Galway winner of Dungloe GAA ‘Live Free for 2023’ donates €500 back to club

Leon Smith travelled up to the north west recently to pick up Dungloe GAA’s amazing ‘Live Free for 2023’ prize. 

The Galway native’s single-winner prize pack not only included €500 per week throughout 2023, but also contained a luxury five-night holiday to Dubai, a one-night dining escape to Galgorm Resort, a one-night stay in Ashford Castle, and tickets and accommodation to the All Ireland Football and Hurling finals.

Dungloe GAA secretary Paddy McGowan admits the ambitious fundraising initiative was a huge undertaking - particularly when you consider the timeframe that was involved in it. 

He said: "Congratulations to Leon Smith from Ballyar, Co Galway, who along with his wife Mairead received his cheque from Live Free 2023 this evening in the Club House. Thank you to Leon for donating €500 to the club. Hope you enjoy your year.

“Our group got together back in August last year to see how we could give our development fundraising a real push. We’re in the middle of constructing our second pitch as everyone knows. 

“People like Mark Curran, Jason McBride, Leanne Greene, Caolan Ward, Karl Wallace; those are all young people with tech skills and who work in marketing. That help was invaluable. The likes of Marie Therese Gallagher, Paul McGee, Maeve McGee and Damien McHugh… we’d a really great and innovative group that put in serious work on this.

“In the end, from the beginning of the draw in October right up until the end of December, we were looking at a 13-week window.  Anything we could do to push the ticket sales, like sponsored adverts, we did it. 

“Marty Morrissey was in Donegal to report on the opening of the new Training Centre in Convoy. He got on board with a recorded promotional video. We just pushed it as hard as we could. In the end, with online sales especially, we ended up getting over the line. 

“Leon himself bought seven tickets through the online system. What it took for us to hit a similar target going door to door, a while back before Covid for our ‘Uphill Battle’ draw, was 13 months. This time out, that was achieved, like I say, inside 13 weeks. It really was amazing”.    

CLG An Clochán Liath would like to thank prize sponsors Declan Boyle, McCafferty’s Bar, Jimmy Sharkey, TopShop, Hartnett Hayes Solicitors and SuperValu, Dungloe, and The Cope, Dungloe.