LAST Friday night, this journalist attended the Limerick Services to Sport, Unsung Hero Awards held in the Strand Hotel. Sponsored by the Limerick City Sports Partnership, the awards were set up to reward those volunteers who provide their time and effort to the sporting clubs in this city.

On the night there were 11 awards presented for various categories of sport from rugby, to soccer to GAA and Bridge. The stories which accompanied each winner were truly amazing and most humbling. The unsung hero is more often than not the forgotten hero. We have all arrived at grounds the length and breadth of the county, which are fully prepared and set up for our games. Do we ever spare a thought for how this happened? Do we ever wonder when we go into a clean dressing room or even hot shower, who is responsible for all this work. Be it knocking on doors for fundraising, lining pitches, coaching teams or driving teams, every sports person in this country can remember one unsung hero.

When we look at our professional teams and players take the field, remember that they all had to start somewhere. As Dave Mahedy put it on the night. There is professional sport and there is real sport. It was a night of real sport and it was a pleasure to be in attendance among some true sporting heroes.