MOY stalwart Francie McQuade has been honoured with the first ever Gaelic Life Club All-Stars Volunteer of the Year award.

Francie, who is chairman of the Tyrone-based club, was announced as the winner of the newly introduced award at Friday evening’s 14th Annual Gaelic Life Awards, which was hosted by the Hillgrove Hotel in Monaghan.

Francie has played a leading role at the Moy club for many, many years and is now in his second stint as club chairperson.

When he first took on the role, he was travelling to and from Dublin every day as well as raising a young family.

Francie led the club in their biggest ever fundraiser in 2016 following an arson attack on the clubhouse, raising a whopping 215 thousand pounds. Just a year later, he was part of the senior management team that led the club to a historic All-Ireland Intermediate title.

Francie also helped establish and maintain the Club Tír na nÓg membership scheme in 2009, which is still running to this day and has been a great success raising over £250k in that time period.

As club development officer Francie has been heavily involved in a number of successful grant applications and led the club through the Covid pandemic.

He took the lead on an £830k funding package through the Department of Communities for the completion of a new floodlit grass pitch, community walkway and car parking which will be a great asset to the local community.

His most recent achievement was the completion of a floodlit walkway around the club’s existing main playing pitch.

Francie took a hands on role in organising volunteers, materials and actually carrying out the physical construction of the walkway which will be a great addition to the club for the future.

All in all, he’s a tremendous club volunteer who has played a major role in Moy’s development on-and-off the pitch and will no doubt continue to do so for many years to come.