Wicklow boss self-isolated
Mark went to Cheltenham
WICKLOW senior ladies football manager, Mark Murnaghan, has revealed that he went into voluntary, 14-day self-isolation after returning home from the Cheltenham horseracing festival at the start of March, while assuring that he remained in good health throughout.
Despite fears related to the spread of the COVID-19 coronavirus – which has claimed the lives of over 30,000 people worldwide since it first broke out in the Chinese province of Hubei at the end of 2019 – a combined crowd of over 250,000 people flocked to the four-day festival that ran from Tuesday, March 10 to Friday, March 13.
Murnaghan, who possesses a passion for horseracing and who owns a few horses that are trained by Willie Mullins, was one those who travelled to the UK for the racing. Upon returning home, the Kildare-native informed his workplace of his intention to self-isolate for 14 days.
His isolation, which ended this past Saturday, was used as a voluntary, precautionary measure. The Kildare-native demonstrated no symptoms of the virus during this time.
‘I was glad that I had isolated and had done everything properly and am feeling fine,’ Murnaghan told the Wicklow People. ‘It is just that it was something that had to be done. I am out the other side of it.
‘I love my horse-racing and I have a couple of horses with Willie Mullins, and I grew up with horses, as well. It was a risk. If Cheltenham was on a week later, I would not have gone, and it probably would not have gone ahead. When I went, we were not being told not to go, so it was just one of those things.
‘It is like a football match; if you lose you think about the things you should have done differently. Hopefully, it comes to an end soon.’
Murnaghan and the Wicklow ladies’ division three league campaign has come to a premature end, after the Ladies Gaelic Football Association announced that all competitions were to be postponed, including the national leagues and interprovincials. The All-Ireland championship, meanwhile, would be reviewed on an ongoing basis in conjunction with government guidelines.
The LGFA’s ruling was the appropriate one, according to Murnaghan, whose team had already secured their division three status with one win, three draws, and one defeat.
‘When they put out the 29th of March [as a date upon which restrictions would be lifted], I kind of knew that that was never going to be the date when we would be going back. It was the correct call, in my opinion.
‘It did not really affect us. It was probably of a benefit to Wicklow because, in the league, the only game we lost was against Kildare. For next year’s league, please God, it gives us more time to prepare and we can make the league our main target, whereas this year was about maintaining our status, which we did easily enough.
Wicklow’s next game is fixed for Saturday, June 27 against Carlow in the Leinster junior football championship final. That game, however, is subject to change, pending the progress of Ireland’s fight against the coronavirus.