MILLIE Condon is the first recipient of the West Cork Sports Star Paudie Palmer Youth Award.
The Ballinascarthy teenager, who won THREE All-Ireland titles during a memorable 2022, will receive her deserved accolade at the 2022 Celtic Ross Hotel West Cork Sports Star Awards annual gala ceremony on Saturday night, March 11th.
Millie (17) was one of five youth quarterly award winners from 2022, alongside Darragh Dempsey (road bowling), Rachel Kingston (road bowling), Oisin Brady (kickboxing) and John O’Donovan (soccer) – and the rising Cork dual star was selected as the winner after her superb successes.
First up in an unforgettable year, Millie helped her school, Sacred Heart Clonakilty, win the 2022 All-Ireland schools’ senior C football final, and she was named player of the match too. Then Millie was a starter on both the Cork minor football and camogie teams that swept to All-Ireland honours as well. Add in Munster titles in all three competitions and her medal collection swelled considerably. Millie was recently crowned the 2022 Munster LGFA Young Player of the Year, and she also captains the Cork minor footballers in 2023. Now she can add the Celtic Ross Hotel West Cork Sports Star Paudie Palmer Youth Award to her growing list of accolades.
She will be the first recipient of this award since it was renamed in honour of the legendary Paudie Palmer, who was involved in these awards for the past 25 years. Sadly, Paudie passed away in January, but his legacy with the awards will live on.
‘I’m delighted to win this award, especially because I know one of the reasons I was presented with a quarterly award was because of our school achievements last year. That makes it even more special,’ Millie told The Southern Star.
🧵 While Millie Condon is the winner of the 2022 @CelticRossHotel West Cork Sports Star Paudie Palmer Youth Award, let's take a moment to highlight the achievements of the other quarterly award winners from 2022.
Read on 👇
(1/5) pic.twitter.com/d1oQWrcAHS— Kieran McCarthy (@KieranMcC_SS) March 2, 2023
Dual star Millie is in good company as an overall youth award winner as previously current Cork senior camogie star Fiona Keating (2019) and Moira Barrett (2018) have been crowned best young talent in the west.
‘To win three All-Irelands in one year, it was a great year, and it’s down to everyone who was on the pitch in all those All-Irelands. Everyone played a part in those wins,’ said Millie who added enjoying football and camogie is very important to her.
‘I want to win as much as we can, but to have fun as well,’ the Sacred Heart Leaving Cert student explained.
‘It’s so important that we have fun, and we all enjoy going to training. We get the work done and we try as hard as we can, but we have fun and a laugh too.’
It’s going to be a busy year on and off the field for this talented dual player who, as well as lining out for her county, wants to help the Bal junior camogie team and the Clonakilty senior football team make an impression on their competitions too.
Millie will receive the West Cork Sports Star Paudie Palmer Youth Award at the awards night on March 11th, and it promises, as always, to highlight why West Cork is a hotspot for sport right now. Castlehaven’s ladies football team will receive the Special Achievement Award, and Kilkenny legend Brian Cody is the guest speaker, while next week we will reveal who the 2022 West Cork Sports Team of the Year is.
The West Cork Sports Star Awards have been running for 25 years and is a joint enterprise by the Celtic Ross Hotel, The Southern Star and C103.
