Mayo's Cathy Kilkenny honoured with Basketball Ireland Referee of the Year Award
John Melvin
There have been many memorable moments when basketball in Mayo has reached the pinnacle of success, the amazing feat by Ballina of winning the National Senior Men’s Cup not just once but twice among the standout moments of the county's rich basketball history.
Cup and league title wins by numerous schools around Mayo over the years have also contributed to the rich tapestry of underage basketball that has evolved in this county over the past 20 years or more.
And up there with those achievements is the announcement recently that the high standard of her refereeing along with her diligence and dedication to the sport is to be recognised at the highest level by Basketball Ireland, who have just named Cathy Kikenny as the 2026 Referee of the Year Award winner.
It was an announcement which lit up the Mayo referees' Whats App group and the reaction from so many of Cathy’s colleagues said it all – a richly deserved award for someone who has contributed so much to basketball refereeing in the county and beyond, and a person who has always maintained the highest standards in her many years of refereeing.
I’m not going to go into the challenge that is facing referees in almost every sport in these demanding times when the role of the referee is so critical. All I can say from personal knowledge of having known Cathy Kilkeny as a player and a referee for over 30 years is that she has always maintained only the highest of standards and is a driving force in the development of new referees. She continues to share those standards with the new recruits that are now engaged in a sport which is currently in a very healthy state at club and school level in Mayo.
Cathy will be among a number of Volunteer of the Year Award winners who will be honoured at the Basketball Ireland Annual Awards and Hall of Fame evening, which will beheld on Saturday, May 23, at the Osprey Hotel in Naas, Co. Kildare.
This is undoubtedly an exciting and richly deserved recognition of the work that the likes of Cathy Kilkenny does during the basketball season not just as a referee, but also in her role as a coordinator for all the other referees around Mayo, while she is also very much to the fore, along with John Hynes, in coordinating a new initiative by Basketball Ireland with the DWG (Development Working Group for Mayo, Galway, Longford, Leitrim and Roscommon), which is part of the revamping structure by Basketball Ireland in relation to the training, development and recruitment of new referees.
While she is noted in particular for her officiating at school level, Cathy is engaged in refereeing at club level in Mayo, with the sport now catering for both league and cup matches from Under 10 up to Under 18 for both boys and girls.
Cathy also steps up to the more demanding level of senior refereeing in the LLR League and the Basketball Ireland Development League.
An avid rugby fan when she gets the chance of stepping away from the basketball court, Cathy has been the driving force behind basketball refereeing in Mayo for the past three decades having played the sport herself at school level (Davitt College) and at club level over many years.
In many ways she is the heartbeat of basketball refereeing in Mayo, and is a worthy winner of such a prestigious award.
I can see her husband John and their talented family of musicians creating a musical masterpiece in her honour!