was also involved in basketball coaching, among other activities.

“This is a central part of the sporting identity of the people of this parish, and it has been fostered in no small part by the work that Joe put in to make this community what it is today,” concluded the GAA.

The Gradaim an Uachtaráin 2026 awards, organised with the support of AIB and broadcast by TG4, are made by GAA President Jarlath Burns to acknowledge individuals who have made an extraordinary contribution to the promotion of Gaelic games at club and county level.