{"id":82366,"date":"2025-09-24T03:57:09","date_gmt":"2025-09-24T03:57:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/82366\/"},"modified":"2025-09-24T03:57:09","modified_gmt":"2025-09-24T03:57:09","slug":"friends-to-cycle-from-galway-to-donegal-to-remember-much-loved-cnoc-fola-man","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/82366\/","title":{"rendered":"Friends to cycle from Galway to Donegal to remember much loved Cnoc Fola man"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>Locals are urged to come out in support of a 300km cycle this weekend from Galway to west Donegal in memory of a much-loved father-of-three.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Hugh McFadden, a native of Cnoc Fola, lived in Galway since 2003. However, he passed away following an illness in March of this year, leaving behind wife Edel and his beloved daughters Aileen, Maya and Anna.<\/p>\n<p>This weekend, a group of friends and neighbours will mark his passing with a \u2018Hills4Hugh\u2019 voyage to raise money for the Galway Hospice.<\/p>\n<p>Close to 30 cyclists and their backup team taking part will leave Craughwell on Friday and are expected to arrive in Gaoth Dobhair shortly after 4pm on Saturday.<\/p>\n<p>The event will finish at Ionad Pobail, Cnoc Fola and Hugh\u2019s family would deeply appreciate your support by joining at the finish line to welcome the cyclists. A Mass for the happy repose of Hugh\u2019s soul will also be held in Teach Pobail Cholmcille, Cnoc Fola, at 12.30pm on Sunday, September 28.<\/p>\n<p>The fundraiser has already gathered over \u20ac30,000 and you can donate here: <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.idonate.ie\/fundraiser\/Galway2Donegal\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">https:\/\/www.idonate.ie\/fundraiser\/Galway2Donegal<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n<p>The last weekend in September held a deep significance as it marked Hugh\u2019s wedding anniversary as well as the birthdays of his wife and eldest daughter.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\u201cHugh faced his illness with immense courage and grace, never losing his humour or warmth \u2013 even in his final days,\u201d organisers say.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cHe is dearly missed on the sidelines of Craughwell Camogie games and Craughwell United soccer matches, where he was always the proudest supporter of his girls.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>A strategic buyer at Covidien and Medtronic, Hugh was an ardent sports fan.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>A son of the late Paddy and M\u00e1ire McFadden, he was a proud son of Gaoth Dobhair and regularly travelled home to support the local GAA team and he was also an avid Donegal fan. Liverpool and Celtic were close to his heart, too.<\/p>\n<p>Rob Mullett, who is the logistics person for the cycle, told the Connacht Tribune: \u201cIt was on the night of his funeral, seeing the outpouring of support, the buses lined up on the Main Street, a group of us got chatting, wanting some mechanism that would connect the two parishes.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAlthough 300km apart, these two communities, mourning one great guy, felt close on that evening. It got me thinking about how we could reciprocate, to keep that connection alive.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Friends to cycle from Galway to Donegal to remember much loved Cnoc Fola man was last modified:  September 23rd, 2025 by Contributor<\/p>\n<p>      Tags:<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Locals are urged to come out in support of a 300km cycle this weekend from Galway to west&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":82367,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[76],"tags":[669,18,55027,55028,55029,19,17,132],"class_list":{"0":"post-82366","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-sports","8":"tag-donegal-news","9":"tag-eire","10":"tag-galway-hospice","11":"tag-hills4hugh-challenge","12":"tag-hugh-mcfadden-rip","13":"tag-ie","14":"tag-ireland","15":"tag-sports"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/82366","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=82366"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/82366\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/82367"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=82366"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=82366"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=82366"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}