Hearty congratulations to former Camanachd Leòdhais manager and player Conor Macdonald and his new wife Alison Bruce who got married in Stornoway at the Weekend.
Conor was an essential part of Camanachd Leòdhais from an early age. In attendance at the inaugural agm of the reconstitued Camanachd Leòdhais, he was appointed chair, played in the very first game, then he the became manager of the team in 2008, doing the job for two seasons and was also goalkeeper. This was at a time when the club was routinely on the end of heavy defeats, so it was a very tough shift, but Conor helped the club keep going through these difficult times even whilst still in secondary school. His brother Micheál also was inaugural secretary of the club and his father David is an honorary chieftain after serving as Club Chieftain for many years.
Conor would appear multiple times for Alba, and be a feature of the league entry side as well as a Mòd Cup winner whilst travelling from college in Skye. He was a fixture between the sticks for many seasons until he moved south to Glasgow.
Towards the end of his playing time with club Conor moved to play outfield for a time, until a bad knee injury put him out of the game for a whole. Conor has recently started training again with a club down south so hopefully we’ll see him back playing at some point.
At the end of a historic season, it’s important to pay tribute to those who put in the groundwork for shinty to thrive in Lewis & Harris.
Alison hails from Inverness, but she is of good Lewis stock on her mother’s side and her own shinty connections are on her father’s Sgitheanach side through her uncle Alistair Bruce of Skye Camanachd, who has been a long term friend of shinty in the Outer Hebrides.
Gur math thèid leibh Chonoir is Alison, gach latha sona dhuibh gun latha dona agaibh.