The winners of the Outsider Awards, proudly sponsored by Sport Ireland, were announced to a bustling room in the Helix in DCU last night, celebrating the people and organisations shaping the future of Ireland’s outdoor community.

With multiple award categories spanning adventure, environmental action, accessibility, and storytelling, the Outsider Awards continue to recognise those who inspire others to connect with the outdoors in meaningful and lasting ways.

This year’s awards once again reflected the strength, diversity, and passion within Ireland’s outdoor scene, from grassroots volunteers and youth adventurers to elite endurance athletes, community leaders, and content creators sharing Ireland’s wild spaces with the world.

The Winners

Sport Ireland Outsider of the Year

Daragh Morgan

Some adventures are measured in distance. Others are measured in heart. Daragh Morgan’s Swim Éire was both.

In 2025, Daragh became the first person to complete a staged swim around the entire coastline of Ireland, an extraordinary 1,500km journey powered solely by his own strength, determination, and resilience. Swimming an average of 15–17km per day, he faced jellyfish blooms, harsh weather, night swims, and the relentless challenge of life at sea, all while living aboard a small support boat for months.

But Swim Éire was more than an endurance feat. It was a deep exploration of Ireland’s wild coastline, its communities, and the country’s enduring connection to the sea. Years in the making, the swim represented Daragh’s personal “North Star”, a calling shaped by patience, outdoor training, and trust in his team.

Through this remarkable achievement, Daragh has not only circled Ireland stroke by stroke, but has also inspired a renewed appreciation for adventure on our own shores — reminding us that the greatest journeys can begin at the edge of home.

Sport Ireland Outdoors For All

Accessible Adventures Ireland

Accessible Adventures Ireland, led by Mountaineering and Climbing Instructor and Social Worker Paul Kellagher, is transforming the concept of inclusion in the outdoors across Ireland. With nearly four decades of experience working between adventure and social inclusion, Paul founded the organisation to challenge a fundamental question: who is missing from the outdoors, and why?

Through fully inclusive experiences such as adaptive climbing, canoe expeditions, wild camping and multi-day adventures, Accessible Adventures Ireland is breaking down barriers for people with disabilities. Beyond delivering life-changing adventures, the organisation is helping reshape the wider outdoor sector through accessibility training programmes for guides, climbing walls and adventure providers nationwide.

Accessible Adventures Ireland is driving a future where accessible adventure is not a niche offering, but a standard. Their work continues to demonstrate that adventure is for everyone.

Outwest Adventure of the Year

Becky Gilmor

Becky’s journey began not as an adventure, but as a way to survive grief. After losing a close friend to suicide, she turned to the outdoors and to skateboarding as a way to cope, setting herself the extraordinary challenge of skating the entire Wild Atlantic Way and continuing north to Portrush, a place deeply connected to shared memories.

What started as a deeply personal journey soon became something much bigger. Through honest and vulnerable storytelling, Becky helped open conversations around suicide and loss in Ireland, creating space for others to share their own experiences and reminding people that they are never alone.

Her journey ultimately became a 3,100km odyssey of skateboarding, wild camping, and enduring some of the toughest conditions the Atlantic coast could offer. Becky’s story is a powerful reminder that even in the darkest moments, connection, community, and adventure can help light the way forward.

Through her mission to spark conversation and create safe spaces, Becky continues to show that healing is possible and that hope is always worth holding onto.

Eco Hero

Jack Morley

Jack Morley is the driving force behind The Rewildlife, a project that began as a personal mission to restore five acres of land and document the journey. What started as a learning experience quickly grew into a platform that now connects and inspires a nationwide community passionate about nature restoration.

Using his background in advertising and communications, Jack tells the stories of Irish ecologists, landowners, botanists, and volunteers working to protect and restore biodiversity across the country. Through social media, YouTube, podcasts, and creative collaborations, he is helping bring nature storytelling to wider audiences, particularly younger generations.

Through The Rewildlife, Jack is helping people reconnect with Ireland’s natural world, reminding us that meaningful environmental change can begin with small, local action.

Craghoppers Most Inspiring Person

Ger Copeland

Ger Copeland’s story is one of extraordinary resilience, determination, and purpose. A Howth-based runner with more than 300 marathons completed, Ger faced his greatest challenge in 2024 after surviving three brain haemorrhages and a stroke following a skiing accident.

Just months after leaving the hospital, he returned to complete the Dublin Marathon with the support of a guide runner. One year later, he came back stronger, running a sub-three-hour marathon on the same course, a powerful statement that disability was not an ending, but the beginning of a new chapter.

Since then, Ger has pushed boundaries even further, completing back-to-back marathons in Cape Town and Antarctica within 15 hours, becoming one of the few people ever to win a marathon on polar ice.

Beyond racing, Ger has become a passionate advocate for stroke survivors and young people living with traumatic brain injuries, while also coaching and mentoring runners through the Dublin Bay Running Club, which he founded. His courage and impact were recognised with the Lord Mayor’s Medal at the Dublin Marathon.

