THREE young Donegal men will be honoured at the National Garda Youth Awards ceremony this weekend.
Josh Marley won a National Award in the Special Achievement category while Alan McCarron and Cormac Brady won honours in the Community Safety category.
It follows the Donegal Garda Youth Awards 2022 presentation ceremony which took place on September. There were four categories in which an overall award was presented and the winners from the four categories were then put forward to represent the Donegal Division at the National Awards level.
Local Gardai said they were absolutely delighted to hear that two of the category winners from the Donegal Division have also won at National level.
Josh Marley.
Josh Marley from Lifford won the national award in the special achievement category for his life-saving efforts at Lifford Bridge on the night of the 27th of August 2021. Josh managed to rescue a female who was in extreme distress without any consideration for his own safety or well-being. He managed to bring the woman to the safety of the riverbank and the emergency services were then contacted.
“The actions of Josh Marley on the night in question were selfless and courageous. He displayed great strength of character and managed to keep a level head in an emergency situation. Josh is a fantastic role model for others and is to be greatly admired for his instant willingness to help others in their time of need,” the citation read.
Alan McCarron and Cormac Brady secured the national award in the community safety category.
Alan McCarron.
The boys took part in a Youth Leadership initiative between February and September 2021. As part of the initiative they completed a Leadership Community Action Project.
They decided to collaborate with Letterkenny Fire Service and they set about visiting the elderly in the Termon and Kilmacrennan areas to check and install fire alarms. They acquired boxes of fire alarms from Letterkenny Fire Service and they distributed them to the homes of the elderly. They checked existing alarms and were shocked to find that many alarms were rarely checked or had old batteries. They replaced the batteries in any alarms that needed them. They collected information from the homes they visited and passed it on to Letterkenny Fire Service to be stored on a database so that a return visit can be arranged in two years’ time. This gave great comfort to the people they visited.
Cormac Brady.
They also distributed leaflets at the houses they called to in an effort to raise awareness about carbon monoxide poisoning. Alan and Cormac also distributed information posters to shops to inform the community that they were calling to homes and to reassure them about the reason for their visit. They carried out fire safety leaflet drops at Schools, Churches and bingo centres.
A Garda spokesperson said, “We wish to congratulate all of the young people who were nominated for an award this year. Whether they won an overall award or not, they all deserve our applause as they have achieved great things whether it be through helping within their community or overcoming personal challenges.
“They are all to be commended and it is fantastic to see the youth getting recognition for all the good that they do within our society. We wish to extend our thanks to Judge Éiteáin Cunningham, to the Joint Policing Committee and to Cllr Gerry McMonagle for helping to make this year’s Donegal Garda Youth Awards’ a success and to anybody else who helped in any way,” they added.
The national prize giving ceremony will take place in Portlaoise on Saturday.
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