{"id":409394,"date":"2026-04-21T04:02:15","date_gmt":"2026-04-21T04:02:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/409394\/"},"modified":"2026-04-21T04:02:15","modified_gmt":"2026-04-21T04:02:15","slug":"donegal-man-95-formally-honoured-by-australian-government","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/409394\/","title":{"rendered":"Donegal man, 95, formally honoured by Australian Government"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>A 95-year-old Donegal man was formally honoured for his \u2018outstanding achievement and service\u2019 to his local community in Australia at the weekend.<\/p>\n<p>Paddy Kerrigan, originally from Bundoran, was presented with the prestigious Medal of the Order of Australia (OAM) by the country\u2019s Governor-General, Sam Mostyn.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>He was recognised for his decades of service to the Snowy Monaro region in New South Wales, between Sydney and Melbourne.<\/p>\n<p>Paddy was one of fourteen Australians rewarded for remarkable service during the investiture ceremony at Government House in Canberra.<\/p>\n<p>He was introduced at the ceremony as a &#8216;true Snowy Mountains icon&#8217; who made significant contributions as a pioneer of the Snowy tourist industry, championing local history and heritage as well as performing water rescues and helping those in need.<\/p>\n<p>The Governor-General spoke of the breadth of recipients\u2019 service, generosity and commitment to \u2018something larger than oneself\u2019, thanking them on behalf of all Australians.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-622336 size-full in-content-img not-prose w-full\" height=\"585\" width=\"auto\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/donegal-man-95-formally-honoured-by-australian-government.jpg\" alt=\"\" loading=\"lazy\"\/><\/p>\n<p class=\"font-serif font-normal text-base leading-6 text-tertiary not-prose\"> Paddy Kerrigan and his wife of 66 years, Jan, and some of their family members.<\/p>\n<p>This time last year, the south Donegal native received the Cooma Citizen of the Year award from the Snowy Monaro Regional Council.<\/p>\n<p>Born in 1930 at St Patrick\u2019s Terrace, Bundoran, to John and Kathleen Kerrigan (nee Clarke from Leitrim), Paddy had two older siblings Mary (Mae) and John (Jack), both of whom have since passed away.<\/p>\n<p class=\"font-sans font-semibold text-xl md:text-[30px] leading-9 text-primary w-full\">\n        You may also be interested in\n    <\/p>\n<p>            <a href=\"https:\/\/www.donegaldaily.com\/news\/non-stop-weekend-for-arranmore-rnli-630986\" class=\"block w-2\/5 shrink-0\" aria-label=\"Non-stop weekend for Arranmore RNLI\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\"><\/p>\n<p>        <img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/non-stop-weekend-for-arranmore-rnli.jpg\" class=\"max-w-full w-full h-full object-contain relative z-10\" width=\"150\" height=\"84\"  alt=\"Non-stop weekend for Arranmore RNLI\" \/><\/p>\n<p>            <\/a><\/p>\n<p>            <a href=\"https:\/\/www.donegaldaily.com\/news\/eirgrid-launches-gaa-community-heroes-campaign-630948\" class=\"block w-2\/5 shrink-0\" aria-label=\"EirGrid launches GAA Community Heroes Campaign\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\"><\/p>\n<p>        <img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/eirgrid-launches-gaa-community-heroes-campaign.jpg\" class=\"max-w-full w-full h-full object-contain relative z-10\" width=\"150\" height=\"84\"  alt=\"EirGrid launches GAA Community Heroes Campaign\" \/><\/p>\n<p>            <\/a><\/p>\n<p>Before leaving Donegal, he served his apprenticeship as a carpenter, going on to build houses in Ireland, England and Scotland. In early 1953, he emigrated to Australia, where he began working on the Snowy Mountains Hydro-Electric Scheme.<\/p>\n<p>In 2023, we published an in-depth interview with Paddy. You can read his remarkable story here: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.donegaldaily.com\/2023\/01\/15\/paddy-kerrigan-the-donegal-man-who-made-big-moves-down-under\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Paddy Kerrigan \u2013 The Donegal man who made big moves Down Under!<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A 95-year-old Donegal man was formally honoured for his \u2018outstanding achievement and service\u2019 to his local community in&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":409395,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[42,43,40,38,41,39],"class_list":["post-409394","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-headlines","tag-news","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/409394","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=409394"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/409394\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/409395"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=409394"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=409394"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=409394"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}