Death mourned of Donegal disability rights activist, music journalist Donal K O'Boyle

Former Donegal Person of the Year Donal K O'Boyle will be laid to rest in his native Gweedore on Saturday.

There has been widespread sadness after the music journalist and disability rights campaigner died on Thursday.

A native of Knockastolar, Gweedore, he lived at Cheshire Apartments in Letterkenny.

He was named as the Donegal Person of the Year for 1981.

At the age of just three months, he contracted polio and through his early years he spent time in hospital in Dublin, Galway and Glasgow.

In the late 1970s, he did a course in journalism, learned to type and initially started to write articles 'to pass the time'.

He subsequently contributed material to a series of newspapers and magazines. For many years, he wrote a popular column in the Donegal News.

Earlier this year, he was honoured at the Hot Country Music Awards which were staged in Letterkenny.

He had previously aided in festivals including Mary From Dungloe, Letterkenny International Folk Festival and Glenswilly Festival.

He was the secretary of the North West Handicapped Committee in the 1980s and was instrumental in getting a sheltered workshop at the Gweedore Industrial Estate.

He campaigned strongly for disability rights across many sectors and his Donegal Person of the Year Award was presented to him in the Gresham Hotel.

In more recent years, he became involved in Donegal Centre for Independent Living (DCIL).

His death took place at Letterkenny University Hospital.

He is predeceased by his parents Paddy and Nora and sadly missed by his his brothers Finbarr, Vincent and Declan, sisters Philomena, Gloria, Marion and Carmel, sisters-in-law, brothers-in-law, nieces, nephews and extended family and friends.

His Funeral Mass takes place on Saturday at 2pm in St. Mary's Church, Derrybeg with interment afterwards in Magheragallon cemetery

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