Award winners pay homage to the Tipperary communities that shaped them

On an emotional evening in Dublin, the two deserving winners of Tipperary Person of the Year accolades humbly alluded to the communities that shaped them.

Surrounded by proud family and friends, the senior Tipperary hurling manager, Liam Cahill, and Alice Leahy, the founding member of a homeless organisation in Dublin, paid tribute to people in the communities that they grew up in.

The Tipperary Association Dublin presented the Tipperary Person of the Year Award to Liam Cahill and the Hall of Fame Award to Alice Leahy.

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Receiving their beautiful awards, Liam Cahill said he was grateful to his family and the people of Ballingarry, whom he was so proud of, while Alice Leahy did likewise as she reflected on the family life she had in Fethard growing up and the support of that community.

Both award winners were given standing ovations as they accepted their awards at a function at the Louis Fitzgerald Hotel in Dublin.

Tipperary people from all over the country gathered to pay tribute to two worthy recipients of the prestigious awards.
Accepting his award, Liam Cahill thanked the Tipperary Association Dublin for bestowing an honour that was “beyond his wildest dreams” on him.

He said it was a privilege for him to receive the award, and he was honoured to join the elite group of previous winners.
Liam Cahill said he would not be accepting the award were it not for “our” players, whose achievements gave him the opportunity to accept such an award.

He told the audience that they had a unique bond and he would be forever grateful to those players.
Liam Cahill thanked his parents for their guidance and support, his own family of Bill, Jack, and Roisin, and the glue that kept it all together, his wife Eimear.

Liam said he was very lucky to have had such a great club.
He would always remember, he said, the Saturday night after the All-Ireland victory when he returned home to the Hills of Ballingarry “ to meet my own people.”

He thanked all of the people in Ballingarry who had a big influence on his life and sporting career.
He said 2025 was a huge year for Tipperary, and he thanked his management team, the Tipperary County Board, and the people in the stands who supported the team throughout it all.

“This All-Ireland was a win for everybody in Tipperary,” he told the appreciative audience.

HUMBLE

Looking ahead to this year, Liam Cahill emphasised that it was important to stay humble and said Tipperary had a huge amount of work to do to get out of Munster this year.
“Being a Tipperary person is so important to me and to everyone in this room,” said Liam Cahill.

The Tipperary manager said he was inspired by great players over the years, and he was delighted to see two of them, John Leahy and Michael Babs Keating, in the room, who were also previous recipients of the Tipperary Person of the Year Awards.
He said Babs and Len Gaynor, who was also present, were players on the last Tipperary team to win back-to-back All-Ireland titles, and they were a huge inspiration to him and the today’s players who would be motivated in 2026 to emulate them.

OUTSIDERS
Alice Leahy said she was deeply honoured to receive the Hall of Fame Award.
She thanked her family and her personal friends who joined her for the awards function.
She told the audience that sometimes we don’t look back on how we ended up where we ended up.

Alice alluded to her roots in Tipperary, the family she grew up with, the parents she had, the teachers, and the neighbours, and said that is why and how she ended up where she is today.

Alice said the award was not just about her, it was about recognising the people who were homeless and outsiders in our world.
She spoke about the homeless people she would have met over the years and how much the GAA would have meant to a lot of them, as it was so embedded in every village in Ireland, no matter who they were, what education they had, or what jobs they held.

Alice told the audience that they must ensure that it never gets to the stage where people cannot listen to a match on the radio.
“We can never forget the man or woman on their own who cannot afford the technology to listen to the match,” she said.

KINDNESS
“We should all share our love and kindness with those we meet along the way,” said Alice as she finished her acceptance speech.

Tom Sherlock, the President of the Tipperary Association Dublin, congratulated the awardees and read the award citations as part of the proceedings.

He said the Tipperary Association Dublin was delighted to honour Liam Cahill as the Person of the Year 2025.
“Liam needs no introduction. There is absolutely no doubt that everyone in this room, regardless of age, ethnicity, or gender, knows that Liam Cahill is the Manager of our 2025 All-Ireland Championship, Tipperary hurling team.
Tipperary’s success in the All-Ireland Senior Hurling Championship this year must stand as one of the great achievements in Tipperary hurling. Drawing with Limerick in Thurles, when we saw the first green shoots.

This was followed by a win in the cauldron of Ennis, when the game seemed lost, a victory over Waterford, and a controversial loss to Cork. The team was through to the All-Ireland series.
Following a victory over Laois, a semi-final win over our neighbours and great rivals, Kilkenny, brought anticipation and excitement to a new level for Tipperary.

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There followed that day of all days, when we headed to Croke Park with a mixture of hope and trepidation and floated out on Cloud 9, celebrating a famous victory.

Mr Sherlock said the Tipperary Association Dublin was proud to present the Hall of Fame for 2025 to Alice Leahy.
“Alice is a native of Fethard and is a nurse by profession. Clearly, she had a caring instinct from an early age. She is the founder and Chief Executive Officer of the Alice Leahy Trust, which provides care and support to homeless people living on the margins of society.

WORTHY INDUCTEE
The trust was founded in 1975, so 2025 marks the Golden Jubilee of the Trust, and Alice has led the organisation throughout that period.

For her lifelong service of caregiving, Alice Leahy is a most worthy inductee into the Tipperary Association Dublin Hall of Fame for 2025.