Peamount United ‘proud and honoured’ to pick up awards

PEAMOUNT United women’s manager James O’Callaghan said he was ‘proud and honoured’ that his club picked up the Team of the Year Award and Manager of The Year Award at the Active South Dublin Awards.

Run in association with The Echo, South Dublin County Council and The Plaza Hotel, Peamount were honoured for a superb season when they clinched the Airtricity League Premier Division crown for the third time in their club history.

“To win these awards at such a great event just completes a great season for us.

“These awards come from our local community and The Echo has put in a huge support promoting local sports so it means so much to the club.

“To be honest, we were not expecting to win these awards.

“There was so much talent at the awards ceremony, we are just delighted to be honoured by our local community,” said James.

The Newcastle side won the 2023 title with two games to spare and manager James O’Callaghan became the first manager in league history to lead a team to three League titles (2019, 2020, 2023).

Peamount United players Avril Briery, Dora O’Gorman, Lucy McCartan and Carla McManus with manager James O’Callaghan look on at a video showing some of the highlights of their successful season

“The girls were brilliant last year.

“Nobody expected us to win the league after what happened to us the previous two years.

“We lost a lot of players at the start of the pre-season and a number of players picked up injuries.

“But the players got stuck in, trained hard and when we brought up the younger players in the club, it brought new energy to the team.

James O’Callaghan receives the Manager of the Year Award from Louise Burke, Sport Ireland and Elaine Leech, South Dublin County Council

“We started picking up good results, defending well, not conceding goals and the confidence grew in the team.

“It was the sweetest league title to win with the club with a great bunch of players,” added James.

Asked what the key moment in the season was, James was quick to highlight the win over rivals Shamrock Rovers in Tallaght Stadium.

“Beating Rovers in Tallaght was a defining moment in the season.

“If we had lost to them, we would have been level on points, but we won and went six points clear which was a key moment,”.

Avril Briery from Peamount United speaks with William O’Connor after her team won the Team of the Year Awar

James, who was also named the Active South Dublin Manager of the Year said: “I’m delighted. I’m lucky to have such a good coaching staff and they all played a huge role last season.

“It’s a great honour to receive this award, a very difficult one to win and I’m just delighted to be recognised.

“Winning the league last year was one of the highlights of my career.

Manager of the Year Peamount United’s James O’Callaghan speaks with William O’Connor after winning the award

“People wrote us off, we were the underdogs, and it gives me great satisfaction to win it”.

James has managed Peamount for the past seven years and the team were back in pre-season last Sunday running the hills in the Phoenix Park.

They start their new season on March 2 in the President’s Cup against Athlone and then the league on March 9 against Cork.