New Year Honours 2016: AP McCoy knighthood leads Northern Ireland awards

The most prestigious award among New Year Honours recipients in Northern Ireland is a knighthood for the jockey AP McCoy

Almost 80 people in Northern Ireland, including some well-known faces, have been recognised for their achievements in the New Year Honours list.

The most prestigious award is a knighthood for the jockey AP McCoy.

Boxer Carl Frampton receives an MBE for services to his sport, while rally champion Paddy Hopkirk is given the same honour for his motorsport and charity work.

Actor James Nesbitt gets an OBE for services to drama and the community.

Charity workers, police officers, civil servants, teachers and business people are also among the recipients.

'Sir Anthony'

Anthony Peter McCoy, better known as AP or Tony, retired earlier this year after a long and glittering career that saw him become the most successful jump jockey of all time.

The County Antrim native rode more than 4,300 winners and was crowned champion jockey 20 times.

He described his knighthood as a huge honour and said he will use his new title sparingly and only among his friends.

"They came around to the conclusion that Sir Anthony sounded the best," he said.

"It's only my close friends who I'm going to make call me Sir Anthony.

"I think everybody else can call me Tony or AP or whatever they like."

He said he thought he was the victim of a practical joke when he first received news of his knighthood.

"I did think it was prank for a moment or two," the Moneyglass man said.

"I thought it was maybe one of my former colleagues playing one on me. I read the email I got a few times before I responded, just to make sure I wasn't being pranked."

He added: "I feel really proud that I've been able to do it for horse racing, because horse racing is an amazing game and the only reason that I'm lucky enough to receive such an honour."

Paddy Hopkirk's success as a rally driver and his charitable work have earned him an MBE

In addition to his acting career, James Nesbitt is chancellor of Ulster University and a patron of the WAVE Trauma Centre in Belfast, which supports victims of the Troubles in Northern Ireland.

Other OBE recipients include Anne Marie Connolly, the chair of the Northern Ireland Policing Board and Anne O'Reilly, the former manager of the Women's Aid Federation.

Carl 'The Jackal' Frampton, a 28-year-old world champion boxer from Belfast, began his career in the Tiger's Bay area of his native city.

He is the current International Boxing Federation (IBF) world super bantam weight champion.

Paddy Hopkirk is one of Northern Ireland's best known sportsmen, having raced to victory in the 1964 Monte Carlo Rally.

His success at the race in an iconic red Mini Cooper was considered one of the most significant events in British motorsport history.

That, along with his charitable work with the motor skills charity Skidz have earned him his accolade in the honours list.

Carl Frampton (right) beat Kiko Martinez to take a world title in Belfast in 2014

Joining Frampton and Hopkirk on the MBE list is veteran journalist and broadcaster Anne Hailes, who was honoured for her services to journalism, broadcasting and the community in Northern Ireland, and Mary Cameron, chair of the Ulster-Scots Community Network.

The full list of Northern Ireland recipients is below:

Order of the British Empire Knights Bachelor

• Anthony Peter McCoy

Commanders of the British Empire - CBE

• Gerald Lavery

• Maxwell George Murray

Officers of the British Empire - OBE

• Geoffrey Wilfred Allister

• Dr Robert Leslie Caul

• Anne Marie Connolly

• Terence Martin Cross

• Trevor Anthony Long

• Dr Norman Cecil Morrow

• William James (Jimmy) Nesbitt

• Anne O'Reilly

• Dr Nicholas Roden Todd

• Janetta Wray

Members of the British Empire - MBE

• Ian Hugh Beggs

• Jeffrey Brownhut

• Mary Elizabeth Cameron

• Maurice John Devine

• Jeremy Paul Farrell

• Ian Forbes

• Carl Frampton

• Barbara Kathleen Green

• Nigel James Grimshaw

• Maria Teresa Hackett

• Joan Patricia Anne Hailes

• Roy Harrison

• Patrick (Paddy) Barron Hopkirk

• Prof Michael Andrew Henry Johnston

• John Alan Little

• Patrick McCarthy

• Dianne McMillan

• Edwin James Bratten McMurran

• Carol Maria Phillips

• William David Reilly

• James Roddy

• Oonagh Rowden

• Mukesh Sharma

• Helen Rosemary Smyth

• Graham Kent Sutton

• Sidny Botevyle Tingley

• Gilbert Joseph Tunney

British Empire Medal - BEM

• Sandra Elizabeth Adams

• Isabella Apsley

• Joseph Peter Austin

• Valerie Ann Barr

• Harold Atkinson Beckinsale

• Jean Brown

• Ruth Craig

• Robert Crangle

• Ronald Crangle

• Maisie Crawford

• Elizabeth Maud Cunningham

• Janice Catherine Davidson

• Helen Josephine Davies

• Terence Gabriel Doherty

• James Sydney Goodman

• Pamela Patricia Ann Gunn

• Elizabeth Ingram

• George Andrew Johnston

• Rev Robert Alan Knox

• Margaret Susan Leckey

• Samuel Thomas Loughrey

• Elizabeth Janet Campbell Lyttle

• Susan Martin

• Margaret Maureen McAdam

• Mary Jane McFarland

• Anthony Joseph McGeehan

• Liam McHugh

• Samuel McIlwrath

• Mary McKinney

• William Theodore Cecil Mullen

• Elizabeth Sharon Mary Neely

• Colin Charles Rea

• Gordon James Speer

• Kathleen Sylvia Tracey

• George Walsh

• Deborah Wolfe

Queen's Police Medal - QPM

• Det Ch Insp Alan Alfred Dickson

• Ch Supt Eric Raymond Murray

• Insp Philip Heatley

Queen's Ambulance Service Medal - QAM

• Thomas McGarey