Camogie great Deirdre Hughes to be inducted into Guardian Sport Hall of Fame
Tipperary Camogie great Deirdre Hughes will be inducted into the Nenagh Guardian Sports Hall of Fame at its annual sports awards next month.
A winner of five All Ireland Senior Camogie championship medals in 1999, 2000, 2001, 2003 & 2004, Hughes will become the first woman to be inducted into the Hall of Fame in what is the fourth year of the awards, joining Donie Nealon, Sean Naughton and Len Gaynor who were honoured over the last three years.
When you think Tipperary senior camogie, one of the first names that comes off the tongue is Deirdre Hughes as the iconic full forward on those great Tipperary teams that brought camogie from the doldrums at inter-county level, going onto become one of the greatest teams of all time.
Deirdre came to prominence when her club Toomevara, won the County Minor championship three years in a row, before going onto win six successive senior county championships from 1992 to 1997.
She was a prominent member of the Tipperary team that won the All Ireland Junior title in 1991 and captained the Intermediate team to All Ireland success in 1997. She also won eight successive Gael Linn Cup inter-provincial medals with Munster.
In 1999, she was named player of the match as Tipperary defeated Kilkenny at Croke Park to win the county's first All Ireland Senior Camogie Championship title in the first ever fifteen aside final in the competition.
Deirdre went onto win four more All Ireland medals, her last in 2004 when she was named on the the first official Camogie All Star team and later in the same year she was named on the Camogie Team of the Century with her citation reading: “a brilliant individual player she is also the quintessential team player. She is a great playmaker, always ready to give or take a pass and give encouragement to those around her. Quick to turn, she can lose her marker in a second. A prolific scorer, when she moves goal wards she causes havoc. One of the most popular and respected of the modern day stars.” Deirdre was the only current inter-county player at the time to be chosen on the team.
Deirdre Hughes will be inducted into the Nenagh Guardian Sports Hall of Fame at the annual awards which will be held at the Great National Abbey Court Hotel Nenagh, on Friday 25th January 2019. Tickets €50 are now available by contacting the Nenagh Guardian office 06731214