Albert Titterington pays tribute to Willy Darragh – international angler, successful lobbyist and protestor, promoter of angling to the young and now NHS champion!
A big thank you from the NHS to the angling community.
F
ew within the angling community in the UK, Ireland and further afield will have missed the facebook fundraising phenomenon for the NHS by Willy Darragh and his team – nearly £75,000 raised and used to purchase PPE for organisations all over the UK. Willy Darragh is passionate about angling which he was first introduced to on the Moyola as a child of seven from a non angling family living in Magherafelt. That introduction started a lifelong dedicated to enjoying, promoting and defending angling.
Today, as a flooring contractor living with his wife Caroline and four children he has many interests including sponsoring his son’s football team through the ‘football coaching for Christ’ movement, but angling still dominates most of his spare time. He fishes all over Ireland , particularly the Carnroe and Maine, but also in Scotland and Argentina. His regular fishing partners include Bobby Bryans, Sammy Glenn, Paul Smith, Stevie Munn, Mark Tierney and John Richardson. He was an active member of the Lough Neagh Dollaghan Trust.
I first met Willy when we helped sponsor the very energetic and highly effective No Salmon Netting (NSN) group which ultimately lobbied successfully for the ‘buy out’ of the salmon netting licences which were threatening fish stocks on our rivers. Then when there were proposals to build off shore salmon farms, Willy and the team gave their support to No Salmon Farms NSF and I remember meeting up with them one morning early in Galway to march and protest against the proposal. Once again the determination of Willy, his friends and
Willy and the team were part of the successful protest in Galway . Irish Country Sports and Country Life Autumn 2020
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