Ellie Ward, from Dungloe, was chosen as the 2025 Mary from Dungloe at the recent crowning ball.
19- year- old Ellie, a student in Letterkenny, will hold the title for a year.
She is no stranger to representing Donegal as she played underage football for the county growing up for many years winning several Ulster and All- Ireland medals.
She was awarded a sports scholarship to study health science with physiotherapy at ATU Letterkenny.
Ellie is also affected by the genetic skin condition Epidermolysis Bullosa and hopes that her winning this crown will inspire others affected by it and other conditions.
Ellie spoke to The Irish World the day after the final to give her reaction to being crowned.
Ellie told The Irish World: “I’m just on top of the world today.
“Being in the Dungloe community today with the sash on and the crown and the chain, it feels so surreal.
“Being surrounded in my own community by such supportive people, it’s just amazing. I’m so honoured.”
Remembering hearing her name announced Ellie said: “All I remember is this massive group of amazing, beautiful girls coming around me just with massive smiles on their faces overjoyed with me.
“I was just being surrounded by the most supportive people.
“I’ve just had the most fabulous week with the most fabulous girls and having the crown at the end of it has just put the cherry on top honestly.”
Is it still sinking in?
“Yes. When I was going to bed last night, I was nearly delirious with tiredness.
“I woke up this morning with the Mary chain and the Gay Byrne perpetual crown beside me I was like, ‘Oh my god, I’m still dreaming’.
“I actually didn’t believe it.
“I stayed in the B&B last night because I wanted to surround myself with that fabulous group of girls one last time and just take it all in.
“When I looked around all of the girls were just so, so happy for me and it was so heartwarming because I know I would have been just as happy for every single one of them if it was them that was to get it.
“Every one of them was as fabulous as the others, just such an amazing group.”
Prior to entering as a Mary Ellie was already advocating for her skin condition, Epidermolysis Bullosa.
“Before I actually started my Mary campaign, I did a campaign with Debra Ireland.
“I did an abseil in Croke Park just to raise awareness for a condition that’s affected me my whole life and to raise funds for a charity who’s worked alongside me for years.
“After that I did an interview with The Irish Times and then I did an interview on the Oliver Callan show and the response was amazing.
“But there’s one thing that really, really stuck out to me.
“There was a dad of a little girl who was diagnosed with the exact same skin condition as me and the exact same type, dominant dystrophic.
“She is only one but her dad took my story and he just thought it was amazing.
“He was like, ‘I’m so happy that my daughter will be able to do stuff when she’s older’.
“Because my parents were exactly the same way as he was.
“He said he had no idea that she would even be able to walk herself or that her skin wouldn’t affect her daily life so for her to have somebody to look up to and hopefully, this gives a lot of young girls with the same condition as me, or any skin condition, or any condition in general, the confidence to go forward for something like this.
“If you had told me last year that I would be this year’s Mary from Dungloe, I would have looked at you like you had 25 heads,
“I just would have never thought that I would put myself in the position to be this year’s Mary From Dungloe and I am so, so proud of myself for doing it.”
Ellie has represented Donegal at football which is even more impressive for starting late.
“I was 11 when I started playing which in Northwest Donegal would be unheard of, but I just took it all in my stride.
“I knew that I wanted to play Gaelic but I had this genetic skin condition that made my family a lot more apprehensive about putting me forward to playing this sport that’s so rough.
“But when they finally realised that I was able to play this sport and it not affect me very much, dad tried to get my brothers to help me develop the basic skills and I haven’t looked back since.
“I was on the Under-13 LGFA squad for Donegal and then I’ve been on it every single year until last year.
“I thought I would give myself a little bit of a break after doing my leaving cert but clearly now I realise that I haven’t given myself a break at all.”
Ellie has won many All- Ireland and Ulster medals.
“I’ve been very, very fortunate to be involved in some amazing teams with some amazing girls.
“I would be nobody without a great bunch of girls around me, like I had this week as well.”
Ellie plays as a full back for both her club An Clochán Liath and county.
“People would think if you have a genetic skin condition, the full back line is definitely not where you should be but it’s where I was pulled to.
“I’ve developed so much since starting it and I really do owe a lot to Gaelic.
“A lot of my confidence I owe to Gaelic definitely.
“That (sport)’s definitely one of the main reasons that I went into physiotherapy.
“I always knew that I wanted my job to entail giving back to my Gaelic community so even when I’m past my prime, I can still give back to the people who have helped me develop so much as a person.
“I’ve seen growing up a lot of great prehab and rehab from physio being involved in County squads and with my local GAA club.
“I see how brilliant physio can be for a player.
“I have definitely seen the benefits and reaped the benefits myself and I thought that that would be amazing for me, that’s exactly right up my alley.
“I would be able to work in a healthcare scene as well and I would just be involved with people. That’s exactly what I want to do.”
Ellie was the third member of her family to be a Mary.
“We have quite a line of people who have represented their own hometowns or where they’ve been living as their Marys.
“The festival really does mean a lot to our family in that sense.
“My aunt Aoife was the 2017 Kildare Mary.
“Also my cousin Adele (Morgan) was the first UAE representative.
“She then went on to win it in 2023.
“She’s one of the most fabulous women that I’ve ever come across in my life and to call her my cousin is just an honour as well.
“To follow in her footsteps, as I have, I just am so so honoured and so privileged.
“I’m just so honoured to have such amazing people around me.”
Onstage Ellie sang Let Me In by Dermot Kennedy, choosing the song to shine a light on mental health and showing ‘there is light at the end of the tunnel’.
“Our community in Northwest Donegal, Donegal as a whole, has been really affected by especially youth mental health crisis.
“We even see in our own little community.
“There’s been several tragedies in the last maybe six years and it’s just so sad to see.
“It’s a pandemic at this point. It really is.
“I just thought that that would be the perfect way to shed a light on something and do my little part for our little town because if I had seen a person like me on TV and I was struggling with mental health, it would have made me feel seen.
“I just thought that that would be the perfect thing for me to do and I really did want that to resonate with people that I do care about our community and that I am I do remember all the people that we’ve lost.”
You would encourage anyone to go for the Mary from Dungloe..
“If you get the chance to do it, do it.
“I have made friends for life.
“It wasn’t the winning that made my week. It was the 15 girls that were surrounding me and Clare, our reigning Mary, embracing us all and taking us all under her wing. She was just immense. So, so amazing and she made our week so easy.
“This festival really, really just means so much to me and my family and to the community of Dungloe and to have such an amazing committee run it like it’s just, it’s immense. It really, really is.”
Ellie will hold the title of Mary From Dungloe for the next year.