Ger Copeland continues to show that true inspiration isn’t just about achievement, it’s about using your journey to lift others.

Mountaineering Ireland Mountain Volunteer of the Year

Colette Mahon

Colette Mahon has made an outstanding voluntary contribution to Irish hillwalking and mountaineering over several decades, earning deep respect across the outdoor community.

From helping establish Wexford Hillwalking & Mountaineering Club in 1996 to serving as a Board Member of Mountaineering Ireland, Colette has played a vital role in shaping and supporting the growth of mountaineering in Ireland. Across leadership, training, and governance roles, she has consistently championed safety, sustainability, and respect for mountain environments.

Through organising walks, leading climbs and scrambles, delivering skills training, and mentoring countless walkers and climbers, Colette has helped generations build confidence and lasting connections with the outdoors. She has also been instrumental in the success of the Women With Altitude festival, creating welcoming and inclusive spaces within the mountain community.

Colette’s dedication, generosity, and passion for volunteering continue to strengthen Ireland’s outdoor culture from the ground up.

Sport Ireland Youth Award

Oscar McKinney

At just 11 years old, Markethill’s Oscar McKinney has already made Irish mountain-sport history twice. Living with epilepsy but never defined by it, Oscar has pushed beyond expectations through a deep love of the hills and an unstoppable curiosity for adventure.

Oscar first gained national attention in 2023 when, aged just eight years and 355 days, he became the youngest person ever to summit the highest point in all 32 counties of Ireland, breaking the previous record by 142 days. Not content to stop there, he went on to complete the 100 highest mountains in Ireland, becoming the youngest recorded person to achieve the milestone.

Inspired by his mum’s own mountain journey and supported by his family and Hiking Buddies NI, Oscar continues to inspire the outdoor community, proving that determination, preparation, and a love of the mountains can take you anywhere.

Audience Choice Award

Get Up Adventures

In 2025, Get Up Adventures continued to showcase the life-changing power of the outdoors, using hiking and nature-based experiences to support recovery, wellbeing, and community connection across Dublin and beyond.

Founded by John Boland and psychotherapist Cara Byrne, Get Up Adventures is Ireland’s first multi-agency pro-social outdoor programme, combining physical activity, therapeutic support, and inclusive community engagement. The programme works with groups often underserved by traditional services, including people in addiction recovery, those leaving the prison system, and members of the travelling community.

Through structured eight-week programmes featuring mountain hikes, workshops, and group experiences, participants build physical strength, confidence, and a renewed sense of purpose. Just as importantly, the programme fosters connection to nature, to community, and to self.

With expansion planned through new partnerships in 2026, Get Up Adventures continues to demonstrate that the outdoors can be a powerful space for healing, growth, and belonging, proving that success is measured not just in distance covered, but in lives changed.

Craghoppers Content Creator of the Year

Shauna McDonagh

Shauna McDonagh’s content captures Ireland in its truest form, wild, soulful, and deeply rooted in place. Growing up where Roscommon meets Mayo and Sligo, her work is shaped by the landscapes that raised her, from misty lakes and Atlantic winds to ancient sites and quiet mountain horizons.

Rather than chasing spectacle, Shauna documents the outdoors as it’s truly experienced. Her photography and videos focus on feeling as much as scenery, the bite of cold morning air, the texture of sand underfoot, or the movement of water through a landscape. At the heart of her work is a simple but powerful message: adventure and meaning can be found right outside your door.

A defining moment of her 2025 storytelling came when she returned home after time away and climbed to the Carrowkeel tombs at sunrise. As first light broke, a sudden rain shower revealed a rainbow arching over the ancient cairns, a fleeting, unplanned moment that perfectly reflects her philosophy of showing up, slowing down, and letting Ireland reveal itself.

Through her work, Shauna continues to remind people that Ireland is full of quiet magic for those willing to pause and see it.

Outwest Best Outdoor Irish Experience

Kiwi Girl Mullaghmore

Kiwi Girl Mullaghmore brings the raw beauty and wildlife of Ireland’s northwest coastline to life through unforgettable sea adventures departing from Mullaghmore Harbour, Co. Sligo. Operating aboard the M.V. Kiwi Girl, skipper Declan Kilganon leads small groups into Donegal Bay and the open Atlantic, where guests regularly encounter dolphins, seabirds, and some of Ireland’s most dramatic coastal scenery.

Blending ocean adventure with deep local expertise, Kiwi Girl offers experiences ranging from family wildlife cruises to big-game fishing trips targeting species like blue shark and bluefin tuna. Whether guests are fishing, wildlife watching, or exploring hidden coves beneath landmarks like Classiebawn Castle, every trip delivers a unique perspective of Ireland’s wild Atlantic edge.

Through its combination of adventure, accessibility, and authentic local storytelling, Kiwi Girl Mullaghmore captures the true spirit of Ireland’s coastal outdoor experience.