ALL-STAR YOUTH AWARD FOR BALLYGIBLIN’S DARRAGH
Darragh Flynn, Mitchelstown native and Ballygiblin hurler, is proud to be one of the most recent winners of the Cork City & County AllStar Youth Award. The young sports star however, credits his teammates with making it possible. He won the award alongside Dunmanway’s Lauren Farr, who was also a recipient in February’s awards.
The 20 year old was awarded a number of sought-after ‘Man of the Match’ awards during Ballygiblin’s run to the All-Ireland AIB GAA Junior Club Championship final, and for the coming year will play lower intermediate hurling with Ballygiblin, intermediate football with Mitchelstown and U20 hurling with Cork in 2022.
Speaking with TheAvondhu, Darragh said it was ‘ an honour’, but something that was not possible to achieve without the whole Ballygiblin team alongside him.
“It’s a lovely honour when you get an award that recognises the hours of work you’ve put in over the year, but as with all individual awards, none of it would be possible without all the lads on the team. I’m delighted to be representing Ballygiblin in getting this award.”
IMPRESSIVE HONOURS
His playing career started with Ballygiblin when he first stepped onto the pitch in red and white at U16 level and played football with Mitchelstown. He went on to win a Munster B post-primary title with CBS Mitchelstown, and played Harty Cup with St Colman’s College.
In 2021, when Ballygiblin defeated Clyda Rovers for the North Cork Junior A title, Darragh was named Man of the Match. Of course, at this stage everyone knows how the season progressed, and the young man was standing alongside his team in Croke Park just a couple of weeks ago for an All-Ireland final, where the lads were unfortunately defeated by the narrowest of margins.
In 2015 Darragh was a member of the Cork Primary Games team, and had his first experience of playing in Semple Stadium where he lined out at half-time against Waterford. Darragh’s first inter-county title was the following year in August 2016, when he captained the Cork U14s to win the Tony Forristal Cup, and played with Cork in the U15 Eugene Carey Trophy in 2017. In both 2018 and 2019, he played Cork minor hurling, before advancing to the Cork U20 panel in 2020 and 2021.
Following a Munster final win over Tipperary, Cork progressed to win the 2020 All-Ireland final in July, beating Dublin. The 2021 campaign started eight days later, and yet again, Darragh won Man of the Match in Cork’s U20 Munster final win over Limerick.