Derek Bowles’ association with the Fermanagh & Western covers an unbroken period from the mid-seventies until 2008. Derek joined the League as the representative of Lisbellaw United at a time when the village club was not only dominating local football but also at junior level, becoming only the second Fermanagh & Western team to win the Junior Cup in 1978, twenty years after Enniskillen Corinthians had registered the first success for a team from this Association. After a number of years on the Management Committee serving alongside tonight’s other inductee, Colin and the previous recipients, Derek took on the role of Vice-Chairman of the League and Association in 1980, posts he held in the League until 1990 and in the Association until 1987, where he held the role of Referees’ Secretary for three years. In addition to undertaking these roles, Derek had succeed Willie McElroy as representative on the Junior Committee following Willie’s time as Chairman, fulfilling this role for ten years’ thus achieving Life Membership of the Irish Football Association. As I know from my time on this Committee, it involved regular trips to Windsor Avenue for meetings that could last for3-4 hours, leaving Belfast in the worst of weather for what was then a two hour trip home, without even having the benefit of a cup of tea! The friendships made through football endure and Derek told me that he recently met Ian Hunter from Wakehurst, who had been Chairman of the Junior Committee when he first joined.

In 1990, following a review of boundaries by the IFA instigated by the North West FA, teams in and to the north of Omagh where forced to affiliate to the North West, leaving several members and officers of the Association with no mandate including the then Treasurer, George Henderson. Derek, utilising his acumen from his work life in banking, bravely stepped into the breach to take up the financial management of the organisation, no easy feat as “Yogi” had a reputation of being able to get money from a stone. However, Derek’s careful management of the funds, often through very lean times ensured that the required collateral was always there in order to keep football going on an organisational level in the west for a period of eighteen years until his retirement from the post in 2008. His last major contribution to the Fermanagh & Western was the memorable night held in this venue in 2007 when the Association celebrated its centenary. I, for one along with Roy, will be ever grateful for his help in organising that night which for all those who were present proved an overwhelming success.

Although Derek stepped away from football duties in 2008, his selfless service has carried on through the guise of the Northern Ireland Children’s Hospice at Horizon West, where again, he has used his financial management skills to raise vast sums of money for this vital resource for the greater community.

To conclude Derek, it is clear that anyone who has given such exemplary service to a voluntary body such as ours, often at personal cost and sacrifice to both the individual and family, is a person worth knowing and some-one to respect when calling them a friend. As Chairman of the League and as some-one who served along-side you for a number of years, it gives me great pleasure to honour you with this induction into our Hall of Fame; it is richly deserved.  Before I make the presentation, I would like to read a message received from Derek’s son Gary.